and least thought of death euen then this infectious arrow pierced to the heart The summe of all is When God sends the Pestilence or any other iudgement in some haste to a land or priuate place it cometh as an arrow out of a bow Where we learne that Gods messengers and seruants sent in Doct. 1 this deadly sicknesse or any other visitation for sinne are swift and vnresistable For the Pestilence our selues do know how soone it is taken how small a matter brings it with how little a winde it comes and how suddenly it passeth to the head and pierceth to the heart Seuentie thousand in lesse then three dayes and in a land not very large died of it 2. Sam. 24.15 So Exod. 12.29 when God would shew his power by death vpon the great armie of the King of Ashur he smote by an Angell in one night an hundred fourescore and fiue thousand Esay 37.36 At another time he slue three and twenty thousand in one day 1. Cor. 10.8 And because Herod would not giue glory to God he was presently smitten by an Angell in all his glorie Acts 12.23 The reasons He that so quickly made man of the dust Genes 2.7 can as Reason 1 quickly turne man vnto dust and for the Pestilence or any other destruction if he speake but the word and how soone is a word spoken it presently comes He is the Centurion of this great hoast of all the creatures If he say to one go he goeth and to another come he cometh Math. 8.9 Psal 105.16.31.34 Secondly he can send by his Angels that swiftly execute his Reason 2 commandements and as it were flie about them Psal 103.20 or he can command the diuels who in an instant commanded by him can as well corrupt the aire with Pestilence as the riuers with bloud Psal 78.44.49.50 Thirdly God hath power and may command and commanding Reason 3 lackes not authoritie and will be heard An admonition speedily to turne to God who is able so speedily Vse 1 to turne vs to destruction Ioel 2.12 For should we not meete him with an armie of prayers who can come against vs so quickly and so strong with armies of death in the Pestilence and other innumerable diseases Luke 14.32 He can send to vs by flying messengers and shall we not seeke him by speedie repentance Amos 5.6 It is not long since his arrowes flew among vs and he yet hath his quiuer full of them to trouble our aires againe and with a fresh charge to shoote at vs by the contagious Pestilence in Towne and Countrie should we not therefore dread to make God our aduersarie or being made our aduersarie by sinne should we not agree with him quickly Mat. 5.25 who can so quickly destroy vs if we stand out proudly against him If he finde disorder and impenitencie in our houses or selues he can visit for it with flying arrowes and punish it when he is disposed with present death and should not this constraine vs to expell sinne and iniquity euery priuate person out of himselfe and euery faithfull publick person out of his familie and gouernment should it not moue the Christian housholder christianly to order both himself and others vnder him whether children or seruants by the word bringing them to Sermons more carefully and more orderly to prayers at home for how soone God can take vs away wee haue heard how quickly he will we know not also should it not perswade the publick Magistrates with the sword of his office not lightly to pare away but vtterly to cut off all proud and rotten sinnes that abound yea soundly to correct to a reformation all publick and grosse both enormities and offendors as swearers drunkards fornicators prophaners of the Sabbath disobedient to Parents and authority with such like seeing he beareth not the sword in vaine Rom. 13.4 Vse 2 A terrour to those who haue no hope but in long life for death may come they know not how soon and it commeth suddenly to many and when it is come it will not be answered with an I pray thee haue mee excused Luke 14.18 If we be not ready it will take vs as we be and when it knocketh if we will not open it will cast vs open The godly preuent this hardning by liuing so that is so repentantly and holily during their short time here that when the flying arrow of death sent from the hand of their supreame Lord shall make toward them they are euer in fit state to meete their Sauiour To such present death is prepared death as it was to Simeon and Anna who waited for Christ in the Temple Luke 1 25.36.3â— and they cannot dye suddenly that dye so Contrarily the carelesse and they that put off death by turning these flying into creeping arrowes can haue no such hope in their death which commeth as a theefe to their house Matth. 24.43 and not as a Messenger to bid them to the Supper of the great King Luke 14.17 They will not vnclaspe with the comforts of their deare life for the toilesome life of mortification and precisenesse in Gods seruice for they are lustie and strong Therefore their death cannot be good nor comfortable but irkesome and violent of which they are ouercome not yeelding to it as the Saints but mastered by it as they who say with Iulian Galilean thou hast preuailed so hee spake of Christ and so speake they of God when they find he is stronger then they A reproofe of those who when God shoots the infectious Vse 3 arrow of Pestilence at a Towne or City promise to themselues safetie because they dwell farre off because that part in which they inhabit is free or because they dwell in the Countrie and not in the Towne For cannot God reach them wheresoeuer they dwell in the East or West Is his arme shortened Doth any arrow misse that he shoots and he that went progresse from Dan to Bersheba in a running plague and in lesse time then three dayes can hee not in few houres goe a little way and visite further from a Towne then fiue sixe or seuen miles where is their safetie then in such a case but in turning to him that threatneth them And how can they auoide this arrow but by watching still the fall of it in their penitent liues Neither is this only true in the arrow of the Pestilence but in euery arrow of his quiuer if he shoot at vs by enemies by mortalitie of men by murraine of cattell or by cleannesse of teeth and leannesse in all our quarters what can ward any of these arrowes but repentance and our turning to God He that will auoide an arrow must turne the face and not the backe vnto it and hee must looke toward God and not from him by impenitencie that will reconcile him A further description of the Pestilence followeth Verse 6. Nor for the Pestilence that walketh in the darknes VVEe haue in this Verse two effects more whereby this
by regeneration Vse 2 But is all honour from God then they that receiue their honour otherwise that is by practising for it or by rising to it but not vpon the ladder of the meanes by which men may clime warrantably to preferment cannot be said to be honoured by God but to haue honoured themselues Such are theeues of Gods honour and great by vsurpation holding their honour in a wrong Tenor and not as the Lords pawne for their honour to come He that offered to Christ the honours of the world hath giuen them to these Mat. 4.8.9 and they haue bowed to him in all diuelish practises for a few vaine titles and a little vaine-glorie which shall not credit them but one day turne to their greater shame before God and his mighty Angels The like may bee said of all great Persons that honour not God in his word and righteous Commandements their honour is not sealed in heauen hauing not learned of Christ to receiue and giue honour Iohn 8.49.54 they haue stained their promotion to the pit of hell and they shall receiue the meete recompence of their errour that is for their short glorie shame endlesse Againe is all honour and degrees of place from God then Vse 3 they sinne against God who any way violate these in Noble Persons and Princes which both confuteth all Anabaptisticall confusion and teacheth how iniurious Papists are to those whom the Lord will honour for they make it an Article of their Faith to submit to Kings no longer then it shall please the Pope to let them haue their honour or to take it from them by dethronization But what hath that Antichrist to do with the honour which hee neuer gaue and with the authority which is by the Lords grant onely for all authority and consequently honour is of God Rom. 13.1 chiefly that which is kingly as all waters come from the sea specially the great riuers Dauid trembled to violate the skirt of Sauls garment 1 Sam 24.6 these prophane the blood of Kings and touch them as farre as their liues by their cruell Ministers as in the two French Henries and our English King Iohn and thinke they may lawfully and meritoriously so doe And therefore the late d In his answer to certaine scandalous Papers Earle of Saluburie said well speaking of Rome that she would play so long with the temporall Soueraignety of Kings that it would bee the glorious worke of Kings to breake downe her walles and strongest defence and let me adde to burne the Whore with fire The fourth promise followeth VERSE 16. With long life will I satisfie him c. A Fourth promise made to the righteous is that when it shall be good for him he shall be filled with dayes and liue to old age As Gedeon was buried in a good age Iudg. 8.32 and Dauid dyed full of dayes 1. Chro. 29.28 and Iob very old after he had seene his sonnes and his sonnes sonnes for foure generations Iob 42.16.17 It is like the Lord made this promise to the Faithfull at what time the Angel cut downe so many in Israel with the sword of Pestilence for the godly might then feare themselues very much that they also should returne to their dust in so great a mortalitie but the Lord healeth that feare with his promise of a long life to those that feare him and with faith call vpon him as if he had said ye shall not onely liue at this timer but when old age shall be a blessing to you liue long and goe to your graues in a ripe and good age your head being deckt with gray haires and your heart filled with righteousnesse This is spoken of the godly such as excell in goodnesse And therefore the doctrine is Doct. long life is a great blessing where it is garnished with grace not made vile by sinfulnesse So olde age was promised to Abraham for a blessing Thou shalt goe to thy fathers in peace and be burted in a good age Gen. 15.15 That is thou shalt be satisfied with the multitude of many and good dayes and liue long and comfortably here When Salomon exhorteth Wisedomes scholler to heare and receiue his words that is to heare them with fruit and diligence he perswadeth it with no other promise then of a long life and comfortable estate in the yeeres of age and peace Prou. 3.1 2. and 4.10 And the Apostle by the promise of the life present 1. Tim. 4.8 must needes meane the promise of long life as the best being as is intended set in the best and most excellent way Obiect Obiect You will say then and why doe good men so commonly liue in trouble and die in youth as they doe Answ The obedience of the best is but in part Answ and what maruaile then if in part onely they be made partakers of outward things as of a long and confortable life and such other promises here Besides such promises are not absolutly but conditionally made to the righteous as if God see it fit and if it be good for them and necessary for the Church that God prolong their dayes otherwise what is wanting in length of dayes is made vp with the immortalitie of ioyfull dayes in heauen And though they liue but a short time yet haue they length of dayes in a sort euery day being a whole Summers day vnto them by the Sunne of Gods fauour that shineth vpon their soules more and more without any going downe Thus it is prooued that long life not abused is a blessing of God and may further appeare The Reasons Reason 1 Old Christians are old Seruitors in Gods family and a good old seruant is preferred before a new by a good master also such hauing liued righteously long must needes be stored with great knowledge and experience which will make them to bring forth more fruit in their age And is not olde age then which is a meanes of this a blessing Secondly length of dayes or long life considered in it selfe Reason 2 is a blessing Prou. 3.16 how much greater where age and goodnesse meet the worme would not die and they gladly would liue longer that liue miserably Yea the godly who of all others haue the greatest preferment by death are loth to lay downe this tabernacle And wherefore all this surely because life is sweet and to flie from death is naturall to man and beast Now if life be so sweet thus fraught with troubles how good and sweet is long life filled with the ioy of the righteous and flowing with riuers of peace Thirdly who weareth a more honourable ornament then he Reason 3 that hath a a Phile. 9. gray head crowned with vertue Christian graces and who is more richly clad then he that is clad in siluer haires of age with robes of innocencie and righteousnesse Esa 3.5 If the one be a blessing that is to weare a crowne and gorgeous cloathing the other is a double blessing that is to be apparrelled
Pestilence is here called a Snare or Net as giuing no warning more then the net doth when it is suddenly cast ouer the birds which it taketh The Doctrine that ariseth from hence is this as Christians ought in all their life to prepare for death so specially then when God sendeth so short warning to prepare for it in his Snare of Pestilence or some other peremptory visitation Hezekiah was at all times to expect death in a well ordered soule but then specially he was to put and keepe good order in it when he was sicke vnto death or so as he must die and not liue Esay 38.1 And if we must remember our Creator before the euill day come Eccles 12.1 much more must we so doe when it is come this euill day is the vncomfortable day and houre of some deadly sicknesse that we must in our good consciences bee readie for before it threaten vs how much more when it worketh and hath entred vpon vs In the booke of Prouerbs this is made the sure note of a Prudent man that he seeth the Plague that is seeth it by the eye of prouidence in a watchfull and well reformed life and hideth himselfe from it vnder the wings of the Almighty by a liuely faith And that which our Sauiour exhorteth vnto speaking of the last day shall be well thought of in our sicknesse and before our last houre that that day come not on vs vnawares or suddenly as the snare vpon the bird Luke 21.34 35. The reasons then as you would say the graue is readie for vs Reason 1 and the shroud wherein we are to be wound presented to vs and if it be intolerable that a childe should be wanton at any time it is vnseemely that he should be so vnder the rod or if wee should at all times watch the theefe should we be carelesse when he is broken in Mat. 24.43 we are sure of our life at no time for the Master will come in a day that we thinke not Mat. 24.50 and is there any certainty of it when death is in the pot 2 King 440. and the holds of life are shaken Secondly if we be not armed with repentance when God sendeth Reason 2 the Pestilence or other visitation we frustrate Gods ends of sending them and may well be called a naked people Exod. 32.25 for his purpose in sending these is by them to c 1 Cor. 11 32. cloth vs with repentance that sinne be not our destruction and that the forgetfulnesse of death may not bring eternall death But he peremptorily citeth vs when he sendeth the Pestilence so immediately and presently before him and shall we in such a case and at such a time tarrie till a contempt come and be serued vpon vs despising that terrible processe the quickest and smartest that his court sendeth or can send forth against our naturall life or life here if we will not come to the supper with the last Messenger when will we come Luke 14.17 if we will being in the middest of the sea sleepe in the top of the Mast Prou. 23.34 that is if we be careles when our danger is so neere and so great when will we be carefull and if wee sleep then when will we watch Vse 1 And now come wee to an issue should wee be prepared for death at all times and then specially when it worketh fearefully before vs in some generall Plague and mortallity of men it first conuinceth the carelesse in life and carnall in profession who at such a time vse to say let vs eate and drinke when considering the season they should rather say let vs fast and pray and repent for to morrow wee shall die 1 Cor. 15.32 So of Ierusalem horribly plagued it is said shee remembred not her last end that is neuer thought what might come and therfore she came down wōderfully Lam. 1.9 her glorious heauen of all pleasant things was turned into the darkest skie or night of bitter affliction that euer was heard of which is therefore put in a book of Lamentations And what did we but pamper flesh who should haue sacrificed flesh when God set our last end before vs in those desolate funeralls that the deuouring Pestilence had caused made so many and so grieuous in Townes and Cities some few yeeres since What did wee I say but minde our pleasures when wee should haue minded our end and turne after vanity when we should haue turned to God So did the Iewes not long before they were to bee carried out of their owne Land in the chaine of the King of Babel Esay 22.12 13. but this was in the eares of the Lord of Hoasts and the iniquitie could not be purged from them but by death verse 14. I pray God we haue not left as much also vpon the score by our impenitencie since the last great mortality wherein God spared not our soules from death and gaue our life to the Pestilence Psal 78. 50. Since that time we haue made some recknings with the Lord by sundry strange and deare yeeres but Lord deliuer not thy power into captiuitie nor thy beauty into the enemies hand verse 61. Giue vs repentance for our senslesnesse then and security now that thy people be not giuen to the sword and thou be angry and wroth with thine inheritance verse 62. Then secondly let vs here learne a good and readie way to Vse 2 free vs from the snares of death and to preuent all those compassings with which it deceiueth where it is not looked for before it come To hide our heads in our owne shifts and carnall fetches is as we haue heard a vaine labour and rather to runne vpon the snare then to auoide it To prepare for it by the change of our liues from euill to good and from sinne to righteousnesse is to breake the snares of it by faith and thus to be readie for it is to get the better of it and to make it faiths captiue that otherwise is the worlds conqueror for then either it shall not come to vs in the fierie Pestilence or it shall not come to hurt vs and where others flee for feare wee shall not neede to flee or feare then it hath neither sting to wound vs nor poison to infect vs nor power to condemne vs and then preuenting it not preuented by it it shall but send vs thither whither but by it we cannot come Also where the wicked say to death as the Diuels to Christ art thou come to torment vs Matth. 8.29 wee shall say to death wounded to death by the power of the death of Christ ô death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15.55 Let the wicked feare death that cannot leaue sinne let vs cease to sinand we shall not feare the second death Let them say with Ichoram is it peace 2 King 9.22 not knowing if it be we knowing that it is and that the welcome day of death in our godly death prophecieth not euill but good to
our deepe destruction Psal 81.12 The deliuerer here is the Lord for it is said He that is the Lord will deliuer thee c. and the deliuerance is from a most grieuous stripe of Gods hand in a Pestilence of griefes The Doctrine is The Lords deliuerance is onely or chiefly to bee trusted vnto in most grieuous afflictions This was spoken of in the first verse the words shall abide vnder the shadow c. the first Doctrine there He is for a shadow against the burning heate and his Name a couert for the storme for the raine Isa 4.6 that is in all weathers hote or cold he will be our defence and hiding place For this cause Dauid giueth him the speciall name of a deliuerer Psal 18.48 and 144.2 and godly Iehosaphat made him and the tower of his name his and his peoples onely Shield and Sanctuarie against the vnited strength of Moah and Ammon with other their partakers 2. Chron. 20.4 5 6. c. He that keepeth all our bones is a good keeper not one of them is broken Psal 24 20 and who will not there put his treasure where it is sure to be kept and trust him with all whose administration saueth all Satan and his ministers like Hunters and Fowlers lay their snares and nets to entrap vs but God breaketh the snares of the vngodly and heweth all their cords asunder that seeke our hurt deliuering vs or vnder the lap of his prouidence in his secret place hiding vs Psal 32.7 The Reasons That God onely or chiefly is to be trusted vnto in most grieuous Reason 1 afflictions may further appeare First because all other refuges are vaine Psal 60.11 Nay vanitie 62.9 or as the house of a Spider Iob 8.4 Now what is lighter then vanitie and sooner gone then the Spiders house Such is all repose in Man when we go from God to him and from his word to mans helpe Hope is said to be the anchor of the soule Heb. 6.18.19 Cast wee this anchor on man and no sooner shall a storme rise but it falleth away Cast we it on any creature and it can be no surer then the creature it selfe Cast we it any where vnder the clouds and it will proue vncertaine as all things vnder the Sunne but cast we it on God and let it enter within the vaile And it standeth as mount Zion that cannot be remoued When therefore we go not directly and first to God nor to the key of the meanes by him taking all at his hands all helps of men are vaine and couers of men but Spiders houses And secondly it is no better then witchcraft to seeke the preuention Reason 2 or helpe of any sicknesse be it the most grieuous Pestilence or other disease from any person or meanes before or out of God who hath promised to turne vp our couch at all such times If we rest on his blessing 2. Chron. 16.12 2. King 1.2 3. For if we seeke to meanes and not to God or to God in meanes without repentance we put trust in them and not in God which is a kind of witchcraft and so shall be sure not to be deliuered hauing him and his hoste of the meanes against vs. Also where God is not reconciled and where meanes be vsed not to serue his prouidence but to crosse his power both God and meanes will worke to our destruction And so if our faith cannot teach vs the incounuenience of trusting to any for our deliuerance in dangers but to God onely or chiefly may and should Reason 3 Thirdly that onely or chiefly is to be trusted vnto in afflictions that God hath commanded to be rested on that is his deliuerance and him the deliuerer Psal 50.15 Vse 1 A reproofe of those who in affliction by sicknesse or otherwise make God their last refuge who should be first sought and who when they should come directly to him are taken by the way in the snares of worldly feares shifts and confidence as hath bene shewed alreadie Vse 2 A comfort to the righteous that put trust in God For when mans helpe faileth and meanes are wanting they haue a Deliuerer If God send the vncomfortable Pestilence and they be as men forsaken and helpelesse if the Physitian will not come neare them and their acquaintance may not yet in all this solitarinesse of visitors and sicknesse they neither want companie nor lacke comfort hauing God for their Physitian and Gods Angels for their visitors Where for a supply of worldly comforts they haue store of heauenly the promises of the old and new Testament are in bed with them and they haue in their keeping restauratiues of the holy Ghosts owne compounding the Lord draweth neare to their tabernacle and his word is neare in their hearts Also hee sendeth his Spirit and healeth them or he cheareth them with such a draught of his grace and so comforteth and is with them by spirituall supplies in corporall straites that they want nothing their faith is strong and their patience vntouched and in those comforts which they then and there receiue they walke with Elijah till they come to the Horeb of Gods presence by death passing thither with a ioyfull heart and head lift vp aboue all surges and waters 1. King 19.8 Whatsoeuer our afflictions are if we make God our refuge in them they are but exercises that keepe away sicknesse and bring health euen that which maketh vs strong in God and we may say of them as Iosuah Caleb of the Anakims They are bread for vs Num. 14.9 that is they spiritually strengthen vs as bread doth the heart of man Psal 104.15 Hence it is that the godly lie downe in so great securitie when their enemies being men of great authoritie and meanes are in feare hauing their foure-hundred men with Esau to guard them Genes 33.1 Yea a poore seelie creature that hath no abettor nor deliuerer among the sonnes of men and is like a low hedge that euerie man goes ouer hauing this confidence which is to trust in God though he kill him is not dismaid with any thing and hath permanent and substantiall comforts when the Giants of the earth like that Giant of Gath. 1. Sam. 17.4 5 6 c. notwithstanding all the confidence which they haue in their worldly munition and other meanes of safetie haue not an houre of true comfort in all that thicke clay Habac. 2.6 more then Golijah whose Sunne went downe at noone vnto him after the Lord had stricken him in the forehead with a simple stone 1. Sam. 17.49 So much for the great affliction out of which God will deliuer his children The meanes by which he will do it follow VER 4. He will couer thee vnder his wings c. NOW the meanes by which God will deliuer his people in their affliction are the wing of his fauour and truth of his promise his fauour is here spoken of in a metaphore taken from the Hen which gathereth her yong ones vnder
good as it When the world was buried in a graue of waters Noah and his houshold went safely into the Arke Genes 7.1 and God set not Sodome on fire till hee had deliuered iust Lot Genes 19.16.22 2. Pet. 2.7 when the Lord terribly plagued the Aegyptians his enemies he mercifully spared Goshen where his people were Exodus 8.21.22 and 9.6.26 and 10.23 and 11.5.6.7 and when Ierusalem was taken Exod. 12.23 Ieremie was prouided for Iere. 39.11.12.18 So God dealt very mercifully with Daniel and his fellowes in the captiuitie Dan. 1.19 And when the Lord sent fiue men that is Angels in the shape of men to destroy the carelesse Citie He sent a sixt with a writers ink-borne by his side to set a marke of passeouer or speciall deliuerance vpon all those who mourned for the abomination Ezech. 9.4.6 And what hath he done lesse for his godly seruants in any age The reasons Reason 1 The righteous haue a speciall priuiledge or commoditie that common persons haue not and he that is the generall God of the world is the sauing God of his people Luke 1.68 He shewed his word to Iacob But did hee deale so with euery nation Psal 147.19.20 Reason 2 Secondly it is the glorie of the Lord to deliuer the righteous as it is the maisters credit to do for those that faithfully serue him Or if he should not honour those with deliuerances who honour him with affections the heathen or those without might say where is now their God Psal 115.2 Thirdly He numbreth their haires Math. 10.30 and will hee Reason 3 not regard their bloud Or if he will haue them will he not deliuer them Obiect But many godly haue bene taken away in the common destruction Obiect Answ Indeed Answ for these outward euils that come none can chalenge such a freedome from them as that they shall not enter into them at all and it is not denied but that the best hauing sin in them are in subiection to them and greatly deserue them Yet either they shall not come or they shall not come to hurt them as they do the wicked or they fall not so ordinarily to the share of the godly as they crush the vnrighteous and besides they feare not in them as do sinners that haue no hope For they haue faith in God from whose loue nothing can seuer them Rom. 8.39 and are not as the wicked who put all their faith in changeable things with the losse of which they loose God and all A comfort to the godly in the mortalitie of thousands seeing Vse 1 they know in whom they beleeue and for what for they shall not perish though neuer so many perish that haue faith in other things And this doctrine is now necessarie euen in our dayes of health for these good dayes may weare away the Pestilence may raigne as it did and another triall may come and then will it bee needfull to be well seene in these and such like mercifull promises that our faith may not faile vs nor our hearts faint within vâ— when the euill day cometh Neither would this be remembred onely in the case and dayes of Plague then to be armed with that faith and true boldnesse that putteth feare out of doores but it would bee remembred further in all other changes and troubles of our mortall life that God onely may be our feare and we may put all to him with full assurance in the wauerings of many As in the dayes of famine if there should come such a want of bread that thousands must pine to death yet that must not so discomfort any child of God as to make him to doubt how it can be true that in the day of famine he shall he fed Psal 37.19 For though God do not make windowes in the heauen 2. King 7.2 he can feede him When our handfull of meale is gone his truth remaineth who can feede without bread or with it miraculously 1. Kings 19.8.17.12.14 Ioh. 6.7.13 The like may be said of the miseries of warre and of all miseries and Plagues earthly For whatsoeuer temptations there are betweene heauen and earth from the flesh world or diuell as diseases of bodie rebellion of children losse of goods and of good name crosses in husbands wiues seruants with all other vexations and crosses of mind or bodie from the least to the greatest from the paine of the little finger to the pangs of death in all these though the vngodly know not what to do the godly haue hope and though the wicked fall by thousands the righteous are not shaken Is there not comfort to the righteous in all this And do they serue God for nought to whom the Lord maketh such precious promises Vse 2 An instruction therefore so to serue God in all our life with faith and repentance that when thousands fall we may stand fast For this light is sowne for the righteous Psal 97.11 But the light of the wicked shall be put out Prou. 13.9 that is this safetie is proper and belonging onely to godly and religious persons whose priuiledge it is when thousands fall not to stagger where the wicked contrarily because they will bee the children of darknesse by sinne shall be sure with the putting out of their candle to inherite the blacknesse of darknesse with sinners That it is the peculiar lot of those that loue God and follow his truth thus to be established Salomon is witnesse who speaking of a sinner that doth euill an hundred times that is doth sinne much and long saith that though God prolong his dayes or deferre his punishment yet he shall be as a shadow and what is more vncertaine then a shadow because he feareth not before God where it shall be well with them that feare the Lord that is where they that haue bene religious in their life shall be happie in their end and neuer be remoued Eccles 8.12.13 God maketh his Sunne to shine vpon the inst and vniust yet the shine of his fauour is vpon those that do reuerence before him and where the outward excellencie of the vngodly hath a speedie end as a light quickly blowne out the light of the righteous reioyceth Prou. 13.9 to wit as the Sunne to runne his course Psal 19.5 or is stedfast with increase as the light of the same Sunne That shineth more and more vnto the perfect day Prou. 4.18 A reproose of those who in a time of mortalitie feare vnseasonably Vse 3 when two or three die How would they haue feared if they had bene dwellers at London in the last great mortalitie when three thousand and a halfe died of the Plague in one weeke Anno 1603 and 1604. and for some weekes together not many fewer There is a profitable and sober feare in Gods children which is the feare of sinne and of these dayes of sinne but this carnall feare of worldlings who haue drawne little or no power from religion is rather the feare of death then of sinne
repentance to flee vnto when a floud is sent the wicked hauing no such consideration stand naked by sinne in the face of euery storme that is sent and perish in it The summe of all is this they that be Christians indeed must and will take a true inuentorie of Gods fauours and iudgements and set downe in their minds by deepe obseruation as with a pen of iron what he hath strangely done where Christians in face onely haue no such notes about them of his strange acts and forget all his workes as if they had neuer bene Let vs therefore not forget Gods acts his strange acts neither Gods workes his fearefull workes worthy to be had in remembrance And put it in your bookes what he did so lately one yeare in a spring of no raine and the next yeare in a sommer of so much raine take your bill or booke of tables and write what God did scarefully in that great Plague Luke 16.6.7 and strangely in remouing it Also what desolations he made by the sea in those West-country flouds or if we haue forgotten let vs remember how God set his heauen as brasse against our faces of brasse and made it to weepe day and night in raine of long continuance because wee would shed no teares for our sinnes Let vs not forget the signes which he sent among vs and which haue not bene few nor his tokens on earth nor his wonders in the sea nor what strange lights he hath set with his owne hand in the firmament nor what a graue was made for vs by Spaniards once and once by men of our owne nation and how we were at both times deliuered and they throwne in as our ransome nor how often the sword hath bene set to our very heart in practises against our mother in Israel and our father now Gods end in causing the righteous to see the Plagues of sinners is to assure them the more in their weake faith and patience that he will ratifie what he hath spoken and here we learne That the Lord knowing whereof we are made Psal 103.14 doth dispense with his owne right to beare with our infirmities So he did not onely burie the Aegyptians in the sea but did it his people looking on Exod. 14.30.31 who saw them to go downe quicke to those graues and Dauid saith When the wicked shall perish thou shalt see Psal 37.34 His meaning is that the wicked shall die strangely and that the godly shall see their strange death they shall perish as God hath said and the other see it that they may not doubt or they shall perish that God may magnifie his truth vpon his enemies and his people see it that he may be magnified in his children The smoke of Sodome mounted vp as the smoke of a fornace and Abraham must see it Genes 19.28 Sedome was wicked and destroyed and Abraham the friend of God beheld her destruction Likewise the fiue Kings of the Amorites appointed to the sword could not be hid but were found and brought out to be executed before all Israel that same day Ios 10.24.26 it must be done and Israel must see it done For the man of power shall be destroyed and the man of wisedome the righteous man shall see it Psal 52.5.6 The reasons Our graces of faith patience perseuerance spirituall fortitude Reason 1 and the like are very weake many times without the vphold of the outward senses and therefore hee that for our weakenesse hath added Sacraments as seales to his word to beare it vp is content to vphold his promise in other things with these sensible helps And now as there is no sense more helpefull and certaine then this of seeing none that imprinteth deeper affections in the passiue part of the soule then it So the Lord chuseth in such cases to confirme and settle vs rather by seeing then by heare-say He that is able to say that he is an eye-witnesse to a thing may better resolue himselfe and perswade another in that thing then he that can onely say he heard it Secondly if God did not thus to beare with his children by Reason 2 dispensation giuing them for the helpe of their weake faith in him proppes of sense to hold by they would quickly not stagger onely but fall downe in a despaire of his promises but God will not see the fall of his people and his people shall see the saluation of their God Reason 3 Thirdly beholding in others with our eyes the recompence of sinne it will make vs if we belong to God in a fright to forsake that way that casteth such troubles vpon those that trauell in it Now the Lord knowing that such frights are sometimes necessarie for his children to the helpe of their conuersion to him doth set the wicked before them in the recompence of their errour by some notable destruction that they may take heede in time Vse 1 This dispensation of Gods mercy to his children in a time Pestilence or other publick visitation bearing with them and not suffering them to come vpon the scaffold where others are cut off by death should teach them from such matter of his patience toward them and seuerity to others to gather benefit to their amendment and not boldnesse thereby to doe euill Rom. 2.4 If God be terrible in his works that is if he visit with a wonderfull Plague with strange sicknesses and yeares with disorderly springs and summers with dearths and death it is that the world the godly at least should worship him and sing vnto his Name Psal 66.3 4. or that they should turne to him and not turne wantons For they are not spared by chance or because they are worthy nor doe they ouerliue the calamities of those who in times of mortalitie come sooner to deaths house then they that they should flatter themselues in an euill custome because God hath beene more fauourable to them then to these but they see the destruction of others in their owne safetie that by such a sight they may be made more fearefull to offend and more carefull to please God in his commandements now then before And this good vse must all Gods children make of his sparing hand to them or theirs not carrying the grace of it into wantonnesse for God doth it in loue to their benefit and they must apply it in wisdome to the cure of their vnbeliefe and purging of their wickednesse Some as if the Lord did punish at aduenture in such cases and not directly for sinne hold on their prouocations neither changing their skinne nor altering their spots Ier. 13.23 And these are more sensles then the sensles beast for the Beast feareth exceedingly when hee seeth one of his fellowes knockt downe before his face and pitifully roareth out when he senteth his fellowes blood but these are sensles of Gods strokes lift vp vpon men like themselues and are not moued where the beast is so greatly moued neither pitie Christian blood It is said of
enemie turne backe or giue ouer for a little A Christian must striue by the Scriptures against all carnall feares and distrusts and not giue way to them by cowardly yeeldings But some know nothing in the Word Such must endeuour to learne or looke to be confounded in the cuill day and some if they cannot presently see the drift of their affliction in a trifle take on as if a Lion were without Prou. 22.13 and they should dye no other death But must we walke vpon a Lyon and may we feare our destruction by a Mouse Must we trample vpon a Dragon and shall we feare a simple flie That which is full of poison shall not hurt and can that hurt that hath none Must we keepe the field against Diuels and shall we loose it against men or haue Christians entred into maine battaile with Satan in most grieuous temptations and shall we proue such weake Christians as not to endure a light skirmish with him in a few short encounters This concerneth not those pitifull soules which being greatly cast downe in griefe of spirit and hauing many breakings vpon them doe sometimes go aside and sometimes become fretting and tumultuous within for the very anguish and paine that so greatly presseth them For such impatience was in Dauid the man of God and such diuersitie of affections hath been found in the best during the present great affliction At one time they haue thought themselues verie strong in God and at another so weake and so cast downe that they could not possibly rise but in all this they had a smacke of Man in them and their flesh was weake yet their spirit was ready and waited on God not making haste but possessing their soules till hee deliuered them It is not so with these vnsetled Dastards and run-awayes who are ready to cast off all if Satan nibble but a little at their heele Gen. 3.15 If the Gospel of the Crosse begin to lay some restraint vpon them they will be zealous no longer and when a great man looks strangely or awry vpon them for their good wayes it is as if a Lyon met them therefore they presently turne out of those wayes to walke in a way that shall lesse offend These are the fearfull and vnbeleeuers that this Scripture censures who for euery little wrinch or foile goe lame of all courage in good things where the godly resist vnto blood neuer forsaking their weapons till death driue them out of the field imperious death that cannot be resisted Vse 3 A comfort to the faithfull for all things are conquered before them that would doe them any hurt Though the Pestilence when God sendeth it prey vpon one and other without respect like a roaring Lion and bring the strongest as soone as the weakest to the earth like a mighty Lyon though it bite like an Aspe making no great wound but procuring strange effects and though also as a fierce Dragon it crush shiuer in pieces the flesh and very bones of men of strongest constitution yet the crueltie of it is conquered to the godly by their prayer of faith which quencheth the violence of it in towne and Countrey If enemies threaten our coast by it they may stand in the hole and gappe where Gods hand hath made the breach and doe as much as all the Charets and Horsemen in a Kingdome Psal 106.23 If Satan himselfe rage and be vnquiet in neuer so many terrible and threatning obiections to the soule and conscience of a deiected sinner yet is Satan but as a Drone-Bee to him humming-without a sting that is without power to doe hurt in all his malice and deadly euill will Obiect Obiect But you will say Satan is still a Lyon of great force in his walkes among men of all conditions An. To which I answer that for the Godly it seemeth so Answ and for the wicked it is so for he liueth seemingly in the Godly and liuely in reprobats He hath but a kind of vanquished life in Gods children in whom as in his prison hee is kept in chaines not able to execute any thing and tormented that he cannot In the wicked hee liueth as at home or as in hell his owne place And so all life is not gone out of him which is to teach the Righteous to prouide against him and not to be carelesse neither wilfully ignorant of his enterprises for he shall still bruise their heele not only by mouing them to commit sinne but by casting out of his mouth waters of trouble like a flood after them when they begin to follow Christ Apoc. 12.15 And here let no child of God looke for any long quietnesse for if hee seeke Gods face in righteousnesse Satans malice to God and enuy to the saluation of man will keepe him doing Besides there is a perpetuall lawe of hatred betweene the hell of Satan and the heauen of Gods Saints betweene the seed of the woman and the diuels seede and progenie and who hauing a Serpents head vnder his feet can hope to be quiet and without trouble For will he not though his head be fast fling about with his tayle So what peace so long and while we haue vnder our feet in Christ that compassing and winding Serpent the Diuell Will he not be still nibling at our heele and twyning about vs in one temptation or another Yet all this is but to exercise the Righteous not to hurt them which he cannot doe And therefore let no godly man for this be discouraged to proceed in the way and course of sanctified life for the Lord will either command the earth to drinke vp his afflictions Apoc. 12 16. or healing his plague cause his face to shine and glory to appeare in the darkest shadow of aduersitie So much for the first speaker the Prophet the second and next speaker followeth which is God who by immediate voice confirmeth the former proposition of his fauour to the faithfull VERSE 14. Because he hath set his loue vpon me c. THe Prophet hauing assured the faithfull of Gods fauour which extendeth to all those who make him by faith in him their confidence God himselfe now vouchsafeth to be speaker in the end of the Psalme and to loyne with his Prophet by way of Post script in the same for further confirmation Because or seeing he hath loued me saith the Lord c. that is as my Prophet hath said so I say they who desire in sincerity and with good affections to serue me shall haue good assurance from me that I will be their deliuerer in troubles by the Angels at my right hand and by all the creatures at my left I will remoue their feares heare their prayers bring their persons to honour and their soules to heauen where at last they shall bee glorified in soule and bodie This is the substance of that wherewith the Lord concludeth the Psalme in words spoken from heauen to faithfull men And they containe duties and promises made to
will deliuer vs Dan. 3.17 but the God whom wee neuer serued and therefore cannot in iustice deliuer vs but suffer vs rather to perish in that flame that burneth vp the vngodly as drosse And since a confession that there is a God standeth not without a prayer of confession due vnto him they denying the one how can they but be deniers of the other And denying God how can they with comfort looke for the saluation of God Let them consider this who neither at home nor in the assembly once a weeke call vpon God or if their lips goe their heart is not in the businesse of prayer Some cannot pray but in the Church and some will not pray when they are at Church what difference betweene such and deniers of God One sort salutes him not at all and the other with lippes without a heart Further if God should againe send some contagious death and mortalitie among vs what good could these vnprofitable limbes in the Church doe for the remoouing of it what is the King and his throne better I am sure much worse for them for though they cannot not care not to establish it by their prayers they can weaken it by their finnes and send againe for the Pestilence though when it is come they can neither helpe to cure it while it rageth nor the skarre of misery and desolations that it leaueth behind it in particular places and in the common state when it is gone And now that the bloodie Esau of Rome prepare with such crueltie and numbers to deuoure poore Iacob what can these doe but strengthen them weaken the righteous as they do by horrible Atheisme They cannot deliuer themselues and which is worse they cannot but draw the Gospel with vs further into bondage Let God threaten our haruest and corne fields with ill weather and forcible tempests what good doe these wanting the key wherewith Elijah shut the heauen and opening it wider and further by their blasphemies And as they doe no good so as doers of great harme by prouoking the Lord with their monstrous villanies they increase the wrath vpon England Nehem. 13.18 But further the Lord speaking of the righteous saith Hee shall call vpon me that is hee shall goe to no other for helpe in trouble Which was the practise of the Fathers in the old Testament Doct. 2 and teacheth that God onely is to be prayed vnto For God so commanded Psal 50.15 and the godly yea euery Reason 1 one that is godly must so doe Psal 32.6 So Psal 34.6 The poore man cryed and the Lord that is he to whom hee cryed heard him and saued him out of his troubles Thus did good Iehosaphat and the chiefe of Iudah with him for his eyes and theirs were to God onely not to Abraham or any Saint departed 2. Chron. 20.12 And in the New Testament Christ directs vs by forme Math. 6.9 and charges vs by precept Mat. 11.28 to come to no other then to God not to him otherwise then as God The reasons For our approach to any other then to him that is God there is not either in the old or new Testament any commandement or practice and the prayer taught by Christ the most perfect and best that euer was taught doth proue as much Secondly the obiect of our faith must bee the subiect of our Reason 2 prayers Rom. 10.14 That is to him onely we must pray in whom onely we beleeue But this is no other then God Thirdly none can helpe as God can and none can where hee Reason 3 will not And therefore he onely and none but he that is none but he that is God is to be prayed vnto Or from God alone come all the meanes of our deliuerance the wise vsing of them the successe and blessing vpon them therefore to him onely must we go for them by prayer Fourthly Christ hath put the matter out of question who saith Reason 4 in one of his answers to the Tempter Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Math. 4.10 Out of which answer I reason thus Prayer is a seruice and worthy of God but we must worship and serue God onely and therefore pray to him onely It taxeth Popish Liturgies Vse and formes of Prayer to Saints departed Exceptio 1. But they say that so call vpon the Saints that they pray not to them to helpe them but to speake for them not to be Sauiours but Mediators Repl. But the Apostle tels vs that there is one Mediatour hee speaketh of no mo and therefore but one onely betweene God and Man 1. Tim. 2.5 giuing instance in Christ both God and Man His meaning is that God the Father hath made to Christ the Sonne a Deed of gift of being that one Mediatour betweene him and vs and that euery gift and grant that is made passeth in his name and whatsoeuer is recouered to vs pertaining to redemption is entred in the title and right of him and giuen to vs because we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5.30 This being the Apostles meaning touching that one Mediator who is Christ to entitle other Mediators to his office is a point of forgery and point that argueth all Papists of a great offence against the chiefe roialties of that only sufficient most mild Mediator between God vs the God man Christ Iesus Besides he that will take vpon him to be Mediator that is in this manner to be Spokesman betweene God and vs must be perfectly able to saue all them that come to God by him Heb. 7.25 but what creature bee it the mother of Christ though otherwise a most blessed woman be it I say againe the Mother of Christ or any other that haue died in Christ or for him is able to saue a soule and if not able to saue a soule then not allowed to be Mediatour for it Exceptio 2. But they further say Saints are Mediatours of intercession and Christ and he only the Mediatour of redemption Repl. But this answer is no other then that which was confuted before and it is a distinction without a difference like to that answer of the Physitians wife and it was a wise one pepper is hot in operation Bishop Iâ—-will against Har-ding and cold in working as if operation and working were two things So here mediation and intercession but one thing two names are made diuers that differ not for what difference betweene a Mediatour and Intercessour Is not a Mediator one that laboureth betweene partie and partie and is not an Intercessor the same Exceptio 3. But who that hath offended the Prince commeth directly into his sight and not by some way made for him by his Nobles or some in fauour about him Repl. Be it so and be it granted also that wee dare not come to God offended without a Mediator haue we not a Mediator who as hath beene said is able to saue
gorgeously with the new man in newnesse of life All old age then cannot be called happie nor all happie that Vse 1 come to gray haires in the life of old men and women for some by their sinnes of youth and age turne the blessing of olde age into a troublesome curse of many griefes aches and other paines in their bones and some haue nothing to commend them but that their yeares haue beene many and that all of their time are gone but the white haires of such are as so many shames of their age for what credit is it to be able to say I haue liued thus long for my selfe and thus little for God or I am old in time and an infant in knowledge b Esa 65.20 full of dayes and emptie of grace knowing many in my time and neuer knowing God or my selfe to this day Is not the blessing here turned into a curse and haue such attained to that age which Salomon calleth the crowne of glory being found in the way of righteousnesse Prou. 16.31 A terrour to vicious old men that haue nothing but the haires Vse 2 of age wanting the vertue that maketh it honorable For such if they loose their reuerence loose but that which they are not worthy of Hauing the signe without the thing signified Also they shall answer to God for a long time where the wicked that dye yong haue lesse to answer for And they crosse the commandement that saith Rise vp before the hoare head Leuit. 19.32 For they discharge the reuerence of yong men toward them by growing in yeares of sinne Or would they haue yong men to honour gray haires wherein is nothing but contumely and dishonour So where God hath annexed honour they vntie it where he hath bound they vndoe Which is not spoken to animate yong men to contemne gray haires in any though neuer so vicious For age deserues honour by Gods ordinance in the worst not that they are worthy but because it deserueth regard as doth the calling in a bad-liu'd Minister Honour therefore they must haue though not the double honour due to those who are old and godly and who haue liued long and long good The last promise followeth And shew him my * Or make him see it saluation TO see Gods Saluation in the Prophets phrase is to know by experience how great it is in our owne Saluation and therefore some reade I will offer him my saluation giuing the meaning rather then the words Here we see it darkely as in a glasse 1. Cor. 13.12 Hereafter we shall see it as it is Here wee see it by faith and Christ with it by the b Gospel also by feeling when we perceiue the power of Christ Ioh. 8.31 32 and spirit which Christ sendeth to worke mortification in vs and true holinesse Ephes 3. Phil. 3.10 And these two sights of saluation are offered to the inward spirituall eye here hereafter we shall see more further God calleth this saluation His because he is author of it and giueth it Or because it is from Him and by his gift only But first this shew of saluation in the eyes of our minde shining brightly to vs through the darke cloud of troubles doth in this life much cheare vs vp in afflictions and this meditation of the life to come is as Sugar in our cup to sweeten them with The Doctrine is that the consideration of eternall life which by hope we waite for Doctr. and by faith are possessed of here is a present remedie in afflictions or like the tree which God shewed Moses where with he sweetned the waters of Marah that is the waters which for their bitternesse were called so Exod. 15.23.25 for the tree of life cast into these bitter crosses of our troublesome times here doth very much alter these waters of Marah and make them pleasant that is sweete to our minde and spirituall â—aste with this confidence Dauid layd vp his flesh in hope Psal 16.9 that is thinking to dye was comforted much in death and had great security in his flesh knowing that it should stand before God and that the same Lord that watched ouer him for the present would guide him to immortalitie This taste of the promises was in his minde and would not goe out of his hope and therefore doubted not the saluation that God had shewed him with the like resolution Moses spiced the rebukes of Christ to the taste of his soule and endured the crosse patiently because he knew by faith that better riches were prepared for him then the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.24 25 26 27. The text sayth Hee sawe him that was inuisible or God had shewed him his saluation This was it that staied all quiuerings of flesh in those notable worthies spoken of in the eleuenth to the Hebrews they knew that they so rested in the hands of God that no death could pull them from him and they had an eye to the recompence of reward thus they comfortably digested their crosses by feelin the life of saluation The reasons They knew that God did call them by such troubles as by the Reason 1 common way of Christians Act. 14.22 to his rest and that for short afflictions they should haue long life in his presence 2 Cor. 4.17 or they considered that all troubles temporall were to them in mercie but as worme-wood or some bitter thing to waine them from the brest of the world that they should not minde earthly things too much which rightly considered could not but carie their loue to better things prepared for them in another world and louing their other life what would they not endure to come vnto it Secondly the best were most miserable if they had hope onely Reason 2 in this life 1 Cor. 15.19 but because their hope is led forward by better promises in matters which they see with spirituall eyes therefore they faint not in afflictions 2 Cor. 4.16 Thirdly the prise incourageth those that runne so to runne Reason 3 that they may obtaine and yet this is but of a corruptible crowne we runne in afflictions and not vncertainely nor for a corruptible crowne but for an vncorruptible of glorie and shall not a better prise or the wager of better things to come swallow all paines that we can take in comming to Christ it is the Apostles owne comparison 1 Cor. 9.24 Vse 1 An instruction to be well acquainted with this blessed sight of Gods saluation in our daies of peace and before troubles come so shall we better and with more joy and patience endure them when they come when God brings vnto vs the cup of affliction if we haue this sugar of the meditation of heauenly life to sweeten it with what can offend vs If Pestilence be sent if sharpe sicknesses for our triall if death threaten vs we haue a remedie set by vs that will cure all these and that is the saluation that wee waite for for by it we know that
the worst that these or any other troubles like these can doe is to preferre vs to our inheritance and liberty where here wee serue but a ward-ship and are incumbred daily These make our way for vs to saluation and when we duly consider this how can we be moued Vse 2 A confutation of that enuious Doctrine in Poperie which because it would haue the common people in the point of saluation to rest in an infolded faith beleeuing as the Church beleeueth that is contingently but not with knowledge nor certainty must needs breed dangerous offences in temptation for if wee shall stand suspitious of that which must bee our greatest comfort in troubles and which we haue vnder the seale of Gods promise what shall stay vs in the afflictions and crosses of our mortall life when the remedie is denied what shall cure vs and when wee see death and no saluation that is no assurance of it after death what comfort can wee haue to suffer here and hereafter for cuer Vse 3 A terrour to worldly minded men whose portion is in this life They neuer thinke of nor care for heauen but haue their hearts buried in the graue of worldly things what wil such do and whither will they turne them when affliction and anguish shall come vpon them Prou. 1.27 and their end draw neere the sight of saluation cannot comfort them for that cannot comfor them that they cannot expect and the feare of damnation must needs trouble them for that cannot but torment them that they must needs inherit as their portion for euer Doct. 2 Lastly it is called Gods saluation Mine saith the Lord that is that which is originally only from Me. Where we learne that that eternall life is the gift of God or his only worke and gift therefore is it called by Esay as here His saluation Esa 25.9 and of the Lord he saith He will saue vs Esa 33.22 hee and no other The most blessed Virgin calles him her Sauiour Let the Papists note that she must haue a Sauiour and this must be and be no other then God her Sauiour It is that grace of God that bringeth saluation saith Saint Paul Tit. 2.11 that is It is God who by grace or the doctrine of grace in the Gospel bringeth it And to spare further labour in a matter wherein both the Testaments are so plentifull the very words of the doctrine are the same Apostles owne words The gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ Rom. 6.23 where hee sheweth that saluation is a gift and what is freer then gift and giuen of God for Christ that is a gift whereof the authour is God and the purchaser Christ the Sonne of God The Reasons For when Adam was once falne from Gods image in Paradise and being driuen by guilty conscience had fledde to the weake succour of leaues and bushes for a hiding place against him and the storme of his iustice the good Angels could not but abhorre vs and the other creatures how could they but become enemies to vs and therefore no will in them to haue saued vs if they could onely the fountaine of mercy God the Father of Christ and our Father in Christ looked toward vs and his eye onely pittied vs in this blood of our pollution Ezech. 16.5.6 then he made his couenant of Saluation with vs in the seed of the woman by a person that should come of woman that blessed seed that should breake the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 That is Christ that should destroy the deuill and hath already destroyed him In all this what haue the creatures done Nay what could they doe Secondly he onely is giuer of life that can raise from death to Doct. 2 life this can no creature Angel or other doe that is doe by his owne Name and power Acts 3.12.16 Acts 9.34.40 or hee that will giue life must deliuer from death but none can saue from death but he that hath the keyes of hell and death Apoc. 1.18 this is no creature Also none can saue from death but hee that can deliuer from sinne that causeth death But what creature can so doe what creature 〈◊〉 can deliuer from an infinite sinne Doct. 3 Thirdly if God onely did not giue life the Scriptures which speake of a Sauiour would not as they doe speake of him onely but of helpers with him in the point of saluation But the Scripture speakes of no Sauiour but the Lord nor Giuer of life but Him Esai 43.11 61.10 12.2 3. Ioh. 10.28 Act. 4.12 And surely if he did not saue vs who onely is the Sauiour our dayes would be short and cut off quickly for the torments of hell Satan and our owne corruption swaying vs thither but the the arme of Gods salvation able and only able to ouer-master Satan and our owne vnruly old-Man doth both stay vs from destruction and keepe vs in the path of life Vse 1 A confutation of that doctrine of the Papists which in the grace of life will haue godly men to bee takers with God or ioynt-purchasers making him but a Sauiour in part and them partly their owne Sauiours but is this because he is weake to saue by himselfe Zacharie in his Canticle calleth him the horne of Saluation in the house of Dauid Luke 1.69 That is the strong and mighty Sauiour in that house But they make Zedekijahs hornes 1. Kin. 22.11 hornes of iron and instruments of vanitie to ioyne them for the batterie of the Kingdome of Satan with this horne of our saluation To his good will they ioyne their free-will and their good workes to his great worke and to his intercession the intercession of Angels and Saints departed and set their posts by his posts Ezech. 43.8 putting their old cloth in his new garment wherein is no breach nor defect But hee that made this wedding dinner is a King Math. 22.2 3. And what want is there at a Kings Feast specially at the marriage of his elder sonne and what shot doe Kings take of their seruants when they haue feasted them therefore they pay nothing that sit downe at this Supper Esai 55.1 Apoc. 22.17 neither bring any dish vnto it that is dish of halfe purchase Eternall life as hath beene said euery part and whit of it is the gift of God Vse 2 But is saluation Gods and the gift of eternall life Gods gift then Christians must walke so and so behaue themselues that they may comfortably with their last breath expect this gift of eternall life being in the way of the same by a godly life and holy death For God doth not giue his saluation to those who neither care to liue in obedience nor prepare to die in faith And to lose saluation is to be in worse case at our death then the beasts that perish For when they die their misery ends with them but when reprobate man dies his misery begins that shall neuer haue end For hee hath millions of yeares without
vs 1 King 22.8 shall say and may truly say peace is come Esay 57.2 So much for the Plague of Pestilence darkly described and vnder the cloud of the figure the description of it without figure and plainely followeth And from the most grieuous Pestilence OR from the Pestilence of griefes in the Hebrew deliuering it by weight from thence and it is called the Pestilence of griefes because it pierceth them through with many sorrowes and is most grieuous to all or most of all that are visited with it as by pensiue solitarinesse their friends forsaking them and their neighbours not daring to come neere them by the anguish and worke of the sicknesse it selfe being very painfull and so pernicious that it passeth presently and terribly to the vitall parts getting into the head or working vpon the heart the castle of life and destroying there by opportunity of temptations the soule in so dangerous a priuatenesse being open to Satan and his malicious obiections not strengthned with the aides of Preachers or christian brethren in some by sundrie pitifull distractions caused by a hot bath or fire in the braine and through the whole bodie which maketh them to fall into fits of rauing and madnesse in many by the extremitie of paine and shortnesse of time in which so little respit is left if any to dispose their estate to their friends or to order their soules to God and in whom not who by reason of the contagion that it sendeth out dare not take leaue of their friends nor see the children of their owne bodie and must die separate and comfortlesse And is it not a sicknesse of griefes that maketh a mans whole acquaintance and best friends to forsake him that hurteth trades and impouerisheth townes that snatcheth here there emptying not some few houses only but whole townes and large towneships that breaketh and weareth men to nothing Doct. 1 The Doctrine from hence is the Pestilence of griefes is not to be regarded so little as some regard it who reuerence none of Gods iudgements The consideration hereof moued Dauid and the Elders of Israel clad in sack-cloth to fall vpon their faces 1 Chron. 21.16 for when they saw the drawne sword of this sicknesse in the hand of the Angel readie with it to destroy Ierusalem as hee had done other parts of the land with authoritie from the Lord that sent him they in humble cloathing and with their faces to the earth feared then as before some great destruction Where if they had regarded it no better nor otherwise then farre meaner persons at this day do they would neither haue feared so much nor walked so humbly before it He profiteth d Psal 4 4. Prou. 28.14 in the loue of God that profiteth in his feare by considering his iudgements And therefore he loued much that said My flesh trembleth for feare of thee Psal 119.120 that is in my imperfect state here when thou threatnest I feare and my heart is moued when thou art a little moued For feare makes way to loue and loue as it increaseth diminisheth feare But wherefore is the Pestilence in this Scripture called most grieuous and else where in the Scriptures the most terrible Plague Deut. 28.59 60. Ezech. 14.21 If it were no more to bee regarded It is one of Gods curses Deut. 28.45 and is any curse of God light or lightly to be respected The Lord by Amos complaines of the gouernours and people of Israel dwelling in Samaria that none of his strokes whereof the Pestilence that he sent among them was one could turne them by repentance Amos 4.10 Would he haue complained of this as of some strange thing if the Pestilence considered in it selfe had not bene a forcible outward meanes to worke in them this repentance and turning to God The Reasons The desolations it worketh are fearefull and the distractions Reason 1 that it is cause of are lamentable as hath bene said Secondly the finger of God is to be regarded in any stroke Reason 2 and shall not his whole hand bee feared in this of the Pestilence Thirdly of the foure valiant men that the Lord will send to reuenge Reason 3 the breach of his couenant Pestilence is and is said to bee one Ezech. 14.21 And if one then to be feared not desperately but profitably when it cometh Then the foole-hardinesse of some is no way tolerable who Vse 1 like mad persons runne vpon the naked point of this perillous sicknesse hazarding themselues vpon it by eating and drinking with those that haue it These feare too little and not where they should and therefore cannot but fall into euill Prou. 28.14 For as moderate feare worketh tendernesse so want of feare causeth hardning The godly though they haue greater confidence and more boldnesse in the changes then such audacious fooles can haue yet expell not godly feare but make the Lord their feare by fearing to amendment when such trumpets are blowne in the kingdome Amos 3.6 And therefore they cleaue to God and vnclaspe with sinne fearing his iudgements and feeling his louing fauour when the other go on still and are punished Prou. 22.3 Vse 2 An admonition to Christians wisely to looke into themselues when a iudgement of such griefes is sent For where a grieuous Pestilence walketh there are great sinnes and grieuous that make way for it in Towne and Countrey which is true and would be considered in euery other iudgement of God that is strange and grieuous For where he so visiteth he is forced by Mans impudencie in sinning so to visite As the world groweth in wickednesse so of the seede of sinne it bringeth forth according to the growth of that ill weede a like growing and proceeding in Plagues and Iudgements God hath new punishments for new sinnes and strange Plagues for strange offenders the store-house of his iudgements can neuer bee emptied It therefore much concerneth Christians well to obserue the workes of God whether they be done in mercie or iustice in his Church and if he execute iustice in it whether after the common rule or extraordinatily For if his strokes be other then vsuall the sinnes so visited are more then common and ordinarie This meditation will make the godly wise in such varietie of iudgements as haue within these few yeares shewed themselues among vs to feare not them so much though they bee all fearefull and fearefully wrought as the more fearefull sinnes of the State and Times that caused them nor onely the rod but chiefly the striker But because we saw nothing extraordinarie in so long and strong a Plague as so much and terribly wrought in London and all England so few yeares since and do see nothing but common matter in those varied Plagues which the yeares after fearefully and successiuely followed that therefore We are not wise to consider our end Deut. 32.29 And it is to be feared that we are giuen vp to the hardnesse of our heart to walke in our owne counsels to