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B08159 An answer to that question, Hovv farre it is lavvfvll to flee in the time of the plagve extracted out of a sermon preached in Alderman-bury, / by Thomas Taylor.. Taylor, Thomas, 1576-1632. 1636 (1636) STC 23819.5; ESTC S123735 4,985 2

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the Angell will shun it Ob. 2 But none can resist the providence of God Hee hath numbred whom he will smite with the plague and who shall not be touched and none of them whom he hath appointed to fall shall escape Answ 1. The providence of God being the first cause takes not away the second causes but stablisheth them because he stablisheth and executeth his decrees by means and second causes and it were a tempting of God to refuse the lawfull and allowed meanes of preserving life by which God ordinarily saveth whom he will save 2. God indeed knows how many shall be smitten and if we knew the secret will of God concerning our selves then were our wils to be surrendred to Gods will and an heart affected with Gods glory will be readier for death than life if God reveale to it that to die is better than to live But not knowing this we are not loosed from the use of lawfull means for the preservation of our lives till we see our houre to be come 3. God knows and hath decreed how many shall fall by the sword in war and yet who will say it is unlawfull to use weapons to defend our selves and fight for our lives So God knows how many shall fall by famine in time of dearth and scarcity but is it therefore unlawfull to buy food to preserve our lives Did not he command Iacob to goe and buy food in Egypt whom he could have preserved without meanes but would not because meanes were then though far off Ob. 3 But the plague is good to the good so not to be avoided Answ It is not simply good neither It is not good in it selfe nor as a cause but as an occasion of humilitie repentance feare of God neither is it so but by the work of the Spirit But it will not follow that it is not to be avoided For our sins are occasionally good to humble us and work in us feare of God and yet are to be avoided So all miseries are turned to good to the good but yet wee may lawfully avoid them Ob. 4 But we have callings in which we must abide and we have promise of protection while we are in our way and therefore must not avoid them Answ We must abide in our callings unlesse we be necessarily thrust out but this is no willing desertion but a suspending of the exercise of it for a greater and higher reason For if for some occasions a man may leave his calling many moneths as for health profit pleasure much more to save his life 2. We have promises to be kept in our way but promises make not men slothfull nor foolishly rash and temerarious to thrust themselves into probable and certain danger for that is not our way Ob. 5 But charity seeks not her own but Gods the Churches and our neighbors and by our flight or feare our brother may not perish for whom Christ dyed Answ 1. Charity seeks not it selfe wholly or onely but yet destroyes not it selfe Ordinarie charity in saving himselfe seeketh Gods glorie and the Churches good and not himselfe onely 2. Charity so respecteth the sick as the sound be not neglected to comfort one we may not hazard many nor so look forth as forgetting our own home 3. Charity seeks the good of severall persons but so as it prefers the safetie of the Vniversall That is inordinate charity when other good means may be used for the comfort of the afflicted a man casts himself into manifest danger and with himselfe his family if he be private and the Church and Common-wealth if he be publick This question was excellently beaten out between Zanchius and a godly pastor named Curiensis This pastor held it unlawfull to separate from the Infected or to leave the places infected and commended M. Bullinger who being sent for by a woman infected went to her and brought home the infection into his family and presently lost his wife and two daughters Now M. Zanchie commended the charitie of M. Bullinger but did not altogether approove his fact because the woman might have been otherwise comforted than by his going to her bed side and setteth downe some directions after long debating That good pastor being too ventrous was taken with the plague and when he was neare death cried out O utinam Zanchij consilium secutus essem Would to God I had followed M. Zanchius his counsell Quest But is every prudent man hid from the evill as this Text seemeth to say Come not all things alike to all men Doth not judgement begin sometimes at the house of God and are not the godly wrapped sometimes in the common danger of sword fire plague and who more afflicted than they Answ Godly men suffer evill with wicked men for Abraham and Iacob are in the famine with the Canaanites The good Israelites as well as the bad are under the oppressions of the Egyptians Caleb and Ioshua bare the sinne of Israel fortie yeares with the murmurers Elias was afflicted in the hard times procured by Ahab and Ieazhel but are ever hid For 1. Distinguish of punishments Some are revenges some remedies exercises of grace vertues keepers as Aquinas calleth them The prudent are ever hid from the former but it were not good to be free from the latter 2. Distinguish of persons punished Some are vessels of wrath to whom even benefits are plagues some are vessels of mercy to whom all evils work to good These are ever so far hid as that the Lord never hides his face from them but for a moment but that to imbrace them with everlasting cōpassion 3. Distinguish the manner of hiding The prudent cannot so hide himselfe as to be free from feeling of trouble but he is freed so as that he shall not fall in them or if he fall God puts under his hand for a seasonable deliverance But how are they that are slain with the sword or dy of the plague delivered Many are the troubles of the godly and great but the Lord delivers them out of all But deliverance is threefold 1. Some are delivered temporally that others may see and praise GODS goodnes as Daniel from the den the three children from fire Ezechiah from the plague that fathers might tell their children c. 2. Some proportionally not by pulling them out of danger but by pulling out the sting and whatsoever is hurtfull and arming them with strength patience and sufficient grace that in darknesse they see light 3. Some he delivereth eternally from danger by suffering them to be overcome and taken away by sword plague c. and dealeth with his vessels of honour as we with ours which when we would scoure the brightest we oyle and soile and foule them as if they would never be cleane again And as with his naturall Son he will not remove the cup till he have drunke the last drop Yet he leaves them not comfortlesse but gives them by death freedome and victory over death and deadly things that when they are slam they are not overcome but more than Conquerors And one of these wayes the Lord ever hides his Children LONDON printed by T. P. for Iohn Bartlet
AN ANSWER TO THAT QVESTION HOVV FARRE IT IS LAVV FVLL TO FLEE IN THE TIME OF THE PLAGVE Extracted out of a Sermon preached in Alderman-bury by THOMAS TAYLOR PROVERBS XXII III. And hides himselfe Quest MAy a man to hide himselfe from the Plague for sake his place his calling and remove himselfe and his Answ M. Calvin answereth this question in one of his Epistles thus A question riseth from the stupiditie of men without sense of humanitie Whether wee may not avoyd the Plague They would have no man change aire nor avoid contagious and poysoned places nor delight in any pleasing prospect c. Facessant paradoxa hujusmodi querum usus est nos exuere omni sensu But this answer being too short for such as desire to walke by rule wee must consider first the persons secondly the reasons thirdly the cautions fourthly the objections First publick persons whom by vertue of their speciall calling the Church or Common-wealth or the Familie cannot want may not flee unlesse they by others may competently supply their owne absence But private persons whose Calling the Publick may for a time want may avoid the danger for Reason 1 First all manifest perils ought to be avoided if without impietie wee can shun them Psal 91. It is lawfull to avoid an arrow cōming upon us and not to avoid it if we can makes us accessary to our owne death But this is an arrow comming on us and by good meanes to be avoided it cannot be lesse lawfull than to avoid fire or sword or poyson Reason 2 Secondly God hath given us special cōmandement for the care preservation of our own lives to use al good means of preservation hath sanctified preservatives physick to this purpose He that hath charged us with the care of our brethrens lives much more hath charged us without owne Reason 3 Thirdly David used many caves and hiding places in a short time he fled from Saul into twelve severall hiding places To King Achis to the King of Moab and to the King of the Philistims into the cave of Adullam the Grove of Hareth the Desert of Ziph of Maon of Engedi of Paran c. Yea Christ and his Disciples fled oftentimes from danger and why not we till our houre also be come that in the meane time we may be the more serviceable to God and his Church Nay God himselfe bids Elias goe flee and hide himselfe from persecution by the Brook Cherith He could haue kept him safe from Ahab and Iezabel without his fleeing in the midst of them but he teacheth us what godly men may doe in the like cases Ob. But this is to avoid the sword of man but speaketh not of the Plague the hand and sword of God Answ What wee may pray the removall of we may lawfully avoid but David prayed the removall of the plague 2 Sam. 24.1 Kings 8. If thou send a Plague and pestilence and thy people pray in this house then heare out of heaven c. Num. 16.48 So Aaron prayed and stood between the living and dead and the plague ceased Reason 4 The fruit of faith is the use of such meanes as which God hath appointed for the effecting of his own decrees the more faith the more use of means whereof this is one Acts 27.31 Not to converse with the infected and to depart from the infected place so far as salva conscientia charitate wee may Paul beleeved none should perish in the ship according to the word of God yet must they not be saved unlesse they abide in the ship for there must be shipmen to guide and governe the ship to land as it came to passe Thirdly the cautions or conditions in fleeing the Plague Caution 1 First see no prophanenesse be in the flight or impietie as if we would or could avoid the hand of God we must not intend to flee from God for whither shall we flee from his presence but first flee unto God For as we must not neglect the means of our safetie so we must not trust in them but in Gods blessing who must watch and hide or else all comes to nought Caution 2 Before thou avoid the effect of Gods anger see thou avoid the cause of it and that is thine own sin else can no dens castles or caves hide thee Iohn Baptist wisheth men by fleeing the cause to flee wrath to come 2 King 14.19 otherwise Amaziah flees to Lachish but death flees after him and overtakes him because he fled not from sin the cause of his misery For it is not change of place but of minde not of bodies but vices which is the true refuge and sanctuary In returning consider that faith and repentance must be your rest No say they we will flee upon horses Esa 30.15 Yea but your enemies horses shall be swifter than yours no flight swift enough to save him that will carry his sinnes with him The first step in fleeing must be to flee thy selfe Caution 3 In fleeing from infection be sure thou beest as beneficiall absent as present in things spirituall temporall 1. Faile not by sound humilitie and godly sorrow to bewaile thy sins which have provoked the wrath of God and aswell absent as present seek to appease God and avert his stroke from thy selfe and others Even absent thou must put thy selfe into their misery as one that hath provoked that displeasure 2. Omit no dutie of charitie and beneficence if thy person be removed leave thy purse behinde thee thy best help as one that knowest thou art not loosed from the common law of neighbourhood but art charged still to see no needfull thing wanting to the poore and needy whether sick or sound Caution 4 In fleeing looke to thine affections that no excessive feare of death moove thee for thou must still keep a desire to be dissolved and stand as Sarah in the doore of the Tent to entertain that messenger and be ready for death whensoever the houre is come nor yet incredulitie or weaknesse of faith force thee But let faith lead thee forth and let it be no loser Noah by faith went into the Ark and staid yea till God led him out Ob. 1 The plague is not contagious nor comes from man but an immediate hand of God and so is not to be avoyded Answ 1. It follows not because it is the hand of God that it is not contagious Was not the leprosie a rod scourge of God and yet was it not infectious 2. It follows not because it is the hand of God wee must not use lawfull meanes to avoid it for so is famine sword fire warre the hand of God and yet who can deny we may use lawfull means to avoid them all Beside it was the law of God most carefully to avoid the Leprosie and not to come neere persons infected and why not the plague or other contagious diseases Balaam's Asse seeing the drawne sword of