no better be you better and you will have the lesser trouble within though the better you are the more trouble you might have from men but that 's not so great matter 14. The better you are the more glory you will bring to God Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit Joh. 15.8 And what is your design in the world but to glorifie God and to do that and be that which tendeth most thereunto 15. The better you are the more you will credit Religion and realize the wayes of God it will appear that Religion is a real thing when it hath made bad men good and good men better If there were nothing else to disgrace the ways of sin this would be abundantly sufficient to behold the great wickedness of those men how bad they be that walk most therein 16. The better you are while you live the more undaunted you shall be when you come to dye The reason why we are so troubled in our sickness is because we were no better in our health conscience then remembers at such a time I sinned and at such a place I fell and in such company I defiled my soul be better in Health you will be the better in sickness and death 17. The better you are upon earth the weightier your crown shall be in heaven Those that be truly good shall have sure glory but those that are better shall have more There shall be no want of any thing to any one in heaven but yet some shall shine more eminently in glory than others Thus I have dispatched this particular also that you be better after such a signal providence as this for if you be not this very thing will be a greater Plague than the Plague upon the body and if you ask me wherein you should be better you must gather up that in the following Directions which shall be more particular and such as may be useful to prevent men from growing worse which was the first thing and helpful to promote this duty of being better which was the second thing I have spoken to DIRECTION II. HAth God spared you in time of Plague that you live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy carefully endeavour to live up to the purposes and resolutions and vows which you made to God in time of danger and distress Good purposes and holy resolutions when observed and put in practice are great helps to an answerable return to God for his mercies conferred upon us but holy Religious vows being something more than single purposes and resolutions being a promise made to God with due deliberation of something lawful in it self and in our power to perform as a testimony of our thankefulness unto God for some extraordinary mercy received or expected or deliverance from some great evil in extraordinary danger and distress do much promote a holy life whereby we may the better be inabled to walk in some measure worthy of what the Lord in mercy hath done for us or given to us In time of extraordinary danger or when we are in expectation of some extraordinary Mercy we have the example of the holy men of God in Scripture to binde our selves to endeavour to walk more close with God So Jacob Gen. 28.20 And Jacob vowed a vow saying if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on Vers 21. So that I come again to my fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God And this he was careful to perform Gen. 35.2 Then Jacob said unto his houshold and to all that were with him put away the strange gods and be clean and change your garments Vers 3. And let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went Thus David made a vow to God when he was in danger of his life Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee Vers 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death And in the like danger Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell gate hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Vers 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Vers 6. The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Vers 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Vers 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me Vers 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people And hath not this been thy case Christian Reader did not the sorrows of death compass thee about Didst thou not finde trouble and sorrow Wast thou not brought very low and received the sentence of death within thy self Didst thou not then call upon the name of the Lord and resolve thou wouldst walk before the Lord if he would restore thee and hath not God delivered thy soul from death and thy feet from falling Then pay thy vows to God and perform to him thy promise and live up unto thy resolutions Tell me what were thy purposes when thou heardest the Plague had entered into thy Neighbours house when it came unto the family nearest unto thine What were thy resolutions when the Plague did enter into thy house and took one away and then another What were thy holy deliberate lawful vows when it seized upon thy body When thou betookest thy self unto thy bed to sweat out thy distemper When thou foundest Risings on thy Body Swellings and Carbuncles in several parts when the apprehensions of death did fill thy minde and the terrors of the Lord did fill thy heart when thou thoughtest thou hadst not many days to live and that thou wert near to death and another world and shouldest certainly dye if God did not preserve thee What didst thou think then And what didst thou purpose then and resolve upon then Didst thou not determine with thy self if God would spare thy life if God would give thee health again and try thee a little longer in the world that thou wouldest walk more holily and act for God more zealously That thou wouldest pray more frequently and more fervently That thou would minde the world less and heaven more That thou wouldest make Religion thy business as long as thou shouldest live Didst thou not resolve that God and Christ and things above should have more of thy heart and hearty love That thou wouldest then forsake loose and carnal company and associate thy self with those in whom thou couldst discern most of God and walked most conscientiously before him That thou wouldest no more take a cup too much nor club in the Ale-house and Tavern to the neglect of duties of thy family
danger 5. Sickness and diseases do take away mens delight in those things which men in perfect health do take pleasure in Sick men have no delight in the pleasures of the world and in the riches of the world which other men finde So sin takes away that delight in God and spiritual duties and in heavenly things which those whose souls are cured do experience 6. Sickness and diseases do spoyl the beauty of the body They spoil the fairest complexion and make the ruddy cheeks to become pale and many diseases bring deformity in the room of beauty So sin doth spoyl the soul of that spiritual beauty wherewith it was adorned in its first Creation which did consist in likeness unto God so that now instead of the likeness of God there is nothing but blackness and deformity that the soul that was comely and amiable in the sight of God is now become loathsome and abominable SECT II. II. Wherein doth it appear that Soul sickness and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are worse thâ—n sickness and temporal Judgments upon mens bodyes THough most men in the World look upon bodily sickness and corporal Judgments to be more dreadful than sin upon their souls yet if we take a right estimate and make a true judgment of both spiritual Judgements are the greater evils In respect of the 1. Cause or manner of conveyance 2. Signs of greater wrath 3. Subject in which they do reside 4. Number being many 5. Effect that they do produce 6. Difficulty of cure 7. Want of sense 1. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal Judgements and sickness upon the body in respect of the cause or manner of Conveyance which is by natural propagation and so unavoidable Sin is born with us it is derived from Parents to Children from one generation to another There are some diseases that are conveyed from Parents to Children but this is not general nor perpetual to all generations But the propagation of spiritual diseases is universal and general it is constant and perpetual The seed of all sin is derived from Adam to all his Posterity 2. Soul-sicknesses and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are Signs of greater wrath than bodily sicknesses are You may be sick of the Plague and yet God may love you you may have bodily afflictions and God may be at peace with you and because he loves you he may afflict you But spiritual Judgements as judicial hardness blindness are signs of Gods anger yea his sorest displeasure yea which is more they are signs of Gods Hatred to such a man that lyeth under them Now that which doth alwayes argue Hatred in God to a sinner is worse than those things that might proceed barely from his Anger and sometimes from his Love God loathes and abhorres that man the plague of whose heart is not at all cured 3. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal and corporal sicknesses are because they be spiritual and have the heart and soul for their seat and subject As mercies are better that are spiritual and that are soul mercies so Judgments and sicknesses spiritual are the greater evils because they are the disease of the better and more noble part of man that which doth corrupt the soul must be worse than that which doth corrupt the body by how much the soul is more excellent than the body 4. They are worse because they are more numerous there is more diseases in the soul than in the body If the body be diseased in one part it may be well in all the rest if in more yet not in all if in all yet your case is not so bad But there is no sinner but is diseased in every part there are spiritual distempers in all the faculties and powers of the soul in the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Phantasie In the members of the body no part free Nay there are many spiritual diseases in every faculty in the Understanding there are many ignorance errour c. in the Will many stubbornness choosing the Creature and sin before God c. In every affection of the soul there are swarms of sin In the heart there are innumerable distempers evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts blasphemies false witness Maâ— 15.19 Spiritual diseases naturally be all in every man and be in every part of every man 5. They are worse in regard of the Effects The effects of bodily sickness at the utmost and the greatest is but the death of the body it brings the body to the dust and the grave it doth but separate from friends and betwixt the body and the soul But the effects of spiritual soul-sicknesses except they be healed are dreadful and inconceivably great great and dreadful in this world but greater and more dreadful in the world to come they cause Gods anger they deprive the sinner of communion with God they will separate betwixt God and him for ever they will bring the soul to the place of Devils and the torments of the damned 6. They are worse in regard of difficulty of Cure Bodily distempers may be cured by the skill of man in the use of natural means but the sickness of the soul with nothing but the blood of Christ Of which more afterwards 7. They are worse in regard of the want of sense Where one man cryes out of the hardness of his heart and complains of the unbelief and earthliness of his heart there are many cry out of the sickness of their bodyes If their finger doth but ake they are sensible of it but though the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and exceedingly distempered yet they are not sensible of it Therefore though God hath cured the Plague of thy body and not the Plague of thy heart if thy bodily disease is removed but the sickness of thy soul remain without cure thy case is deplorable And while thou art rejoycing that thou hast escaped the Plague thou hast more cause to goe unto thy Chamber and be deeply humbled and mourn before God for the Plagues and Judgements that remain upon thy Soul SECT III. III. How may a man know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness THe cure of these distempers are but partial yet so far are they healed that they shall not be the death of the soul The cure will not be perfect till we die Death we say cures all distempers and so it doth those of the soul There is a double wound that sin doth make there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul by hindring it from salvation and eternal life and there is the wound that destroyes the peace and comfort of the soul So there is a double Cure which Christ doth work the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul The first of these we enquire after 1. Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness hath been
would improve this Mercy that God hath spared you you must live to God and walk in newness of life DIRECTION IX HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion Then keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in his preservation of you Let not length of time if God give it you wear off the greatness of this his Mercy towards you if you forget Gods goodness you will not walk worthy of it This was the sin of the People of Israel for whom God did such great things Psal 78.10 They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Vers 11. And forgot his Works and his Wonders that he had shewed them Psal 106.21 They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt God hath done great wonders for you in preserving of you in the valley of the shadow of death God hath not given you over unto death God hath not laid you in the Grave where you would soon have been forgotten do not you lay Gods Mercy towards you in the grave of oblivion nor bury his mercy of saving you alive in forgetfulness David laid a charge upon his Soul that he should not forget the benefits of the Lord towards him Psal 103.2 Set down therefore and Record your danger what it was Such a Moneth in such a Year the Plague was nigh my dwelling it came into my house it took away so many of my Children and Servants but God spared me he took away the Wife the Husband of my bosome but God spared me yea it was upon my Body so many Plague-Sores were running at once and God delivered me from the Grave and from the very jawes of death and will you forget this while you live That you may have and keep a sense of Gods mercy to you in preserving of you consider these few particulars 1. Consider you had deserved the Plague and death by the Plague as well as those that have fallen into their Graves thereby and it may be more too do not think that those that have died were greater sinners than you Luke 13.2 And Jesus answered and said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things Vers 3. I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish Vers 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all Men that dwelt in Jerusalem Vers 5. I tell you nay but extept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Do you think that those whom the Plague hath slaughtered that they were greater sinners then all that dwelt in London Take heed of such conceptions Or if many have fallen in this judgment that were of worser Lives than you yet none have fâ—llen that had worser Hearts than you naturally hâ—ve Nay have not your sins been capable of greater â—ggravations than the sins of many Dâ—unkards and Swearers and prophane Peâ—sons that did never sin against a God that pardoned their sins that did never sin against such love nor after such experiences of the working of Gods Spirit upon their hearâ—s as you have had Nay consider that you are not likely â—o do God that service nor bring to God that Glory that some of them might have done that are now in their Grâ—ves if God had spared them and yet God hath lengthened out your life Oh what an Obligation should this be to you to remember Gods Mercy that you had Plague-deserving-sins but yet you had not the Plague that you have death-deserving-sins and yet you are not dead 2. Consider you had a Body as liable to Infection as many others had There were such natural causes in your Body that might have laid you in your Grave if God had not prevented it and did not you suck in the same Aire as others did yea as others breathed out and yet God hath kept you 3. Consider you had no better Preservatives nor Cordials then many others had that yet by the Plague are laid silent in the Grave and are now resting in the dust and others that now are dead used the same meanes as you did and it may be more and better too and yet God denyed his blessing to the use of those meanes that were more probable to prevent Infection then yours were by this you may be convinced that it was the hand of God that hath preserved you and therefore by this you should be obliged to remember and keep upon your heart a sense of Gods mercy towards you 4. Consider you have been in more visible danger and when you were called did venture further then many others did some were more reserved and kept from Company more than you have done being called to Duty where Visited Persons have been as to help them that were sick of this Distemper c. and yet some that lived more retiredly and kept themselves more close were Visited and are dead and yet you have escaped this is the finger of Divine Providence and will you let the sense of this weare off from your heart 5. Consider that you have been more weakly and more infirme of Body then many of them that the Plague hath removed Many that were more likely to out-live you are cut down before you Many that were strong and of healthful constitutions are laid in the Dust while you that have been waiting for your dissolution many Moneths or Years because of the infirmity of your Body and the frequent distempers that have been upon you are preserved 6. Consider how great a Mercy your praservation is not onely to your self but to those to whom you are related You have many little Children that are not able to help themselves nor to provide for themselves that in all likelihood would have been exposed to hardships and to want if God had taken you from them They are sharers in this Mercy of your Preservation and the more are concerned in it the greater the Mercy is and the deeper and more lasting sense it should make upon your heart The thoughts of your Children did increase your feares and trouble when you were in danger and should not the consideration of this advance the greatness of the Mercy of being continued to them DIRECTION X. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence when he hath taken away many of your own Relations then the fewer objects you have for your love now the stronger let your love be towards God then it was before In steâ—d of murmuring against God that you have lost those whom you did love the greater let your love be to God since you hâ—ve not so many for to love Love lâ—id out upon many objects is the weaker buâ— love united and spent upon one object is tâ—e stronger As those that have but one only Son love that more then those that have more do love any because their love is divided
say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsell of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Thus sinning with judiciall hardness and dying in finall impenitency are at the bottom round from whence they step into endless misery Thus you see how great a matter a little fire kindleth and from how small beginnings some have proceeded to the very pitch and height of sin that can scarce be worse save in the frequent iteration of the sins that they commit for they have got into all kinds of sin they are guilty of spirituall wickedness which the devill is malice enmity against God and goodness c. and of corporall wickedness as Adultery Drunkenness Gluttony c. Which the Devill is not capable of committing the Devill being only a spirit but men consist of body and spirit and so may commit more sins for kind than the Devill himself can do But God forbid that after such a judgement amongst us should be found such sinners this will be an evil requitall to the Lord for his removing his sore judgement from us SECT VII Vnder what dispensations do wicked men grow worse and worse IN the generall I answer wicked men are the worse in all conditions that God puts them into more particularly they are worse and worse Under Gods Providences Gods Ordinances First Wicked men wax worse under all Gods Providences whether Of Prosperity Adversity Deliverances I. Ungodly men are worse under their prosperity when the world smiles upon them and when they have all that their carnall hearts can wish and desire If the Sun shine it hardens the clay and the more it makes the dunghill send forth unsavory smels Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ver 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God A wicked man is more hardened by Gods kindness to him Animus Iniquus beneficio fit pejor A wicked heart is made worse by every kindness As Christ fed Judas at his table and he runs presently to betray him The more God aboundeth to them in common goodness the more they abound against God in multiplied wickedness Neh. 9.16 ad 27. Psal 78.12 17. Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Isa 26.10 Let favor be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. They are worse by prosperity 1. Because they are thereby listed up with pride and carnall confidence many men the more rich the more proud and the prouder the worser the more their riches increase the more they set their hearts upon them and the more a mans heart is upon the creature the worse he is Prosperity is full of snares and we are apt then to forget God and to lift up the heel against him Deut. 32.15 But Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Here is great prosperity and great impiety and God seeing how apt his own people are to be worse by prosperity doth caution them largely against it Deut. 8.7 11 12 13 14 17 18. 2. Wicked men are worse by prosperity because then they have more fuell to feed their lusts Sodomites had fulness of bread and that did feed their uncleanness They turn Gods grace into wantonness and his mercies into fuell for their wickedness Those things which should be cords of love to draw them to God they turn to the nourishment of their sinnes against God and desire riches not that they may glorify God but gratify their lusts Jam. 4.3 The more abundance of outward things a drunkard hath the more he is able to please his palate with great abundance of the richest Wines the more the adulterer hath the more he bestows upon his harlot and so the greater plenty the more they lead a sensuall bruitish flesh-pleasing life and the more of that the worse they be 3. Wicked men in prosperity are the worse because they are apt to gather Gods special love to them from the common bounty he bestowes upon them Because the world smiles upon them they think God doth so too Because Gods hand is opened to them therefore they think they are engraven upon his heart and think Divine Toleration is Divine Approbation when indeed it is a sign of Gods great displeasure to give prosperity to a man in a sinfull course God was angry with the rich man in the Gospel when he gave him more abundance than he knew how to bestow Luk. 12.18 19 20. and 16.19 20. They are apt to think that is the best way which is the most prosperous way Jer. 44.17 But we will certainly doe what soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink-Offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cityes of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for then had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil Vers 18. But since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink Offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine By prosperity they take encouragement to proceed in their Iniquity 4. Wicked men by prosperity are worse because they are apt to put far from them the evil day and the hour and thoughts of Death and Judgement and the Life to come In health they have not serious thoughts of sickness a wicked man is too apt to think that the Sun of Prosperity which shines upon him will never set nor be clouded Psal 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations they call their Lands after their own Names In Prosperity they think little of death Luk. 12.19 And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry They promise themselves a continuance of their outward happiness and so sin more freely and abundantly Isa 56.12 Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant This perswasion begets carnal security and the more secure still the worse SECT VIII II. WIcked men are often times worse under adversity judgements and afflictions that do befall them the more they are punished the more they are hardened there is nothing in adversity and judgements in sickness and plagues in poverty and distress to
make an alteration or a change in the heart of a sinner from worse to better except God sanctifie it The Plague upon the body is not a remedy in it self to cure the Plague of the heart for men love more the plague of their hearts than they loathe the plague of the body Possibly outward Judgements may put a stop to some mens sinnings for the present but they will return to them afterwards except God speak effectually to their hearts and consciences as well as lay his heavy stroaks upon the body Judgement to a sinner may be as a Barre to a Thief it may stop him from the present act but doth not change his heart or as a storm to a Mariner may make him cast Anchour for the present but still he retains his purpose of sayling in his Voyage when the storm is over they are oftner salve for their eyes to shew them their sin than physick for their hearts to purge them out sinners in Judgements might declaim against their sin but without a setled purpose in their hearts to decline their sin where there is Grace Afflictions work patience and submission but where there is nothing but corruption they often work passion and repining not Repentance the more God sent his Judgements and his Plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians the more they hardened themselves against God and his people and by Gods Judgements were not the better but the worse Exod. 7.19 to 23. Isa 1.5 Why should ye be smitten any more ye will revolt more and more Psal 78.30 They were not estranged from their Lusts but while their meat was in their mouths v. 31. the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them V. 32. For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works And as it was with the woman that had an Issue of blood twelve years in respect of her bodily distemper after great cost and charge and use of means she was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mar. 5. 25 26. so under Gods Judgements it is with most wicked men in respect of their spiritual state they are nothing bettered but rather grow worse And this appears First Because in time of Judgment they are not separated from their dross Ezek. 24.13 In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee i. e. God used purging Judgments and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee God hath been purging our houses but many have not been purging their hearts but retain their heart-filthiness stil and their life-wickedness stil If God in Judgement say to such You shall not be purged their case is irrecoverably miserable Secondly Because they are not more serious in Religion than they were before either they omit it wholly as before or are as dull and formal as they were before Thirdly Because they are not brought nearer unto God but are rather removed were it possible at a further distance from God than before And the Reasons of this are 1. Because When Gods hand is lifted up they will not see Isa 26.11 they look more to second Causes than to God 2. Because they search not after the sins that provoked God to so great indignation 3. Because if they do see their drunkenness and whoredoms and Sabbath-breaking yet they will not be humbled for them nor forsake them SECT IX III. WIcked men are oftentimes worse by Gods delivering them from Judgements and calamitous distresses Take a wicked man upon his sick bed when God is shaking him over the Grave and threatning him with death and affrighting him with the terrours of Hell you shall hear him acknowledge his sin confessing his drunkenness his neglect of his soul and you shall hear him it may be with tears in his eyes promising if God will raise him from his sickness and trust him with life and time a little longer he will forsake his wicked company and prophane the Sabbath no more If God will but try me saith the sick dying man how will I live and what will I doe and how obedient will I be to the Commands of God And when God answereth his desires in his restoration he performeth not his Promise in his reformation but is more wicked and more vile than before You might see this in Pharaoh when the Plagues were upon him Oh then send for Moses and let him entreat the Lord for me and then I will let Israel goe then he confesseth I and my people have sinned but the Lord is righteous Though many wicked men will not acknowledge nor confess their sin in times of Judgement so much as an hardened Pharaoh did But yet when the Plagues were removed he hardened himself more against God still Read Exod. 8.8.15.24.28.32 and 9.23.27 So Nehem. 9.27 28 29 30. And the Reasons are 1. Because after Judgements removed they are more secure and think the bitterness of death is past 2. Because they break their promises made to God in time of Judgements and so their sin is greater and their guilt is greater and therefore they the worser of this more under another Direction 3. Because Judgement is removed from them before they are purged from their sin When the Plaister is taken off before the sore is healed it will be worse the course of physick is not continued till the vitious humours are dispersed and purged away but Gods people desire the cure may be wrought before the Affliction be removed But Pharaoh was for the removing of the Plagues but not the hardness of his heart 4. Because they adde Incorrigibleness unto all their former sins and must answer for all those Judgements that were lost upon them Wicked men shall not only answer for their Mercies but for the Judgements God sent upon them to reclaim them Sinner God sent the Plague into thy house and then he looked thou shouldest have hastened to have thrown sin out of thy heart but thou hast not done it God did cast thee upon a bed of sickness but thy bed of sickness was not to thee a bed of sorrow for thy sin thou howledst and cryedst our of thy loathsom running-sores but not of thy filthy heart and more loathsome sins thy body was pained but thy heart not broken thou hast been punished and delivered but art not reformed but know the more thou hast sinned and the more thou hast been punished here and yet sin still the more shalt thou be tormented in hell For these thou shouldest look upon as means which God doth use to bring thee to himself and the more means thou hardenest thy self against the more is thy sin and the more shal be thy misery Thus wicked men are oftentimes the worse by Gods Providences But if this be thy case that readest these Lines that wast a drunkard before and wilt be drunk more frequently now that wast a lukewarm Formalist before the Plague begun but now
those back that are come up to an height of sin sometimes he doth that none might despair but very rarely that none might presume It is to be feared thou art forsaken of God and he hath left thee to thy self when word nor rod can reclaim thee from thy sin nor put a restraint upon thee from waxing worse IV. The worse thou art after such a judgement The sooner God will be provoked to hast on thy destruction by some other God hath not spent all his arrows in the late judgement he hath his Quiver full still and if thou go on when God giveth thee yet a space to repent after so great a warning by the Plague he will ere long cast thee into a bed of trouble Rev. 2.21 22. Thy increased wickedness is to Gods wrath as the blast to the fire will quickly blow it up into a flame though thy conscience is asleep yet thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2.1.3 while thou lingerest in thy sin Gods judgements do not linger but are upon the wing and the worse thou art the sooner will they befall thee and be more heavy when they come Jer. 48.16 The calamity of Moab is near to come and his affliction hasteth fast V. The worse thou growest the more thou heapest up treasures of wrath and every sin is adding to the pile of that fire by which thou must eternally be burned temporal judgements might quickly befall thee but if they do not eternal damnation shall overtake thee and the higher thou goest in wickedness the lower thou shalt sink and lye in hell God will proportion thy degrees of torments to thy growth and progress in sin Now thou hast a treasure of sin Mat. 12.35 And God hath his treasures of wrath Deut. 32.34 And as thou layest in sin to the treasury of sin so God layeth in wrath to the treasury of wrath Rom. 2.5 Thy present preservation is but a reservation to greater indignation then is discovered in a Plague Tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensabit deus He will recompence the delay of thy misery and punishment with the weight and load of it Job 36.13 VI. To be worse and more wicked after so great a judgement will be to slight and set at nought the justice of God when you have seen with your eyes the dreadful heaps of dead Corpse that it hath made in every Church-yard Have you not seen that God is displeased with sin and will you go on to do worse as if you would bid defiance to God even when he is angry and displeased Have you not seen that there is wrath in God and that justice will call sinners to his barre by dragging them out of this world And will you after all this go on to sin against a just God and as it were say let justice do its pleasure I will have mine this doth aggravate your sin VII To be worse after such a judgement will be to sin against the Patience and the mercy of God that hath spared thee and waiteth to see what thou wilt do after such a visitation The mercy of God is the attribute thou intendest to appeal to it is that which thou hopest in but by this thy wickedness thou wilt turn mercy it self against thee that which thou wilt make thy request unto must be the mercy of God but this will plead against thee and patience will plead against thee Lord will Mercy say when thousands dyed weekly in London I had pity upon this sinner and did spare him when the Angel went through the Streets and Lanes in London I Mercy marked out this man for longer life but he abused me and sinned the more And I shall Patience say waited some moneths or years after the Plague to see if the mercy shewed him would any thing work upon him but I was abused too as well as Mercy The longer I Patience did lengthen out his life the more he added to his sins and therefore now we both Patience and Mercy deliver him up into the hands of Justice to deal with him according to his sins and according to the wrong he hath offered unto us Oh how will thy mouth be stopped when Mercy and Patience shall plead against thee sins against Mercy and protracted Patience are aggravated sins and the pleadings of Mercy and Patience against a man will be the most piercing cutting pleadings VIII The worse thou art the more thou wilt have to answer for and the greater accounts thou wilt have to make when ever thou shalt dye The more thou sinnest the more sins shalt thou finde in the book of Gods remembrance and in the book of thine own Conscience when thou shalt be brought before the Barr of God So many sins committed before the Plague begun and so many while the Plague continued and so many when it was stayed and this sinner spared When it shall be set down in the book of God such a sinner was drunk so many times while the Plague was round about his habitation so many Oaths he swore when he saw multitudes buryed every day so long the Plague was in the Parish where he dwelt and in the house in which he lived and he never made one hearty prayer unto God all that time And such notorious sins in and after a time of a sweeping Plague will multiply thy account and aggravate thy misery IX To be worse after such Judgements will be to adde Incorrigibleness to thy former wickedness As before thou didst shew that thou hadst an unteachable heart so now thou declarest thou hast an incorrigible heart Thou wouldest not be instructed by Gods Word neither wilt thou be corrected by Gods Rod thou didst stop thine ears against Gods Word and thou hardenest thy heart against his Rod. But if thou wilt not be corrected by a Plague thou shalt be tormented in the Infernal Pit X. To be worse after such a Judgement will be high Ingratitude Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world except the sin in thy heart for skin for skin and all that he hath he will give for his life except his sin and he will venture his life and lose it too before he will part with his sin and hath God kept thee and is this thy thanks to God to dishonour him more and to provoke him more As if he had spared thee for no other end but to sin against him Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not Oh now for Gods sake and for thy precious souls sake that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave so thy soul may if possible escape the damnation of hell Be entreated Sinner to consider the evil of thy present practice after such a narrow escape of death and the grave Oh wilt thou that art but briars and thorns set thy self against God that is a consuming fire Dost thou sleight the wrath of the Almighty or despise his power or contemn his Judgements Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with
thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worser than thou wast before Though abstaining from sin upon such accounts doth not prove the truth of grace yet the committing of sin notwithstanding these doth argue growth of sin Now these humane Arguments that did formerly restrain thee were such as these 1. Shame amongst men Thou hadst an Inclination to wicked company but thou wast ashamed to be seen amongst them and therefore didst not associate with them But now thou thinkest it no shame or if thou dost thou hast a face of brass and an heart of stone and blushest not Thou art worse 2. Care of Reputation Thou wast tender of thy Credit and good Name and though thou hadst a love unto some sins that would have disgraced thee amongst men yet now thou wilt blot thy Name and lose thy Credit and sacrifice thy Reputation to satisfie thy Lust 3. Costliness of sin Some sins are very chargeable and call for great expence and thy love to thy Money and natural affection to thy Wife and Children was a barre which did restrain thee from them Thou wouldest not feed and satisfie thy filthy Lusts because it would be chargeable to thee thou refrainedst from riotous Prodigals because company with them would wast thine Estate But now thou thinkest no cost too great no charge too much that thou mayest have thy fill of sin but tradest and labourest and workest to get something to maintain thy Lust and wilt rather that thy Wife and Children should want bread at home than thou shouldest not have enough to spend upon thy sins abroad Thou art now grown to an exceeding magnitude in sin that thou art monstrous to beholders 4. Health of body Such sins that tend to the impairing of thy health thou wouldest not commit Thou didst refrain not so much because they would damn thy soul as destroy thy body Thou thoughtest excessive drinking would shorten thy life and hasten thy death and bring thee sooner to thy grave that acts of uncleanness would fill thee full of loathsom diseases and leave some mark upon thy body whereby thou wouldest be noted for an unclean adulterer But now thou wilt venture health and life and all that thou mayest more freely sin and the very food thou earest is now not only to nourish thy body but to provoke thee to lust Verily thou art much worse than thou wast 5. Fear of death When the fear of God would not prevail to keep thee from sin yet fear of death somtimes hath done it and according to the strength of the fears of death have been thy restraints from sin but now thou canst think of death and speak of thy death and yet act thy sinne 6. Displeasure of men Thou hast had dependance upon some that hate such sins that thou lovest in thy heart but because thou wouldest not loose their favour thou hast bridled thy sin but now thou layest the reignes loose upon the neck of thy lusts and wilt proceed to obey them let who will be displeased thereby When thou wilt displease thy best friend and them upon whom thou dost depend for lively-hood and maintenance that thou mayst please thy lust it is a sign that sin is very high in thy heart any one of these formerly were a sufficient bolt to keep thee from grosser sins but now all put together are too weak a signe that sin is so much the stronger X. The more thou hast had experience of the dreadfull effects of sin and the more God hath punished thee for thy sin and yet wilt proceed the greater sinner thou art God hath punished thee with poverty as the fruite of thy sin with diseases in thy body with horrours in thy conscience with the death of thy relations when thou hast tasted the bitterness of sin to set against the pleasures of sin when God hath put worm-wood and gall into thy sin yet thou art bent upon it thou art very bad XI The more thou justifiest and defendest thy self after the commission of sin than formerly so much the worser thou art than formerly When thou wast reproved thou wast use to acknowledge thy sin and to confess thy wickedness but now thou dost plead for thy lust and pleadest for thy evil wayes and takest the quarrell of sin upon thy self it is a signe thy heart is more wedded to thy lusts by how much the more thou espousest its cause XII When thou art more presumptuous in thy sinnings and addest more contempt of God and pride and contumacy than formerly the worse thou art Sins of presumption are scarlet sins of a crimson dye when a man sinneth against God and blesseth himself in his wickedness and presumeth of Gods mercy and presumeth upon the patience of God a man that sins presumptuously makes a bold adventure against express threatnings of the Law of God and is mingled with great contempt of God it is no less than reproaching and despising of God himself Num. 15.30 But the soul that doth ought presumptuously reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people vers 31. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him XIII The more mercies thou sinnest against than formerly the worser thou art than before God hath given thee more mercies and multiplyed many good things upon thee and yet thou committest more sins than when thou hadst fewer mercies to make Gods mercy to be fewel for thy lusts is an aggravation of sinning for as much as it is contrary to the end of mercy which is to draw men off from sin every mercy thou receivest hath a voice and its language is repent of sin return to God Rom. 2.4 God loadeth thee with mercy and the more thou pressest him down with thy sin the more good and the more mercifull God is to thee the more vile and rebellious thou art against God this is to be highly wicked XIV The more thou drawest others into sin by thy entisements or example than before so much the worse thou art When thou art not content to sin alone not to dishonour God thy self but drawest and incouragest others to do so also and so damnest thy own soul and others too and makest thy self guilty of the bloud of those thou allurest with thee into sin The more sins thou committest thy self the worse thou art and the more persons thou dost influence by thy sin to partake with thee the worse thou art Thus if thou wilt compare thy self what thou art now with what thou hast been formerly thou mightest discern how much more thou sinnest now than thou didst before SECT XIV What considerations may be usefull to stop the streame of such mens wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse BEcause I am loath to leave thee with a bare conviction that thou art worse than thou wast wont to be I shall add a
what manner of persons ought you to be in all manner of holy conversation after such a sight as this IV. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the worlds vanity You have seen what miserable comforters riches are to men in time of Plague and at an hour of death you have seen death haling men from that which they had set their hearts upon you have seen death dragging men from their riches and from their pleasures and hath forced them to come away to the Bar of God and leave their riches behinde them and their pleasures behind them You have seen that riches could not go with them into another world but left them in a time of need You have seen that those that loved riches could finde no comfort in them when they stood in greatest need of comfort You have seen that what men have been laboring for and scraping together all the time of their health and life death hath come and scattered in a moment Oh how weaned should you be from the world and the riches and the pleasures thereof after such a sight as this Oh how much less should you afford the world of your heart and affections of your love desire and delights that is so unkind to dying men even unto those that served it most and loved it most Oh do you learn to deal so with the world as you have seen the world to deal with others i. e. turn it out of your heart with as little love and pity to it as you have seen the world turn its followers out of it and shake them off notwithstanding all their entreaties to abide and stay therein The world may now entreat you that it might stay in your heart and live in your love but hearken you no more to its entreaties than it hath hearkened unto others and you must expect the world ere long will deal with you as it hath dealt with others therefore part with the world before you leave the world V. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the short continuance of all relations you have seen death taking Husbands from their Wives Parents from their Children Ministers from their people and so Wives from their Husbands Children from their Parents People from their Ministers Those that had but one onely Son Plague and Death hath stripped them of him and teared one relation out of the others bosome fain they would have kept them but death would not suffer them they wept and cryed but death would not have pity on them nor hear their cries nor regard their tears but said this is your childe but I must have him this is your husband but I must seize upon him God hath given me a Commission and I always use to do according to the Commission I receive from God if God will not spare you in vain you look for pity at mine hands I saith death am blinde and cannot see the beauty of your childe that hath drawn out your heart so much towards him I am deaf and cannot hear your pleadings for the continuance of your childe or husband or friend if God doth not hear you I cannot and if God doth not spare and pity you I will not therefore I will smite him and stick my arrow in his heart and dippe it in his life-blood and take him from you Oh how many have thus experienced the dealings of death and you have seen it and will not you learn to sit looser in your affections towards your nearest and dearest relations You have seen death hath seized upon them that were most beloved by their friends and perhaps did therefore do it because they were over loved and took up too much of that love and that delight which should have been more and would have been better placed upon God Your lesson then is set down by the Apostle for I would not teach you by rott nor without the book of Gods word 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the time is short or rolled up or contracted a metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up onely a little left at the end so some As Mariners near the Haven winde up their sails or make them less When the sails of time are thus contracted it is a sign we are near the Harbor of eternity It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none Vers 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away VI. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the lesson of humility How many humbling sights have you seen every Corpse that you have seen hath been an humbling sight It may be you have been proud of your beauty but have not you seen that beauty vanisheth away when death comes that beautiful bodies by the Plague and Death have been turned into loathsome bodies and those that you have loved and been delighted to look upon you have been glad to have them buried out of your sight when once dead How many open Graves have you seen and those that have been nice and curious of their comely bodies have been interred and given to be meat for worms and to be a prey to rottenness and putrefaction Have you seen any difference betwixt the poor and the rich beâ—wixt that body that was fed with courser fare and that which was nourished with more delicate dishes Have you not seen bodies that were made out of dust been turned to the dust to be turned into dust and will you be proud after God hath taken such an effectual course to teach you to be humble VII In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you that all things fall alike to all that the wise must dye as well as the fool and the good must dye as well as the bad And though God hath promised conditionally preservation from the Plague unto his people which hath been literally fulfilled to some of his yet some of his have fallen in this general mortality God hath been teaching of you that though grace doth deliver from eternal death yet not from temporal though from the sting yet not from the stroke of death that you though godly should be preparing for your own departure out of this world VIII In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the difference between the death of the wicked and the death of the righteous that though good and bad alike have dyed yet they have not dyed alike But as there was a difference in their life so God did make a difference in their death Have not you seen some wicked dye without any sense of sin or fear of God or Hell and
believing thoughts of this when the Plague is over will have some special influence upon thee to make thee endeavour to do according to the purpose of thy heart in dying times 4. Consider Holiness is as pleasing unto God at one time as another and if God was pleased with thy purpose it will be more pleasing if thou proceed unto performance The moving reason of your purpose in the time of your distress was that you judged it pleasing unto God and would you please God at one time by purposing and displease him at another by non-performance Would you please God at one time by resolving to reform and displease him at another by nonreformation Sin and holiness is the same in the eyes of God at all times but it seems it is not so in thine if sometime thou dost purpose to forsake sin and at another dost willingly commit it if sometime thou approvest holiness and pâ—â—â—osest to follow after it but at another time thou art remiss in thy pursuit 5. Work this upon thy heart that sin is as destructive to thy soul and preâ—udicial to thy peace and comfort at one time as another Though sometime the circumstance of time might aggravate a mans sin and make it more hainous as a man to be drunk upon the Lords day yet sin committed at any time is damnable and sin loved at any time is damnable though sometime we feel the effects of sin in sickness on our bodies and terrors and fears upon our consciences and then have greater and more affecting apprehensions of the evil of it yet you can at no time when you have your perfect health lay sin in your bosom but it may sting you unto death In your sickness you thought that sin would undo you that your evil actions would certainly damne you therefore you did resolve against it think so still and let those thoughts abide upon your heart and they will carry you in the strength of Christ to live as you did purpose 6. Work this upon your heart that holiness in act and a godly life in act will be more sweet unto your soul than it was onely in your purpose And that a holy life should be esteemed by you at one time as well as another because it will be as sweet and profitable to you at one time as another if you thought it would be for your good to purpose holiness and to resolve to live to God and this did something quiet your heart if you had dyed that God had given you a real and unfeigned resolution and fixed purpose of heart to lead as you could with utmost diligence a Gospel conversation how much more will it be a comfort to your heart to see your purposes end in performances and your resolutions come unto a real thorough continued Reformation Get the same thoughts of holiness in time of safety as you had in time of danger and this will help you to live holily as well as to purpose so to do 7 Keep upon your heart a constant daily sense of your own mortality and of your nearness to another world What is the reason that men under sickness are more apt to purpose to forsake sin and to promise to mend and to reform than in time of health but because they have greater apprehensions of death in its nearer approaches unto them and things as neer do more affect than things apprehended as further off and was it not the thoughts of the nearness of death and your daily danger of it that did quicken you to resolve against sin and for God and to winde up your resolutions something higher than at other times Why you have reason still to walk in daily expectation of your dissolution though the plague be stayed If the plague be removed out of your habitation yet sin is not removed out of your heart there is the meritorious cause of death still in you and there are natural causes of death still in you and you must as surely dye as if the Plague were raging and you may assoon dye we dye a thousand ways death might be as near to you by some other disease and you may fall by some other disease as so many have done by the Pestilence though you were not one of those that dyed eight thousand in a week yet you may be one of those that dye eight or five hundred in a week Doe not say the bitterness of death is past that now there is no danger do not put far from thee the evil day What if so many do not dye every week as when thou resolvedst to be better yet thou mightest dye every week An Apoplexy or a Feaver or Dropsie might fetcht thee to thy grave who hast through Mercy and Patience escaped death by the Plague think with thy self when thy heart is negligent of thy former purpose When and why was it that I resolved to give my self more to a holy heavenly life When the Plague did come nigh unto my dwelling and because I thought every day I might have dyed Why it is my daily danger if not by the Plague yet by some other disease that will as certainly be the cause of my dissolution as if it were the Plague Thou didst purpose because thou thoughtest death was neer then perform because death is still as near yea it is nearer to thee now then when thou madest this resolution for the more days thou hast lived since the fewer now thou hast to live it was near then but to thee it is nearer now 8. Frequently possess thy heart with serious believing thoughts of judgement to come When men and when thou amongst the rest shall give an account to God of all thoughts purposes promises vows that thou hast made to God to walk before him in an holy life But what account canst thou give to God when thou hast not performed what thou purposedst If it was not good to purpose and to promise to forsake thy sin and live to God Why didst thou purpose If it were Why dost thou not perform If thou fail now thou wilt be self-condemned at the bar of God thy purposes and promises will be brought forth against thee and God will charge thee before all the world with breach of promise unto him 9. Work this upon thy heart that thou walkest daily in the sight and presence of that God that exactly doth observe whether thou art the same in thy practice when thou art well as thou wast in thy purpose when thou wast sick God did see thy purpose and he did hear thy promise made in thy distress and time of fears and his eye is upon thee to observe how thou livest and what thou dost and do men keep their promises made to men as some do from no other principle then because the eyes of men are upon them to observe them and they would not lose their reputation by falsifying of their promise and wilt not thou much more
but if thou hadst then dyed thou wouldest without doubt have been eternally damned because thy resolutions were not penitential resolutions as appears by the fruit of them in my returning to thy sin again and that thou didst not indeed love God and his holy ways for if thou hadst thou wouldest nor so soon no never after turned from them in the general course of thy conversation 11. This will encourage the devil to more frequent tempting of thee For if by temptation he can prevail with thee to do that which is contrary to thy resolution what hopes will he have to draw thee into sin against which thou hast made no such particular resolution If he overcome thee where thou art strongest what spoil will he make upon thee where thou art weakest It is a great advantage we give unto the devil when we sin against our resolutions 12. This will be a great provocation unto God when thou dost sin not only against his Precepts but against thy own purpose not only against the obligations he layeth upon thy soul by Mercy and Afflictions but against the Obligations thou layst upon thy self by thy Purposes and Resolutions And in thy Affliction and fears didst thou not apprehend God to be exceedingly provoked but thou must after he hath preserved recovered thee go on to provoke him more 13. If this neglect be found in thee who hast the truth of grace yet it will much hinder thy confidence at the throne of grace and stop the Influences of the Spirit of God and obstruct the illapses of the Spirit from descending upon thy heart When thou keepest thy resolutions and keepest out of the wayes of sin thou canst go to God with an humble holy boldness and pour out thy heart with much enlargedness before God and there is sweet intercourse betwixt God and thee thou feelest thy heart to burn in love to God and thou perceivest God to bear a love to thee and oh how sweet is this unto thy soul But when thou neglectest to watch against sin and to walk with God when thou hadst resolved to do both when thou goest to thy duty thou wilt finde Conscience reproach thee and thy heart straitned and thy mouth stopped and thy confidence abated thy heart much estranged from God and God carrying himself as a stranger unto thee when thou art upon thy knees And this is the bitter fruit of a careless heart after heightned Resolutions 14. If this neglect be found in thee that hast the truth of grace it will much occasion the doubting of the sincerity of thy heart A Childe of God may fail and be remiss in prosecuting of his purposes sometimes but if he be it will make him jealous of his own heart and suspicious that it is not well betwixt God and him and is not that a sore evil and much to be opposed and lamented which doth blot thine Evidences for heaven and will make thee question whether thou hast one dram of grace in truth conferred upon thee infused into thee Thus I have finished this Direction also shewing how you may live in some measure answerable to the great goodness of God in sparing you in time of Plague when so many thousands fell round about you By being carefull to be as good when the Sickness is over as you purposed and resolved to be when you were in expectation of death and waiting for your change and dissolution when the Arrowes of God were flying amongst you in the time of this sore Judgement of the Plague DIRECTION III. HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion that you live when others are dead or were you sick and are recovered then Endeavour that the Cure may be a thorow Cure that your Soul be healed as well as your body that there be not spiritual Judgements upon your Soul when temporal Plagues are removed from your Body You may observe that such that came to Christ with diseased bodies Christ healed their bodies and their souls too he took away their corporal sickness blindness distempers and the guilt of their sins too Mat. 9.1 2. Many are delivered from a Corporal Plague that yet are infected and in danger of eternal death by the Plague upon their hearts That remain under spiritual Judgements and Soul-sickness when temporal Judgements and corporal sicknesses are cured and removed When St. John wrote to Gaius he desired that it might be as well with him as to his bodily health as it was in respect of his soul and spiritual health 3 Ep. John v. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But it may be matter of our desire concerning those that remain alive and are well after this Visitation that their souls may prosper and be in health even as their body prospereth It is a greater mercy to have an healed soul in a sickly body than to have spiritual sickness remain in an healthful body It is not so great a Judgement to have the body full of Plague-sores as to have the soul full of reigning sins If your body be cured and not your soul the cure is but half done Therefore in speaking to this Direction I shall shew these things 1. Wherein it appears that sin is the sickness of the soul 2. Wherein it appears that sin and spiritual Judgements upon the soul are worse than sickness and temporal Judgements upon the body 3. How we may know whether our souls are healed of spiritual sicknesses 4. What they must do that lye under soul-sickness that they may be healed 5. What such should do that are healed of their soul distempers to improve the Cure to the glory of God SECT I. I. Wherein doth it appear that sin is the souls disease and the sickness thereof In these particulars 1. SIcknesses and diseases do abate and take away the Appetite Sick men have not the Appetite to their food as men in health have So sin takes away the spiritual appetite of the Soul that it doth not hunger after Christ nor thirst after righteousness and hinders its feeding upon Christ and the Word of God which is the spiritual food for the souls nourishment and growth 2. Sickness and diseases do abate the strength and activity of the body So sin doth weaken the soul and all the faculties thereof and doth disable it in all its actings to and for God 3. Sickness and diseases often fill the body full of pain aches and sores making men to cry out Oh my head and oh my heart and oh my bowels I am pained I am pained So sin doth fill the soul full of racking fears and perplexing torments and doubts and sometimes make some sinners cry out I am undone I am undone I am damned I am damned 4. Some diseases do stupifie and make men insensible and those are the worst So sin sometimes makes some sinners stupid and unsensible of their misery and
sensible of it Sin hath been thy sorrow and thy grief and the burden of thy heart thou hast groaned under it as the greatest load as the greatest evil in the world Every man that is bodily sick and is sensible of it and is unfeignedly willing to be freed from his sickness and desireth nothing more is not cured but it is so in spirituals He that is sensible of sin and is heartily and unfeignedly willing to part with his sin as ever sick man was of sickness is certainly healed by Jesus Christ But such as never found so much sorrow for sin nor sense thereof as to make them willing to part with every sin were never yet cured How can a man that is wounded have his sore dressed and lanced in order to a Cure and not be sensible of the smart and pain thereof Or how can he be healed while the sword that made the wound abideth in it It is as impossible that man should be healed of his spiritual sickness and wounds that is not willing to part with sin as for a man to be healed of his bodily wound while he will not have the sword pulled out that did make it Sin caused the wound and the sickness of thy soul and if thou art not willing to part with every sin thou art not healed thy soul is sick and if thou dost not feel it that is the worse 2. Where the soul is healed the sin is killed the life of sin is the death of the soul and that which is the life of the soul is the death of sin if Christ heal the soul he wounds sin he never heals both if sin be wounded to death the soul is healed unto life as in the body the more health is repaired the more the disease is weakned so the more the soul is cured the more sin is mortified 3. Where the soul is healed there grace is infused sickness being removed health is restored When Christ heals a sinners soul he doth not onely mortifie the sin but sanctifie the sinner when a man is restored from sickness to health that which made him sick is not onely removed but that is introduced which maketh him well so when Christ cures the soul he doth not onely take down the power of sin which did make him bad but he infuseth that which doth make him good 4. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it is sick of love to Jesus Christ it is not onely weary of sin but exceedingly longeth after the presence of Christ and communion with God Cant. 5.8 I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye finde my beloved that ye tell him I am sick of love 5. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it doth receive Christ by faith when the Israelites were stung with the fiery Serpents and looked up to the brazen Serpent they were certainly cured Num. 21.8 Faith is an healing grace because it eyeth Christ the soul-Physician and fetches vertue of healing from him Mat. 15.28 And Jesus answered and said unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt And her daughter was made whole from that very hour Mat. 9.2 And they brought unto him a man sick of the Palsie lying on a hed and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the Palsie Son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee The blood of Christ is the healing plaister and faith is the hand that takes it and applyeth it unto the sore 6. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it is getting strength for spiritual work and employment more and more it is growing stronger and stronger in grace and goodness as a man whose distemper is broke and going away he is recovering strength more and more to go about his calling and employment he is stronger to walk and work he can endure cold and bear burdens more than before A man that is spiritually cured is waxing in the fruits of the spirit and growing in all the graces of the spirit of God is more and more able to resist temptations to perform duties to bear afflictions and endure hardships for the sake of Christ By these signs you may discern whether your soul is cured so far of the diseases it lay under that they shall not be its death and damnation SECT IV. IV. What should such do that are under soul-sicknesses that they may be healed 1. YOU must be sensible that you are sick he that doth not feel himself sick will take no care about the means of health it is those that are sensible of sickness that will value the skill of the Physician and send to him and desire his direction Mat. 9.12 But when Jesus heard that he said unto them they that be whole need not the Physician but they that are sick 2. When you are sensible of your soul-sickness you must apply your self to Christ the great Physician of souls It is Christ that cometh to those that feel themselves diseased with healing under his wings Mal. 4.2 It is he that healeth the broken-hearted Luk. 4.18 Christ healeth us by his wounds and cureth us by his stripes Isa 53.5 It is matter of admiration and to many past belief that applying of Medicines to a sword should heal the wound made thereby but this is above all reason and beyond all dispute that the bleeding wounds of Christ will be healing to the bleeding wounds of the sinner Christs Golgotha is our Gilead and that you may be the more encouraged to come to Christ when you feel your self sick consider 1. Christ can heal every disease and cure every wound he hath a salve for every sore There are some Physicians that can cure some diseases but not all but Christ when he was upon earth did heal all manner of diseases Mat. 4.23 whether thy eyes be blinde or thy heart hard or thy minde earthly he can open thy eyes and soften thy heart and make thee spiritual yea though thy sickness hath been Chronical of long duration yet he can heal thee yea though thou art sick of a relapse which is most dangerous yet Christ can cure thee 2. Christ will heal your souls without putting you to any charge though you be poor and mean and have nothing to bring to Christ yet you may come for healing he will give you his advise and counsel freely he will give you your Physick his own blood freely you have nothing and he expecteth nothing The woman that had been diseased twelve years and suffered many things of many Physicians and spent all and grew worse came to Christ and was presently and freely healed Mar. 5.25 3. Christ will proceed in this cure with all compassion and tenderness he will not deal more roughly with you than is needful he exerciseth bowels of compassions while he is dressing his patient or if he give you bitter poâ—ions or sometimes useth corrosives he will be exceeding tender
over you all this while Mat. 14.14 And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and he healed their sick 4. Christ is a Physician that is always present with his Patients to observe what operation his Medicines have upon their hearts if you are ready to faint under the terror of a threatning he is by you presently to administer a cordial from the promise to uphold your swooning souls Other Physicians cannot be always present with all their Patients but Christ is Psal 34.18 He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit If your heart be broken he is nigh to binde it up 5. Christ can heal your soul-diseases throughly and effectually and he onely can do it others will but skin over your wound but Christ will heal to the bottom Jer. 6.14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Thus if you consider what a Physician Christ is you may be encouraged to come to him for healing 3. If you say you are so sick you cannot go to Christ Send for him by fervent prayer and he will come to you Cry to him O thou Physician of souls I am sick so sick that I cannot come unto thee and except thou heal me I am a dead man a damned soul I beseech thee use thy skill for that will save my soul alive put forth thy power for the curing of my diseases Oh stanch this bloody issue else my soul will bleed to death Christ never refused to come to any sick soul that was importunate with him to come with healing under his wings 4. If you would be healed you must come to Christs-Hospital i. e. unto Christs Ordinances and this you may do if you cannot come to Christ yet you may come unto his Ordinances you may come and hear you may attend at the pools side and at length he might come and put you into the healing waters Mat. 21.14 And the blinde and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them Psal 107.20 He sent his word and healed them 5. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must follow the directions and prescriptions of Christ your spiritual Physician If you be sick and the Physician tell you what you must do and prescribe you means and you set them in your window or let them stand upon your table and do not do as he prescribes you may dye of your disease you must observe his advise for the time when and for the quantity how much you must take or else your distemper will abide yea and increase Christ will tell you what you must do and if you follow his directions your soul shall recover and be saved 6. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must not let slip the time of healing There is a time a nick of time for healing if you let that pass you will dye of your disease The Impotent people that lay at the Pool of Bethesda were to observe the season when the Angel moved upon the water and he that stepped in at the very nick of time was healed Joh. 5.4 There is a time to heal Eccles 3.3 I pray God this healing-time might not be past and over to thee that readest these lines Cloze then with the present motions of the spirit if yet thou feel him working upon thy heart 7. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must take heed of those things that will continue your disease If a man will eat those meats that feed his distemper and is contrary to his health he cannot rationally expect a cure You must take heed of those sins that if you do indulge will not onely hinder your recovery but will increase your misery 8. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness do not undertake to be a Physician to your self nor go about to heal your souls with any of your own Medicines you may heal your own body but not your soul we are too apt to be Physicians to our selves and to think to cure our soul-distempers by our duties and by our own performances But this will never be SECT V. V. What must those do whom Christ hath cured of their soul-sickness to improve this cure to the glory of God 1. A Scribe the cure unto Christ and not unto any means or instruments if you are cured of any bodily disease you are not to ascribe it to your Physick nor Physician but to the goodness of your God so if you are cured of your soul-diseases you must not attribute this to praying or to the Preacher but to Jesus Christ Hos 11.3 I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their armes but they knew not that I healed them Thus David blessed the Lord who healed all his diseases Psal 103.2 3. 2. Encrease your love to Christ who hath healed the distempers of your heart will you not love that man that saved your life and will you not love that Lord that saved your souls especially when you consider the manner and means of your cure That he did it freely and that with a Medicine of his own blood other Physicians make you Medicines of other things but Christ of his own heart blood he died that you might live and he was peirced that you may be spared 3. If you are healed take heed of falling into a relapse take heed of wounding your soul after healing if you are healed go away and sin no more least a worse thing come unto you Joh. 8.11 4. If you are healed direct others to the same Physician you do so to your acquaintance that are sick of the same disease that you have been you tell them such a man is able and skilful and he hath cured the same disease in you and counsel and perswade them to go to him do so in this case you have a friend a neighbor a relation in a sinful state Oh speak to them to go to Christ Dost thou hear any soul complaining alas my wound it is incurable and my sorrow it is intollerable my heart is sick my soul is full of running sores and I pray but have no help and I hear but have no cure now direct such a distressed sinner unto Christ and from your own experience encourage him to hasten unto Christ from whom you have found such healing virtue And if God hath healed thy body of the loathsome disease in which thou mightest have said with David Psal 38.2 Thine arrows stick fast in me probable David was sick of the Plague which is called the Arrow of God Psal 91.5 and thy hand presseth me sore 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt 7. My loyns are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh 11. My lovers and my friends stand a
can you not mourn for them upon your knees when you consider they are lost children except mercy find them that they are damned children except free grace save them Can you not mourn abundantly and pray servently for them Can you consider they are by Nature without the Image and Likeness of God and not be grieved at the heart that your child is a little Traitor against the King of Heaven a little Rebel against the glorious God and will you not pray that his heart may be changed Could you weep and grieve if your Child were a Monster if it had a body of one kind and an head of another if it had an Arme too much or a Leg too much or little why its misery is more by Nature then all this and yet can you not mourn in your Prayers for him Fourthly In Choosing for them some lawful Calling and putting them forth unto some Religious familie Choose not a Calling that hath more snares and temptations attending it then usually others have and place them in such families where they may learn the way to Heaven as well as the way to be rich in the World If you put them forth to an ungodly family you may loose all your former labour in Instruction Correction and Prayer for will you give your Childe an Antidote and then care not if he run into a Pest-house among persons that have running Plague Sores or would you not judge it presumption in any so to do without a special call but the former is greater and higher and more dangerous presumption than the latter in as much as the death of the Body of your Child is endangered by the one but the damnation of his Soul is endangered by the other Fifthly In careful disposing of them in Marriage That you Match them to godly Persons and if you can into a godly family or to one that hath Religious Relations Take heed of Marrying them to the children of the Devil though their outward advantage be never so much Thus Abraham took care that his son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites amongst whom he dwelt Gen. 24.3 If you thus take care for your children whom God hath continued to you in this great Mortality you act in this respect in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy SECTION XVII Secondly Children if they would live answerably in their Relation to so great a Mercy as is Gods sparing their Parents and continuing them unto them must be careful of filling up the Duties of their Relation and the Duty of Children is set down in Col. 3.20 Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord In which observe 1. The Charge Obedience 2. The Persons charged Children younger elder poor or rich 3. The Persons to whom this obedience is to be given Parents Father Mother whether Poor or Rich. 4. The extent of this obedience In all things 5. The limitting and enforcing Reason for this is well-pleasing to the Lord therefore the all things are to be limitted to things lawful else it would not please the Lord but they must in those things because it pleaseth God Now if you that are Children would walk worthy of Gods Mercy in sparing your Parents to you in this contagious times you must obey them in these Particulars 1. In receiving Instructions from them in hearkning to their wholsome Counsel and Advice Prov. 3.1 My son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments Prov. 4.1 2 3 4. and 5.1 2 7. and 6.20 c. and 7.1 2 3. 2. In submitting to their Correction without murmuring and repining 3. In being content with your Diet and Apparel that your Parents provide for you 4. In yeilding them sustenance and Maintenance if they come to Poverty if you be able to supply them they gave you maintenance when you could not provide for your selves do you so for them if they need though you work hard to help them 1 Tim. 5.4 But if any Widow have Children or Nephews let them first learn to shew piety at home and to requite their Parents for that is good and acceptable before God Though Children can never fully requite their Parents for they had their being by them and what if they have help by you in outward things you had your being by them and that is more Take heed of being ashamed of your Parents if they be poor and you are raised to an higher degree in the World than ever they were but to disown them would be impious 5. In submitting to their choise of a Calling for you 6. In disposing of you in Marriage Change not your Condition without their Consent as Isaac Gen. 24. and Sampson Judg. 14.1 2. Nay Ishmael obeyed his Mother in his Marriage Gen. 21.21 and will you be worse than Ishmael 7. In all things though they be cross to your humour though it might not please you yet if it please your Parents you must do it But that I may not lay a snare for Childrens Consciences and put a Staff into ungodly Parents hands to drive their Children to Hell you must take this distinction of things viz. Things are either Simply good and necessary and these must be done though your Parents forbid you as Praying Reading Scripture c. Simply evil and unlawful and these must not be done though your Parents command you as to play or work upon the Lords day to lie and defraud in dealing Neither good nor evil in their own nature though every thing is good or evil considered in all circumstances and in all these you must obey your Parents And the reasons of this obedience to your Parents are such as these 1. Gods command Ephes 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord. V. 2. Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise That is the first Command with Promise in the second Table for there is a Promise in the second Command of the First Table of shewing Mercy unto thousands c. 2. This is right or justice Ephes 6.1 Thou hadst thy being and thy education by thy Parents therefore it is justice thou shouldest obey them 3. Christs Example He was obedient to his Parents Luke 2.51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them 4. Gods Judgments upon disobedient Children Absalom Rebelled against his Father and God cut him off in the very act of his Rebellion 5. It is pleasing to God If it were in any thing that would displease God you must not do it for you must please your Heavenly Father rather than your Earthly but if it be pleasing unto God you must not deny it you please God when you please your Parents in things lawful 6. God might punish you with disobedient Children hereafter if you are disobedient to your Parents now Thus Children also will walk so farr answerably to so great a Mercy as
preserved you from secret and invisible danger that you have been in If you would live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy you must have a special care of minding the secret and invisible things in Christianity and abstain from secret and invisible sins DIRECTION VI. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence Then be dead unto the World and to things below Take heed that you do not returne with too great an eagerness after the Affairs of this world as if you had not seen such sights as you have seen of Death and the vanity of the World You are not dead in your Grave let this Mercy move you to be dead to the World and sinful Affections You are living in the World but you must be dead to the World It is to be feared that there are many will be as eagerly bent after the things of this World as they were before notwithstanding the Course that God hath taken by smarting Judgments to weane them from the World That will be like unto a Stream stopped and dammed up when it gets over the Bankes and the obstruction is removed runneth down with greater force God hath put many by their way of Trade for some Moneths Now take heed that through over-much eagerness to regain what loss you have sustained by the forbearance of your Calling you do not let out too much of your heart and affections upon these things nor give them more of your time than you can well allow from the necessary Duties of Gods immediate Worship and the things that do concerne the state of your Soules in the life to come Be dead to the Profits Honours Pleasures Wisdom of this World SECTION I. 1. SHould not you be dead to and take heed of returning in your love back again unto the Riches of the World after such a Judgment as this hath been To prevent an over-eager pursuit of the Riches and Profits of this World when by the removal of this Judgment you have opportunity of returning to your Callings consider 1. The Riches of this world are corruptible riches they are perishing treasures Silver and Gold are things corrupting others and are corruptible in themselves 1 Pet. 1.18 19. But you have an incorruptible Kingdom and Crown before you to strive after reserved in Heaven for believers and for those that are so vehemently set for Heaven that they will take it by force 2. The riches of this world are unprofitable riches therefore be not too eager in your pursuit of unprofitable profits They cannot profit you in timâ— of gâ—eatest need Have not you had the experience of the unprofitableness of riches that they are unprofitable 1. For diverting of Judgments or removing evils that come upon you whether temporal as Sickness Plague Death or spiritual as Hardness of Heart Blindness of Minde Terrors of Conscience none of all these can be removed by worldly riches 2. For the procuring of good whether temporal for the Body as Health in time of Sickness or Ease in time of Pain or spiritual for the Soul either Grace or Comfort or Glory if Conscience be wounded they cannot heale your Consciences nor comfort your Hearts 3. The riches of this world are oftentimes hurtful to the owner and possessor of them Eccles 5.13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Grace and Christ can never hurt you but your riches may by being clogs to your affections in holy duties by being snares and temptations to you in your converse in the world by increasing your account when you have not well improved them 4. The riches of this world are uncertain riches 1 Tim. 6.17 after you have got them you may presently lose them The loss of outward riches may arise 1. By Men by Force and Power by fraud and deceit 2. By Casualty your Houses may be consumed with flames of Fire 3. By Gods secret Curse Hag. 1.6 He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes 5. The riches that Men get in this world are easily valued A Mans Estate is easily computed But there are riches in Christ which are unsearchable seek and search after more of them Ephes 3.8 6. When you have got them they will not satisfie your desires Eccles 5.10 II. Should not you be dead to the honours of this World which will be a bait to many after such a Judgment Should not you who are yet alive to behold the Graves of some Honourable Persons now in the dust call off your heart from seeking after them Have you not seen that Death respects not the Honourable more than the Ignoble the Reverend and Esteemed no more than the Mean and Contemptible Those that have Honourable Names and Titles Honourable Friends and Relations Honourable Callings and Imployments Honourable Preferments and Enjoyments are equalized in the Grave with others And have not you seen some fall and heard of others in this Judgment and yet after all this set your heart upon the Honours of this world III. Should not you be dead to the pleasures of this World which will be snares for others Should you after such a Judgment as this give your self to live a sensual flesh-pleasing life and spend your time in needless delights and recreations when you have heard so many dying Men complain of the loss of time when they were well and the want of time when they came to die Consider what these Pleasures be that you are so much addicted to that such sadning sorrowful sights that you have seen will not weâ—n you from them Nay when Gods smarting Rod upon your own body by the Plague will not imbitteâ— your worldly pleasures and delights but you will go out of such a dreadful Judgment of God to your Gaming 's and Sports to the pleasing of the flesh in satisfying the lusts and desires thereof in acts of uncleanness Consider these 1. are short pleasures they are but for a little while they are passing away while you are at them But these short pleasures may bring you to eternal torments and endless woe Heb. 11.25 Choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season 2. By giving up your selves unto these Pleasures you deprive your selves of the Pleasures of Gods House in his Ordinances which others drink of Psal 36.8 3. You deprive your self of the Pleasures of Gods House above in Heaven of the Rivers of Pleasures which are at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16.11 4. These pleasures are more brutish pleasures and do but delight the more brutish i. e. sensitive part in Man The rational Soul as such is not delighted in the pleasures of the Flesh in eating and drinking a Horse doth find pleasure in this as much as you and some unreasonable Creatures herein do excel you 5. They are
should walk in newness of life Ver. 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin In which Scripture are set down these things viz 1. The parts of Sanctification Mortification Vivification 2. The cause of our Sanctification viz. communion with Christ in his Death Burial and Resurrection 3. The Testimony and Pledge of it our Baptism 4. The growth and progress of Mortification we should aime at the total destruction of the body of sin by the Crucifying Destroying and Burial of sin You have seen the death of thousands and you have seen the Burial of thousands to all these add one more Funeral and that is the Funeral of your sins Do you out-live this Judgment and shall your sins do so too God forbid This would be to live altogether unanswerably to so great a mercy You live but your sins should be dead in you and you unto your sins Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though you live yet must you be buried Now Believers are buried in three respects 1. In respect of their good names as they are reproached by the wicked The throats of the wicked are the Sepulchres or burial places of the good names of Gods people this is part of a Believers sufferings 2. In respect of Self-denial Believers must be no more taken with the things of this World so far as to draw them from God than a person dead and buried and lying in his grave 3. In respect of the Mortification of sin and these two last are our duty and of this last I would speak a little following the Metaphor in which there is some difference and some agreement in the burial of our sin and in common burial The difference in these Respects First We bury our friends weeping for their death desirous of their life wishing oâ— that this my Friend had not died oh that I could have kept him in life But we must bury our sin rejoycing as those that are glad of its death Not weeping because sin is dead but that it once did live Secondly We bury our Friends with hopes that they shall rise again and live again But we must bury our sins with hopes they shall never live more never return to them more The resemblance holds in these particulars 1. The Burial of sin supposeth the death of sin Never any man yet buried his sins alive For while sin doth live it is in the heart as in a Throne and not as in a Grave 2. The Burial of sin supposeth the ceasing of the love of sin that we see not that beauty and comliness in sin as we did when it was alive A man that loves his Relation while he lived put him in his bosome yet will not do so when he is dead a man while he loves his sin will never bury it 3. The Burial of sin includeth the removal of it out of our sight and as much as may be out of our thoughts We love not to look upon dead friends nor many times to think or talk of them who while they lived were pleasing objects to our eyes and the delightful matter of our discourse While Sarah lived she was beautiful in Abrahams eyes but when dead he desired to have her removed out of his sight Gen. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight The presence of sin is a trouble to you when it is dead and you would have it out of your sight and this removal of sin when dead and buried hath these three properties First It is a total removal the whole body of sin and all the members of it are buried Death might arise from the disease of some particular part but burial covers all He that makes a shew of the burial of sin and yet keeps any in his heart as his love and delight hath indeed buried no sin For who doth so bury his friend as to keep any of his members in his house Secondly It is a voluntary removal when one is dead we make it matter of our choice to have him buried Yea we look upon it as a sore evil and great annoyance to have burial denied to our dead friends So it is your choice to bury your sins and the thoughts of not having them buried is a great trouble to you Thirdly It is a perpetual removal we bury our friends so that we would not have them taken up again and brought into our house So you bury sin never to have it brought back to live again in your heart One that hath buried his sin doth earnestly desire it might be removed out of the sight of God by free pardon out of the sight of his own eyes by the evidence of the pardon and out of the sight of others by leading a contrary Conversation 4. The Burial of sin includes the rotting of the old man in its grave the mouldring of it and the daily wasting of it as dead Corps buried in the earth do consume and wast daily Though a body buried doth not presently totally consume Many years after the burial if the grave be opened you may find the bones and the skull the reliques of sin in the heart of a Child of God are but as the bones and the skull but the body of sin is destroyed 5. The Burial of sin includes the loss of the power and authority that sin had in the heart while it was alive Though a man were never so potent while he lived yet when he is dead and buried he hath no more power nor jurisdiction Though thy sin did sit as a Lord and rule in thy soul while it lived yet being dead and buried its dominion ceaseth Now if you are buried with Christ these things will be a comfort to you viz 1. Those that are buried with Christ are most comely in the sight of God A man that is naturally dead and buried is not so with us but he that is spiritually dead to sin is beautiful in the eyes of God 2. Those that are buried with Christ have converse and Communion with God those that are naturally dead have no more converse with us but a man hath no Communion with God till he is buried with Christ 3. Those that are buried with Christ are past the hurt of death As those that are naturally dead have past through all that death can do unto them if you are buried with Christ though you must come under the stroke of death yet the sting of death is taken out 4. Those that are buried with Christ shall be raised at the last day and shall for ever live with God and Christ and with holy Angels and Saints in the Kingdom of God Rom. 6.8 Now if we be dead
been in sickness God hath restored thee and if it be good for thee he will do so again 2. Will not you trust in God that is All sufficient and Allmighty able to deliver you from any evil able to bestow upon you any thing that is good He can remove your feares and he can fill your desires According to your perswasions of a Mans ability to help you caeteris paribus will your trust be in him 2 Cor. 1.9 For we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead That God that can raise the dead may be trusted in any case or condition You have found him able 3. Will not you trust in God that is so willing to do you good you may acknowledge Gods all-sufficiency to be a support for your trusting in him but the doubts that you find in your Soul whether God be willing to do you good is a cause of your too frequent distrust in him You must believe that God is a God of mercy and ready to do for his People whatsoever he seeth conduceth to his glory and their good and you may know his willingness by his promises which are various according to the condition that you are or may be in You have found him willing and yet will you not trust him 4. Will not you trust in a God that is faithfull in all he saith He declares his willingness to do you good to supply your wants to preserve you in dangers by his promise for a Promise of God is a declaration of his will for the bestowing of some good thing upon his People through Christ and his will and purpose he will never change and his Promise he will not suffer to faile Will you trust a Man that is faithful to his word and not God especially after you have found him faithful in performing promise unto you 5. Will not you trust in God that is infinite in Wisdom and knowes how to order all your affaires when your condition is altogether intricate and you know not how to winde your self out of difficulties then your wise God can do it 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation And will you not trust a God that is able and willing and faithful and wise especially after you have experienced all these in God in the late dangers and feares of death that you have been in or shall these qualifications of power willingness faithfulness and wisdom in Men in their measure be a ground of your putting civill trust in them and shall not all these that be in God without measure be a ground of your putting Religious trust in him 6. Will not you put your trust in God since it is his due it belongs to him of right it is a part of your Spiritual Homage which you owe to God Religious trust doth so belong to God that it will be Idolatry to place it in any thing besides Psal 115.7 8 9 10 11. It doth so properly and solely belong to God that it is a Periphrasis of God to be the confidence of all the ends of the earth Psal 65.5 Give to God the things of God and give to the Creatures no more than belongs unto them You have nothing else to trust to you must not place Religious trust in men not in great Men and Nobles Psal 118.8 9. nor in Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 not in Horses and Chariots Psal 207. not in your own Righteousness and Religious duties Ezek. 33.13 7. Will not you trust in God who is so nearly related to you Men are apt to trust too much in thâ—ir eâ—rthly Friends and Relations We put civil trust and confidence in our neer Relations because of the affection that they bear unto us Thus Children trust to their Parents and Wives in their Husbands and one Friend in another God is your Father your Husband and your Friend and yet will you not put your trust in him 8. Will not you put your trust in God for smaller things since you trust him for the greatest you trust in God to deliver you from the torments of Hell and will not you trust him to deliver you from farr lesser evils you trust in him for Pardon and for eternal life and will you not trust in him for smaller matters Will you trust him wiâ—h your Soul and not with your Body for Eternal Life and not for Temporal would you trust a Man for thousands and not for Pence especially when the Providence of God extends to the smallest concernments of his children even to an hair of their heads Mat. 10.30 When must we put our trust in Goâ— In general I answer At all times Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us In Particular trust in God 1. In time of Sickness and Affliction upon your Body Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him 2. In time of outward Wants in the losse of all things 1 Sam. 30.3 to 7. Hag. 3.17 3. In time of Desertion when you have not the smiles of his Face Isa 50.10 4. At the hour of death commit your Soules to him trust him with your Soul Psal 31.5 6. 5. In times of greatest inconstancy Psal 46.1 2 3. 6. In times of Evil Tidings Psal 112.7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. Thus if you trust God more because of the experience you have had in Gods keeping of you you do in this improve this Mercy DIRECTION XIII HAth God spared you in time of so great Mortality Then give thankes to God and the Praises that are due unto him for so great Preservation Every Person should be very thankful unto God that hath kept him alive and every Family should sound forth his Praises You spent time extraordinary in seeking God by Prayer in your Closet in your Family that he would preserve you and hath God done so in answer to your Prayers and will you not spend some time extraordinary in and with your own Family in thankful acknowledgments of Gods love unto you and his care over you Oh set some time apart every Family whom God hath preserved or so many that are left in every Family in solemn praisings of God for his signal preservation vouchsafed unto you In the time of your trouble you called upon God he hath delivered you and now you should glorifie him Psal 50.15 and God is glorified by you when you offer praises to him Ver. 23. In the pressing you to the practice of this Direction I shall do three things 1. How or with what must those that are preserved from death in time of Plague give thanks to God or glorifie God for this mercy 2. With what Arguments should the people of God that are spared press themselves to give praises to God 3. What course must such take