our Death of Souls by the Famine of the Word of hearing the Word of the Lord in City and Country A great deal of do seems to be about the death of Bodies but ah Lord how many Thousand Thousand Souls have perished in this City and in these Nations in a few years past for want of hearing the Word of the Lord that is able to save the Soul Be not wrath very soar see behold we are thy People Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a Desolation and all our pleasant things are scattered Will the Lord refrain for these things Herein the Prophet seems to be toucht to the quick that Zion and Jerusalem was desolate and all these Soul-pleasant things were spoiled whereby Souls starved and perished and Soul-Famine and Pestilence was made a Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that whither soever they went from one City to another from one Sea to another 't was all alike This this the Prophet laid deeply to heart and so should we I urge it by way of proportion if we should deeply lay to heart bodily death then much more Soul-death and destruction A fide exorbitans puniendus saith the Civilian such as play the wanton from the truth must be punished answerably We have been and yet still are a fide exorbitantes such as play the unruly Persons from the truth Children of Belial which cannot bear Christ's Yoke full of Soul-itch for another Gospel and being thus lewd in spirituals answerably in spiritual liberties and enjoyments hath God punished us it is not a little peril unto us that we meet now although the hand of God affright such as would be looking after us This this we should deeply lay to heart that the Bread for our Souls fails from the House of our God The strokes of God and the strokes of Men together affright away the Pastors and so the Pastures of your Souls and yet all this but the just punishment of much spiritual wantonness and exorbitancy Secondly If temporal strokes which refer to the death of the body should be laid much to heart then Eternal strokes which make the everlasting destruction of the Soul should be deeply laid to heart much more Such a stroke as that Isai 63.17 O Lord Why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and such as that Prov. 17.10 A reproof entereth more into a wise Man than an hundred stripes into a Fool. Some Mens hearts are by the inward strokes of GOD made Judgment-proof that Plague Famine and Sword all the Ten Plagues that were inflicted on Pharaoh and Ten more to them will not stir them nor turn them no more than they stopped or turned him nor yet so much And what do you see in this day done on the hearts of Men by the hand of God abroad now of Sword Famine and Pestilence Do these enter the hearts of Men This speaks that Eternal strokes judicial wrath upon the Soul is abroad fiting Men for Eternal death much of which I fear the most of us are little aware O Juresalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen her Chicken and thou wouldst not but now they are hid from thine Eyes This was a Soul-mortal and an Eternal stroke and how Christ laid it to heart how he sighed and wept O Jerusalem And if our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish saith the Apostle and how long hath thâ—s stroke been upon the Souls of most Assemblies in these Nations and else where the Power of the Gospel hid and a spurious efficacy gone forth in the place thereof faithful Labourers fishing all night and can catch nothing scarce covert a Soul and unfaithful Labourers such as come not in by the Door but come in their own name these pervert many yea though they come with never so damnable Doctrines if denying the Lord that bought them yet flockt after O give me leave to tell you in this day of God's sore Visitation Hinc illae lachrymae these are Soul-Plagues which have brought our Bodily-Plagues these are Soul mortal and eternal strokes because we have not received the truth in the love of it and no Man of us have laid these to heart as we should Spiritual Plagues and Judgments have swept away Souls by thousands all the Nations over many years together and who of us have laid this Mortality to heart as we should See how the Prophet Isaiah layeth to heart spiritual strokes Isa 24.16 17. My leanness my leanness the treacherous dealer hath dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealer hath dealt very treacherously fear and the snare and the Pit are upon thee Treachery swearing for swearing thus in spiritual matters as Judas who betrayed Christ and as much as in him lay the Bodies and Souls of all Man-kind such treacherous dealers were the Jews which the Prophets much bewailed as great spiritual and eternal strokes and so should we as we see these on any Nation for these things are written for our learning that we should follow the foot-steps of the Flock It were well we that live in these last and worst times of the World could with the Prophet for like things sigh and say My leanness that we could sigh our selves lean this day before the Lord because of hypocrisie treachery and all Soul-villany and spiritual wickedness and the hypocrisie and treachery of our own hearts greatest of all and O how should we sigh and lament our selves lean for this ere the Plague sweep us away The next Use of this Point may be for Reproof and it may reprove two sorts 1. Such as are sensible of nothing 2. Such as are sensible of nothing to purpose First This may reprove such as are sensible of nothing or nothing sensible Temporal strokes are thick God and Man upon us Pestilence at home War abroad God and Man killing and slaughtering us one at Sea 'tother at land Is not this general Mortality God shoots his Arrows every where and how great is his dread fallen upon us In what Street of this poor City can one walk but dead Corps and Ghosts walk In what Fields about this City can one walk where death also doth not walk and as God's Bailiff seize and arrest and carry away to the great Bar above and to the Judge of all the World to receive all that they have done here in the Body good or bad At what corner of this City can we that live abroad creep in and not be met and saluted with trains of dead Corps carrying to the Grave to new Church-yards and New-exchanges old Burying-places being over-fatted and glutted and Corps inhumanely crowding one another out of their Places before the time and among all these sad salutations some righteous Men and merciful Men and Women taken away and we can tell their names and where they lived and so ends the story till the next Bill of Mortality come out with more taken away and then they
merciful Men are taken away As if the Prophet had said now the Lord is very angry indeed that he will not spare such as these which are so precious in his eye if any be Noah a righteous Man was preserved from the Flood And Lot a righteous Man preserved and plucked out of Sodom and had there been Ten righteous more the Cities might have been saved for their sake as the Ship full of Passengers for Paul's sake And Ebedmelech the Black more a merciful Man was saved from the destructions which destroyed Jerusalem and so was Jeremiah This should incite all People as they love their lives in this dying day to labour after grace and to be merciful Men and Women yea bountiful in this day of want for such as are ready to yield themselves thus to the Scepter of Christ and to follow him fully with all they have and are will certainly scape best such as yield all to the Lord will save all if any do You that become of prophane righteous and holy Men you take the likeliest way I know to escape well in this mortal time If you get not your lives you will get your Souls for a Prey no Plague shall come nigh that thus are you lodged safe in the Promise as soon as you become gracious and break off from your wicked ways by repentance And you that are gracious and godly think on 't as you love your lives in this day of mortality shew your Faith by your Works abound in this gift also of mercifulness many that are able and carry the Bag are abroad and I fear have carrâ—ed the Bag with them you that are here had need be the more merciful Man's poor will starve else Surely such as are ready to preserve the lives of others God will preserve their lives A Third Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That times of general security under present lesser punishments are of very evil presage If when God's Judgments are in the Earth righteous Men and merciful be taken away and none lay these drops of the storms to heart it fore-rells surely that the Storm will come and fall hard and Thunder and Hall much Surely some great Evils are at Door when little ones are made light of though I cannot call the taking away of one righteous Man in this day nor the taking away of one merciful Man or Woman in this day a little punishment Dictum cum vulgo I speak after you if lesser Rods make no Body feel great ones surely are a making Righteous Men are taken away and none consider that they are taken from great Evil to come Sometimes with a foolish Virgins slumber the good become bad in this that they lay not GOD's dealings to heart as they should but let Death like a Moth stilly take away one and then another and make no noise in Heaven about it good People are much in a hurry with this World one about his Farm and another about his Merchandise and whilst running here and there hither and thither the King of Syria is gone the matters which should have been close kept to the heart are slipt away out of the mind and made no use of And such a temper among the Lord's People as well as others is a sure fore-runner of some roufing Judgment at Door that may well awaken every Body the Storm begins to come in among you Citizens now I hope you will be awake anon the Plague hath kept in the out-parts a good while O that we in the in-parts within these Walls had been well awake then and laid matters to heart then as we should The Doctrin which I would stand on is this That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart Mortal strokes upon all good as well as bad should much affect all good and bad The Strokes of God in this Prophet's time when he spake the words of my Text began to be general God spared not righteous nor wicked and God thus promiscuously smiting the Prophet was troubled that Men were no more affected as well he might From whence I observe That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart No Man high or low good or bad but should much lay to heart all the strokes of God which bring death that great blow to Man's Beeing Mortality by Plague Sword Famine or any other way or by any other Disease should be well considered and well made use of especially if it reach the righteous as well as others The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but Prophesie Amos 3.8 Nature teacheth this in all Creatures that when such Creatures of prey are abroad which they know they are in danger of to be preyed upon to dread and tremble and to take all care they can to shun them and to save themselves The Prophet Mica who Prophesied in the same time with Isaiah which so complained in my Text complaineth just like him and almost in the same words Mica 7.2 The good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none upright among Men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every Man his brother with a Net c. As if the Prophet had said Good men perish out of the Earth and this is so far from being laid to heart and lookt upon as any judgment that all violences are used to take away the rest every one lieth in wait for blood yea the blood of his Brother as Cain lay in wait for his Brothers blood And where will this end And by this grief of this Prophet I gather that general Mortality the perishing of good Men and the perishing of others by violences and murders and such like ought much to affect the living and not the lives of all sorts to be taken away and made no more of than of Dogs or Hogs by the death of which there is an advantage By this Prophet Isaiah we may see this Doctrin again confirmed that general strokes should generally affect Isa 64 9 10 11. Be not wrath very soon O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we bessech thee we are all thy People Thy holy Cities are a Wilderness Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a desolation the holy and beautiful House our Fathers worshipped thee is burnt with Fire and all our pleasant things laid wast The Prophet â—n these words speaketh prophetically and beholdeth and representeth that which was to be as done namely the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and that state Persons and things one and all and how doth he speak of this general Mortality of Persons and things good and bad high and low Doth he speak of it slightly O no but with much complaint and strong cry and bemoans to God Be not wrath very sore O Lord be not angry for ever Zion is a Desolation Jerusalem a Wilderness c. In these Desolations as you know by the Scripture there was Death by Plague Sword and
on many of judicial hardness of heart Isa 6.10 11 12. Make the heart of this People fat and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Then I said Lord how long and he answered till the Cities be wasted without Inhabitants and the Houses without Men and the Land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed Men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land This will be a strong reproof indeed if this should be the reproof upon us and yet very pleasing Vse 3 Try your selves by this Doctrine Are you deeply sensible of natural corruption If so then it is your only burden Of all perils and distresses though Paul had many did the Apostle complain as here of the Body of Death Do you any where read him say O wretched man that I am I am poor I am in Prison Who shall deliver me out of these sad conditions Alas he made nothing of hunger of nakedness of stripes of deaths oft but gloried in them But the body of this death that made him fetch deep sighs O wretched man that I am he never called himself so for any bodily evil whatsoever The Israelites were enjoyn'd when they came with their first fruits to make a solemn confession of their great unworthiness of God's great bounty and goodness A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few Deut. 26.5 If you be deeply sensible then this is the allay in all your glory still in all your mirth this is the qualm that comes over your heart that makes it sad what a wretch ready to perish came I into this holy and good Land And why should such a dead Dog as I be treated thus with grace which abuse all that is bestowed on me Thus you look back to the hole of the Pit out of which digged daily and sigh if deeply sensible Secondly If you be deeply sensible of natural corruption then are you very vile in your own eyes I am more vile saith Agar than any man David calls himself a Beast and the Cananitish Woman owns her self to be a Dog and if Christ had called her a Viper a Toad a Monster no doubt she would have owned it If I wash me with Snow water and make me never so clean yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.31 If ye be indeed sensible of your naughty state by nature ye are Persons of low eyes ye think the Cloaths ye wear too good for you because ye defile them the Meat you eat too good for you because to the unclean all things are unclean and the Earth too good to bear you because you are such a great load of filth such a going Dunghill If ye be indeed sensible of natural corruption ye are poor in Spirit unworthy that Christ or any good thing should come under your root This Apostle means all this when he calls himself a wretch labouring under a Body of Death The Leper under the Law and the Person with a Running Issue how low and loathsome were they in their own eyes loath and ashamed to come neer nay to come in fight of any one Thirdly If ye be deeply sensible of natural corruption then ye are as this Apostle in my Text at an utter loss in your selves what to do for deliverance from the guilt and power of it O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me I am utterly to seek to save my self so is all the Creation I cannot deliver my self and who of all the Creatures of God in Heaven or in Earth that can deliver me To which of the Saints or Angels shall I turn So the Prophet Isaiah saw himself at an utter loss upon the sense of his vile condition Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips Isa 6.5 He saw no way but one with him I am cut off So is the reading in the Margent I am gone and lost utterly now the holy God hath seen what an unholy wretch I am he hath got a view of me and a sent of me and surely he will think on it for ever what an ugly sight he saw and what a filthy smell he smelt Do you feel your selves undone by sin by reason of this Running Issue and that in your nature Are ye a burden to your selves because a burden and grief to the Holy Spirit of God Or are you not clean and pure in your own eyes and cock-sure ye shall go to Heaven when you die you have lived so well amongst all your neighbours and have done so much good and every one speaks so well of you Can such a state do amiss Our Saviour saith the whole need no Physician and that he came to save lost ones such who are so deeply possessed with the signe and sense of their sinful state by nature and life and conversation that they cry out Who will deliver me wretched me most sinful and forlorne me Isaac was at a loss for an Offering and doubtless thought at last that he must be burnt Fourthly If ye be deeply sensible of the body of death then ye prise deliverance from it above all this World Naaman the Syrian how he prised any Person or means that could cure his Leprosie And the Man-slayer how he prized and pursued the City of refuge And what would not one of those pursued Man-slayers have given for but one Foot within the Gate of the City of refuge To them that are under the deep sense of sin the Redeemer that is come from Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob is very precious O how precious was Christ to this Apostle which my Text mentioneth as you read in the next Verse O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me I thank God through Jesus Christ As a Man almost drowned having some one that can swim leaping in and taking hold of him O how doth he thank God for this friend I The Apostle Paeul being deeply sensible of his wretched state by nature did so esteem Christ that the truth is he esteem'd all else in comparison but as dung and dross Nebuchadnezar which was brought as a Beast from grass from creeping upon all four O how he magnified the true God for a while So doth that sinner magnifie and extoll Christ Dan. 4.34 that is brought from crawling like a Toad upon all four in the filth and poison of his natural corrupt on The black crabbed Tree of the Cross hath made Christ and my Soul very entire saith Mr. Rutherford He is my Song in the Night So I say the black Crab-stock of natural corruption maketh Christ and that sinner very dear and entire and his Song in dark Night who is in the pains and travels of natural corruption The