of War Famine and Scarcity The design of all this is to stirr thee up whosoever thou art to consider well the Plague of thy own Heart to understand how destructive it is to thee There will be great hopes of thy wellfare if thou once throughly knowest thy danger Dost thou then desire to be delivered from thy body of sin Is it a body of death unto thee Is it heavy uneasie and burthensome to thee 't is a sign it begins to mortifie Art thou so sensible of thy sin that thou hatest it with a perfect hatred and even loathest thy self for the commission of it Art thou willing to be ruled by the Spirituall Physitians and true Lovers of Souls who advise thee to beware of sin and call upon thee and beseech thee not to drink poyson for it will be thy death In a word Art thou sensible of thy sickness and malady and hast thou attained to this piece of knowledge namely to understand that thâ—u canst not cure thy self Let that of the Prophet or of God rather by his mouth perswade thee of the truth of this Aphorism Oh! Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help This also let me add That delays and demurrs are unspeakably dangerous in this affair Alas poor souls now is the time for you to see your Plague and understand your misery for if you stay till death then indeed will you see it with a witness Oh! then the guilty soul will know what it is to be void of grace and holiness but it will not know how to help and recover it self So it is that one minutes delay may cost thee thy life Look out then for a Physitian presently Naaman when he had the leprosie repaired to the Prophet Some there are that nominate a particular Saint as a proper Physitian for every distinct disease and St Sebastian hath the Plague for his charge belike Sure it is that there are Quacks and Empricks enough in the world who can palliate the disease and skin over the wound but know not how to cure either There are Doctors who prescribe Physick which leavs the Patient as sick as it found him he is sick at Heart still I there indeed lies the distemper at the Heart the cure must be wrought within the applications must be such as are able not onely to stint and silence the pain for a while to mitigate and asswage the grieved part but to remove even the very cause of the distemper Wine and merry company the pleasures and entertains of the world their jollities and catches may sing the mans sorrow asleep and flatter his disease for a time but haeret lateri lethalis arundo the poysoned Arrow sticks fast in him and the disease by such methods as this is not eradicated Thus there are Physitians of no value miserable comforters to the sick sinner who with the Woman in the Gospel may spend all he hath upon them and yet be never the better But there is balm in Gilead there is a Physitian there Whether should we go but unto Christ he hath the words of eternal life But be sure you be not defective in these following things 1. Have a good opinion of Him great hopes may be conceived of thy doing well if thou likest thy Physitian 2. Despise not the meanest advice if it be but wash and be clean hearken unto it The cheapest Medicine may be the best But 3. If it should be chargable and must cost thee pains refuse not the Physick upon that account Or 4. If it seem strong and bitter no ways pleasant and toothsome take it down thankfully as we take common Physick and are content to be sick that we may be well Thou being thus prepared before-hand and answering affirmatively to that question which our Saviour put to the diseased Wil t thou be made whole I commend unto thee these following Preservatives and Antidotes against the Plague of the Heart The first is a holy fear of the Spirituall Plague Be affraid to offend God Ioseph made use of this preservative when he was set upon and assaulted by his lascivious Mistress How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God So true is that of Solomon A wise wan feareth and departeth from evill That we may then avoid the infection of sin let us be working out our salvation with fear and trembling let us sanctifie the Lord of Hosts and let him be our fear and let him be our dread And let Christ his Advice to his Apostles prevail here Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell The second rule for preventing the Spirituall Plague is that we shun all Infected places and persons 1. All places and dwellings where sin takes up it's abode and keeps open house for the entertainment of all comers Such are those Schools of Vice Shops of Sin and Nurseries of Prophaness and Lewdness which generally are erected in every City and great Town We must be carefull that we Walk not in the counsel of the â—â—godly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornfull or in the chair of Pestilences as the Septuagint render it But the places are to be avoided 2. For the persons sake You are therefore to reckon notorious sinners as those that have the Plague-sores upon them by associating with them you partake of their sin your commerce with them draws the infection to your selves This is the reason of St Pauls counsel which he gave his Ephesians Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darkness And of Solomons dehortation Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not into the way of evill men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away And more particularly he guards us against the strange Woman as if she as well as others of her wicked profession were Infected Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house for as he adds Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent The Psalmists practice and resolution should be our pattern I have not sat with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked and it follows I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass â—â—ine Altar O Lord. The Good man washed his hands before he conversed with God but had he come just then out of wicked company he had had much more reason to have done so The Church Story reports that St Iohn and Polycarp his Scholar made all the haste they could out of the Bath when they espyed Câ—rinthus that Arch-hereâ—ick to be there as if they feared infection from the very water that mans limbs were washed in And concerning that Martyr and Disciple of St Iohn even now
strength and by the malice of that evil Spirit it makes fresh assaults upon us and we are brought into it's subjection more then ever Lastly That which brings up the rear in the Body of sin is the decay of strength weakness universall languor and a sudden approach of death For as in the disease now reigning the spirits are seized upon their strength and vigour is exhausted and so consequently the motions and functions of the body are hindered and destroyed nature is debilitated and the strength failes so doth the Infected Sinner grow sicker and weaker fainter and feebler every day disabled to perform any offices of Christianity And the case being thus death is making it 's fatall approaches as we see in Infected Persons when the poyson hath fully seized on the throne of life and it's retinue the vitall spirits nothing but death is exspected the throbbs at the heart and the faint and uneven pulses are but as so many sad tolles of the Passing-Bell so may you even Ring out for the sinner after so many sad Symptoms that I have named it is no wonder that he dyeth and that being dead in sin he also dyeth eternally The disease then being in it self mortall let us learn from the Causes and Symptoms what may be the most effectuall way to prevent it and preserve our selves from it In order then to Prevention and a happy Cure Labour to know the disease 't is true here as in other distempers the perfect knowledge of them is half the cure Do therefore what thou canst to see the odiousness of sin in it self and how loathsome it makes us in the eyes of God who is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity All the laws of old about uncleaness as I have told you before were designed on purpose to express the pollution of sin for there is nothing but this can defile us nothing but this can separate us from the favour of God The Poets indeed present some of their Gods obscene and debauched lustfull and impure but our God as he is purity it self so nothing can make him abhorre a creature but what is contrary to it 'T is sin therefore and that onely which stains and defiles us which slurrs and debases us in the midst of all our riches and honours Again In order to the Cure know that the Spirituall Plague is the worst sort of Plagues all the Plagues inflicted on Pharaoh were nothing in comparison of his hardness of heart all the boyls and blains the froggs and lice and swarms of flies were not half so dangerous and destructive as the Plague of his heart For consider with me that 1. This seizes on the best part the soul of man which was made for God and bears his Superscription 2. This being a Spirituall Plague is therefore Invisible and hard to be discerned this rather then the other may be called the Pestilence that walketh in darkness it destroys silently and this Mâ—rthering-piece as they say of a piece charged with white Powder goeth off without a Report Some sins there are which like Plants and Herbs have no visible motion in their growth they advance by degrees softly and insensibly though it must be confessed there are others which are so plain and palpable written in so large a Character that he that runs may read them Some persons indeed there are that are so fouly Infected that every one may see that their spot is not the spot of Gods Children But there are others that are not so much as suspected and they may pass for Clear-Corps let the spiritual Searchers be never so inquisitive The Prophet Ieremy gives the reason The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it The scene of vice is the Heart which is remote and therefore to be vitious and to be known to be so are two things Thus though in the late Philosophers sense The mind be more knowable then the body yet the diseases of the forner are harder to be discovered then those of the latter 3. As it destroys more silently so more suddenly then and Bodily Plague it hides it's fatall shafts for a while but then it surprises the poor sinner unawares and wounds him without hope of cure 4. It sticks closer and stays longer this is that which doth so easily beset us this is in the Apostles language Sin that dwels in us which is hereditary and inseparable and as I have told you already is like that fretting leprosie which could not be removed without demolishing of the house it self 'T is sad to consider how inveterate this Plague grows by custome and frequent practice Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evill 5. It spreads further it diffuseth it's poyson on all our duties actions and performances the poyson is in the very fountain and so derives it's hurtfull nature to the streams or like polluted vessels we taint all that is poured into us We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness is as filthy raggs Our most solemn attendances on God in his Ordinances our praying hearing reading and conversing as well as all our actions in our particular callings are more or less touched with this Infection Therefore 6. It destroys greater numbers not unfitly is sin compared to leaven a little whereof leavens the whole lump Which I take to be the meaning of those words of the Preacher One sinner destroyeth much good he is able to infect whole Families and Towns if he be not carefully shut up the Bodily Plague may kill it 's thousands but this it 's ten thousands You have a Bill brought in every fortnight to tell you how many dye of the former but alas how many souls every week perish by the latter If you had the totall of those who are infected and dye of the Plague of sin not one Parish would be found clear no not one house which had not cause to put up a more pathetick Prayer then Lord have mercy on us More souls perish then bodies The Bill of Mortality runs high Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat That was a great Increase in the days of Noah When all flesh had corrupted it's way upon earth 7. This is the cause oâ— all other Plagues the forbidden fruit as if it had been strangely impoysoned shattered the goodly frame of our first Parents bodies and their posterity in all succeeding ages have fared abundantly the worse for that sinfull surfeit But besides this they are indamaged on another account their own actuall sins and the enormities of their lives have some of them in their own nature bred distempers in their bodies and all of them have moved God to punish them with severall sorts of diseases with the dreadfull Pestilence in a more signall manner and with the direfull Plagues
the Plague of Sin Afflictions are designed by God for our amendment Let that designe take effect upon us let those terrible Thunder-claps clear and purifie the air As Naturalists observe that one poison is an Antidote against another So let this grievous Pâ—stilence which is now upon the Land and upon this Town drive out the Plague of the Heart Ringing of Bells they say is some ways serviceable to remove the Infection Oh! let every sad toll for our deceased Brethren put us in minde of our Mortality and promote the death of sin in us Lastly Keep a diet in order to the preserving of thy self from the Souls Plague Too high and plentifull a feeding increaseth any disease in us see that thou be moderate in the use of the creatures Take heed to thy self least at any time thy heart bâ— overcharged with surfetting and drunkeness and cares of this life Indulge not an intemperate course of living for death is in the pot which is set on by luxury and wantoness If thou callest thy self a Christian be content to be diâ—ted kept in and confined by the stricter rules of the Gospel And now what ever effect those usuall Medicines and Receipts may have for the curing of the Bodily Plague I am sure these that I have named are approved by Christ and his Apostles that great Colledge of Physitians you may take them safely and with confidence of success and I pray God give a blessing unto them And thus having insisted on the Metaphor in the Text I shall now treat more at large and descend to some plain Dirâ—ctions for our better behaviour in these sad times both in reference to the present visitation of the Plague and the sad concomitants of it poverty and necessity And the first Direction is this Be sensible of Gods Judgments now upon you and tremble at them Know therefore and see that it is an evill thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God This was the use which that Holy man made of Gods dismall providences My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am affraid of thy judgments And again Thou even thou art to be feared Who knows but that these present calamities are prologues and presages of far worser Certain it is that this is the duty incumbent on us at present to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear seeing our God is a consuming fire Here then you are to be called upon to acknowledge that it is Gods Hand that is now heavy upon you Shâ—ll there be any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it No surely there is no evill in the great City of this Nation no evill or Plague in the Countrey but God must be acknowledged the author and disposer of it This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divine superintendency in all our calamities which Hippocrates speaks of and frankly acknowledgeth in all diseases And Christians should much more allow of it looking beyond second causes to the first and chief of all Say not then that the influence of the starrs and heavenly bodies or the late glaring Comets which appeared were the causes of the burning feavers and malignant distempers and even of this fatall Pestilence which sweeps so many into their graves blame not this or that Indeed as Philosophers and Naturalists you are permitted to search into the secondary and physicall causes of this dreadfull distemper but as Christians and those that live by higher principles you are first to look up unto God and then down into your selves and there behold the Hand of the Lord stretched out against you God is the great Soveraign of the world the wise disposer of the Universe who doth what seemeth good unto him both in heaven and in earth If he shall please to correct and chastise us all naturall causes shall give way to his providence which can find us out though we labour to run never so far from it The Plague can climbe over walls never so high and strongly built it can come in at the windows though they are made never so fast it can make it's passage through the doors of the house though they are never so closely lockt and bolted Labour then to be convinced of this that there is a God that judgeth in the earth that you are in his hands and that whatever you suffer is by his disposall I even I am he and there is no God besides I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up And it is clear from Davids Choice that the Pestilence is more remarkably the Hand of God Let me fall now into the Hand of the Lord saith he and by Davids Seer it is stiled the sword of the Lord. The present Arrows of the Almighty are not like that with which Ahab was wounded which the Story tells us one shot at a venture No chance and fortune have nothing to do here Apollo was fitly feigned by the Poet to have sent the Pestilence into the Graecian Army no less then a God in their Divinity could do it But I pass to The second Direction Be more sensible of your sins then of the punishments that are upon you be more fearfull of the Plague of the Heart then of the present contagion that raigns in your streets be much more troubled in your souls to have committed a sin against God then to have it punished by him and for the future choose rather to undergo any suffering from men then to dishonour God Avoid that which grieves the Holy Spirit rather then what troubles and afflicts thy outward man How timorous are we and dejected at the thoughts of the Plagues approaching near us We have much more reason to be fearfull of sin which is the sting of all judgments We are apt to sit down and bemoan our selves after this manner Alas our condition is very sad the place we live in is Infected we see whole Families drop away here Parents are bereaved of their Children there the Children survive their Parents but alas are left shiftless to the wide world Many houses are shut up and onely sickness and death are Tenants there Neighbours are affraid of one another and it is not Trading but poverty and want which bring them to the sight of one another How many are buried as it were while they live and when they are dead they can hardly finde any one to befriend â—â—em with a Grave What cryings and complainings are there in our streets and if Gods Hand should continue on us longer it will be hard to tell whether scarcity or the Sickness be the worst Plagues After this sort do we bemoan our selves under Gods judgments but where is the man among us that cryes out of his sins his sins Where is the spiritual mourner that lays
for the worst thou needest not fear any thing Walk in Gods ways and they will be thy guard and security God will protect thee in doing his work Trust in the Lord and do good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land He shall give his Angâ—ls charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways But then thy ways must be Gods ways or else that promise of being in the custody of Angels doth not concern thee Be about thy Masters business and he will look to thy maintenance And beside our general Calling as we are Christians there are particular Callings and Places in which we are set and must serve our Master in Lâ—t every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called This was an Apostolical rule and command and it holds row as well as in St Pauls time for we serve God by being diligent in our secular affairs by faithfulness in our several vocations and profâ—ssions The Magistrate is to keep his station and act in that higher sphear in which God hath set him this will yield him comfort when God shall please to call for him hence that he is found doing his Lords work The Minister hath his place and peculiar calling and it will be well for him to be found in the faithfull discharge of it as that good Bishop made answer when he was desired once to return home as he was going to Preach It best becomes a Bishop to dye Preaching And it was the like pious wish of St Augustine that when Christ should come he might be found either Praying or Preaching The Tradesman too and every one whom God hath set in any lawful employment for the use of men must be diligent in it and as it is a known Maxime amongst them Keep your shops and your shops will keep you so it is true in a higher sense if they be careful in their callings that carefulness will prove their guard and protection In a word every one in his own Orb wherein Divine Providence hath placed him must move shine and act with all his might This is Christianity and this will convey a blessing unto thee Moses put his hand into his bosom and when he took it out it was leprous as snow Let me apply it thus the sloathful man that as Solomon sets him forth hideth his hand in his bosom may justly fear that some contagious disease some Plague may light upon him This life is a warfare we are like to meet with many hardships and dangers many a brush and skirmish but as we are spiritual souldiers we must not dare to leave our station or quit the ground our great General hath set us in No no if we are shot in Gods service we can not suffer if we are taken off by the Arrows of the Almighty our end will be unspeakably comfortable if we are snatched away with the common calamity even then we are safe and secure The righteous pâ—risheth â—aith the Prophet he may seem in the eye of man to fare very ill but he adds The righteous is taken away from the evil to come he shall enter into peace Come my people â—nter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be over-past The deluge is approaching and so the righteous are taken into the Ark they are locked up safe there and the floud shall not come nigh them The storm is coming and so the Bees hasten to their hive God plucks his out of the fire and it is no wonder if in that plucking they have a little wrâ—nch and pain such pain is the greatest courtesie for they are snatched from future dangers and secured from national calamities No evill shall befall them no Plague shall come nigh their dwelling no Plague that hath evil with it they shall be freed from whatsoever there is of judgment in the stroke There was a great deal of difference between the death of Sampson and the Philistinâ—s though they perished with the fall of the same house Gods children may dye of the Plague but that Plague is not sent as a curse but a blâ—ssing for it improves their graces prepares them for heaven and inhanses their reward it carrys them from an evil and unkind world to the company of Saints and Angels from a Prison to a Palace from a wilderness to a Paradise from a valley of tears to a mount of joy Thus it shall go well with thee oh Christian whatsoever sort of death thou meetest with the Bell that tolls for thee is but to call thee to the Church triumphant thy friends that weep if they consider aright what they do grieve and lament that they cannot go along with thee and thou mayst be comforted by that revenge which is done upon death Oh death I will be thy Plagues oh grave I will be thy destruction But then remember on the other side how sad and miserable it is to dye in the commission of sin and are there not many persons that instead of being employed in Gods work are wholly taken up with the Devils and go out of the world in that employment Have you not heard of some that have swom out of the world in excessive drink they being in the worst sense of all dead drunk Was not Senacherib slain when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god Have not some wretches been seized on and apprehended by death in the very acts of uncleanness and loose de bauchery How sad must their condition be which thus leave this world and appear in another How scared and affrighted are their souls in their entrance into that other state This should make all persons especially now at this season to be careful over their ways that Gods judgments may not arrest them in the commission of sin and so their case be unspeakably forlorn this should make us all faithful in our general and particular callings that our Lord when he comes may find us doing his will and then in what maner soever he comes we shall be safe More particularly to reach thy case whosoever thou art that hast or shalt have the hand of God upon thy body and so art shut up and hindred from commerce with the world my Direction to thee is that thou converse more immediatly with God when thou art kept from the society of men Thou art Gods prisoner He hath shut thee up and though thou art never so closely confined he can let in his Holy Spirit to thee and let out thy â—ervâ—nt prayers to Him Christ Iesus will come and visit thee when thou art alone when lovers and friends sâ—and aloof off and thy nearest relations hide themselves This is an unspeakable happiness that thou hast a God to go to who is a rock and place of