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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	lord_n	see_v	4,192	5	3.2926	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29694	A heavenly cordial for all those servants of the Lord that have had the plague ... , or, Thirteen divine maximes, or conclusions, in respect of the pestilence which may be as so many supports, comforts and refreshing springs, both to the visited and preserved people of God in this present day : also ten arguments to prove that in times of common calamity the people of God do stand upon the advantage ground as to their outward preservation and protection ... : also eight reasons why some of the precious servants of the Lord have fallen by the pestilence in this day of the Lords anger / by Thomas Brooks.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1666 (1666)	Wing B4948; ESTC R29135	31,420	88

comes to pass that allthings seem to run cross and that Gods most just and righteous proceedings are not so clearly and fully discerned as otherwise they might be The wheels in a Watch or in a Clock move contrary one to another some one way some another yet all shew the skill and intent of the workman to shew the time or to make the Clock to strike so in this world divine providences seem to run cross to divine promises the wicked are spared and the righteous are taken away yet in the conclusion all issues in the will purpose and glory of God Eighthly and lastly God hath taken several of his own dear children away by the pestilence to wipe off that reproach which Atheists and wicked men are apt to cast upon the Lord as if he were partial and his wayes not equal God to stop the mouth of iniquity Ezek. 18. 25 29. the mouth of blasphemy hath taken away several of his dear servants by the raging pestilence when the Psal 73. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 9. Job 24. 12. Psal 50. 21. wicked walk on every side yea when hell seems to be broke loose and men turn'd into incarnate devils and all because they have not been plagued as other men nor visited as God hath visited some of his dearest children Sometimes Gods manner is to begin with his own people 1 Pet. 4. 17. Judgement must begin at the house of God and the Lord commands his destroying Angel to begin at his Sanctuary Ezek. 9. 6. Sometimes when God intends to bring a common and general destruction upon the enemies oppressors haters and persecuters of his people he is wont first to scourge his own till the blood comes I took the cup at the Lords hands he means the cup of Gods fury Jer. 25. 17. and made all the Nations to drink that is prophesied that they should certainly drink of it unto whom the Lord had sent me But who were to drink first of this cup Mark he tells us verse 18. Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the Kings thereof and the Princes thereof These were to begin in this cup to Egypt and the Philistims to Edom and Moab and the Ammonites as he shews in the verses following Now all these were bitter and implacable enemies to the Israel of God Ah sinners sinners do not insult over the poor people of God because here and there the hand of the Lord hath touched them and God hath given the cup into their hands for if God be God the cup must go round and he will make good that word Isa 5. 22 23. Thus saith thy Lord the Lord See verse 17. and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling even the dregs of the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again but I will put it into the hands of them that afflict thee which have said to thy soul bow down that we may go over and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over And that word Jer. 49. 12. For thus saith the Lord behold they meaning his own peculiar people whose judgement was not to drink of the cup that is the cup of my wrath have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt surely drink of it or drinking drink as the Hebrew runs I have not spared my own dear people saith God who might have expected this favour at my hands before any people under heaven upon the account of my relation to them my affections for them and my Covenant with them all and do you think that I will spare you No drinking you shall drink that is you shall certainly drink of this cup of my wrath and you shall signally and visibly drink of this cup of my wrath And that word Isa 49. 25 26. But thus saith the Lord even the Captains of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee and I will save thy children and I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine and all flesh shall know that I the Lord is thy Saviour and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob. Oh that those men would lay these Scriptures to heart who rejoyce and glory in the sufferings of the poor people of God and because some of them have fallen by the hand of the destroying Angel considering that the design of God herein is to stop the mouth of iniquity and that none may say that he is either partial or fond Such men that have been eye-witnesses of Gods impartial dealing with his own people in this day of his wrath should rather be down in the mouth than up in their spirits they should rather be silent than raving against the people of the Lord they should rather tremble than rejoyce for if God deal thus with his green-trees how will he deal Luke 23. 31. The Hebrews call good men green-wood and bad men dry-wood with the dry when God cuts down his best timber will he not either grub up or burn up the old stumps surely he will If judgement begin at the house of God where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear 1 Pet. 4. 17 18. If God deal thus with his best friends how will he deal with his enemies If God deal thus with his dearest children servants and slaves have cause to tremble And thus much for the reasons why some of Gods dearest children have fallen by the pestilence in this day of the Lords anger The Tenth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. That such saints as do fall by the sword or by the pestilence they receive no loss no wrong no injury by these sad dispensations they gain much but they lose nothing for by these sad providences they are but hastened to heaven to their fathers house to their eternal homes and to those blessed mansions John 14. 1 2 3 4. that Christ hath prepared for them Elijah went to heaven in a fiery 2 Kings 2. 11 12. Chariot and many thousand of the Martyrs went to heaven in fiery Chariots and in bloody Chariots and doubtless many worthies in this day are gone to heaven in a pestilen tial Chariot as in a Chair of State Heaven is a place of so much pleasure and delight that they are happy that can 1 Cor. 9. 25. 2 Tim. 4. 8. James 1. 12. 1 Pet. 5. 4. Rev. 2. 10. Nec Christus nec Coelum patitur hyberbolem Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized get thither any how There is laid up in heaven an Incorruptible Crown a Crown of Life a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Immortality a Crown of Glory and who would not shoot any gulf to come

A HEAVENLY CORDIAL For all those Servants of the Lord that have had the PLAGVE and are recovered or that now have it also for those that have escaped it though their Relations and Friends have been either visited or swept away by it OR Thirteen DIVINE MAXIMES or CONCLVSIONS in respect of the PESTILENCE which may be as so many supports comforts and refreshing springs both to the visited and preserved people of God in this present day ALSO Ten Arguments to prove that in Times of Common Calamity the people of God do stand upon the advantage ground as to their outward preservation and protection above all other people under Heaven ALSO Eight Reasons why some of the precious Servants of the Lord have fallen by the Pestilence in this Day of the Lords Anger By THOMAS BROOKS late Minister of the Gospel in London LONDON Printed for and are to be sold by John Hancock at the first shop in Popes-head Alley next to Cornhill 1666. A HEAVENLY CORDIAL The First Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. When the Pestilence is among a People 't is the Lord alone that sends it 2 Sam. 24. 15. Deut. 32 39 Hyppocrates calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Divine Disease because it comes more immediately from God than other diseases do SO the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men Numb 16. 46. Wrath is gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Numb 14. 12. I will smite them with the Pestilence and disinherit them Deut. 28. 21. The Lord shall make the Pestilence cleave unto thee until he hath consumed thee from off the Land whither thou goest to possess it Ezek. 14. 19. Or if I send a Pestilence into that Land and pour out my fury upon it in blood to cut off from it man and beast Verse 21. For thus saith the Lord God how much more when I send my four sore judgements upon Jerusalem the sword and the famine and the noisome beast and the pestilence to cut off from it man and beast Amos 4 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt Hence 't is called Gods Arrow Psal 91. 5. and when God shoots these arrows into Kingdoms Cities Towns Families none can Psal 38. 2. pull them out but God himself The Plague is more immediately from God than any other Sicknesse or Disease is for it is the immediate stroke of God The Scribe is more properly said to write than the pen and he that maketh and keepeth the Clock is more properly said to make it go and strike than the wheels and poizes that hang upon it and every Workman to effect his work rather than the tools which he useth as instruments So the Lord of Hosts who is the chief Agent and Mover in all things and in all actions may more fitly and properly be said to effect and bring to pass all Judgements yea all things which are done in the Earth than any inferiour or subordinate causes seeing they are but his tools and instruments which he rules and guides according to his own Will Power and Providence I know some Physitians ascribe it to the heat of the Air and sometimes to the driness of the Air and sometimes to the corruption of the Air sometimes to the corruption of mens blood sometimes to Satan and sometimes to the malignancy of the Planets but certainly those are Physitians of no value that cannot look above second causes to the First Cause that cannot look to the wheel within the wheel The Ezek. 1. Plague is a hidden thing a secret thing it is a sickness a disease that more immediately comes from God than any other sickness or disease doth Behold the hand Exod. 9. 3. of the Lord is upon thy cattel which is in the field upon the horses upon the asses upon the camels upon the oxen and upon the sheep there shall be a very grievous murrain The word here translated murrain is in chap. 5. v. 3. termed pestilence and it is one and the same disease though when it is applied to cattel it be usually rendred by murrain yet when 't is applied to men as in the Scripture last cited it is commonly called the pestilence Behold the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattel c. That is the extraordinary immediate power and work of God without the intervening of any second cause or humane operation This open plague this plague without doors that principally fell upon the cattel was from the immediate hand of God 'T is God alone that singles out the Nation the City the Town the Parish the Family the Person that he will strike with the plague for all second causes are ordered by the first cause as every instrument is ruled or over-ruled by the will and hand of him that holdeth it When a man goes with his Axe to cut down Trees in the Wood there is an equal aptness in the Axe to cut down one Tree as well as another an Oake as well as an Ash c. but it is still ruled by the will of him that handles it So 't is here the noisome pestilence or the pestilence of griefs as the Hebrew runs in that Psal 91. 3. hath an equal aptness to cut down one man as well as another the rich as well as the poor the honourable as well as the base the strong as well as the weak the Prince as well as the peasant the Emperour as well as the Carter but it is still over-rul'd by the Lord himself who gives it a Commission to cut off such and such in this Kingdom and that in this City and that in this Town and that in this Family and that to spare save and passe by all the rest In Rev. 6. you shall read of four horses when the four seals were opened 1. A white horse 2. A red horse 3. A black horse 4. A pale horse After Christ had ridden upon the white horse propagating the Gospel then follows the red horse a Type of War then the black horse an hieroglyphick of Famine and then the pale horse the emblem of Pestilence Now all these horses these plagues were of Christs sending From those words Judges 3. 20. I have a message from God unto thee O King said Ehud Lo his ponyard was Gods message from whence one well observeth That not only Isa 26. 8 9 10. the vocal admonitions but the real judgements of God are his errands and instructions to the world 'T was a mad principle among the Manichees who referred all the judgments calamities and miseries that came upon them to the Devil for their Author as if there could be any evil in the Amos 3. 6. City and the Lord have no hand in it Now in that 't is the Lord alone that sends the pestilence amongst a people how should this comfort

all the counsels and combinations of wicked men against his Son and Psal 2. against his Saints and when they have done their worst the Counsel Prov. 19. 21. of the Lord shall stand and Christ shall reign in the midst of his enemies and that the stone cut out of the mountains without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance and make it Dan. 2. 35. like the chaffe of the Summer floor Some write of Lions that as they are mindful of courtesies received witness the Story of Androdus that fugitive servant of Rome so they will be sure to revenge injuries done to them they will prey on them that would make a prey of them When Juba King of the Moors march'd through the Desert of Africa a young man of his Company wounded a Lion but the year following when Juba returned the Lion again meets the Army and from among them all singles out the man that hurt him and tears him in pieces suffering the rest to pass by in peace and safety And thus the Lord Jesus who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is alwayes ready to revenge Rev. 5. 5. the cause of his people and to take vengeance on all that have wounded his people or made a prey of his people as you may clearly and fully see in Ezekiel chap. 25. and 35. Now by this argument as well as by all the rest 't is evident that the people of God stand upon the advantage ground as to their outward preservation and protection above all other people in the world Quest But if this be so How comes it to pass that in this time of great mortality many of the precious people of the Lord have been taken away as well as others the raging pestilence having carried many pious souls out of this world of whom the world was Heb. 11. 38. not worthy The Saint as well as the sinner hath fallen by the hand of the destroying Angel in this day we have seen that word made good viz. That all things come alike Eccl. 9. 2. to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath To this Question I shall give these eight short Answers First God hath smitten some good men of all perswasions that none might be proud secure or censorious and that all might take the alarme and prepare to meet Amos 4. 10 11 12. their God and that all may keep humble and tremble because of his righteous judgements Psal 119. 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Secondly The number of those that feared the Lord that have been taken away by the pestilence are but few very few if compared with the many thousands of others that never knew what 't was to set up God as the main object of their fear and that never knew experimentally what a changed nature a sanctified frame of heart an interest in Christ or a title to heaven meant Oh that we had not cause to fear that hell hath had a very large harvest within these few last moneths Thirdly Sometimes Gods own people sin with others and therefore they smart with others when God takes the Rod into his own hand Thus Moses and Aaron sinned Numb 20. with others and therefore their Carkases fell in the Wilderness as well as others This may sometimes be the reason why some good men fall in a common calamity but I dare not say that 't is alwayes the reason why some good men fall in a common calamity I believe there are several choice Christians that have been swept away in this day of the Lords wrath who have not sinned with the wicked though they have fallen with the wicked Many have fallen by this dispensation who yet have kept their garments pure Revel 3. 4. and clean and are now walking with Christ in white I do not think that those Saints that have died by the plague were greater sinners than those that have escaped the plague yea I have several reasons to perswade me that several of those precious servants of the Lord that have died of the plague had more grace in their hearts and less sin in their lives than many other Saints that have been pitied and spared in this day of the Lords anger c. Fourthly No godly man dies in any common calamity till his Job 5. 26. Rev. 11. 6 7. Acts 13. 25 36. glass be run and his work done and he prepared and fitted for another world Job 14. 5. Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass God hath set every man both his time and his task In this Scripture as in a glasse you may see the true reason why some likely to live long die soon even whilest their bones are full of marrow and their breasts are full of milk and others that are more weak and infirm live long yea very long the reason is because God hath set bounds to every mans life to a very day I to a very hour vers 14. All the dayes of my appointed time or warfare will I wait till my change come i. e. till my death Job calls death a change Death is not an annihilation or extinction but a mutation 1. 'T is the last change that we shall meet with till the resurrection 2. 'T is a lasting yea an everlasting change it puts every man into an eternal condition of happiness or misery 3. 'T is an universal change and that 1. In respect of persons all must meet with it 't is appointed for all men once to die 2. In Heb. 9. 27. respect of the whole man body and soul Death lodges the body in the grave and puts the soul into heaven or hell 4. 'T is a different change according to the quality of the person changed 'T is terrible to a sinner For First It will put a full period to all his outward mercies comforts contentments and enjoyments Saladine Job 1. 21. a Turkish Emperour the first of that Nation that conquered Jerusalem lying at the point of death after many glorious victories commanded that a white sheet should be born before him to his grave upon the point of a spear with this proclamation These are the rich spoils which Saladine carrieth away with him of all his triumphs and victories of all the riches and realms that he had now nothing at all is left him but this sheet Secondly It will put a full period to all his hopes Now he shall never hope for mercy more nor never hope for pardon more nor never hope for heaven more Thirdly It will put a full period to all the means of grace Now he shall never