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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10242	The heart of the king, and the king of the heart, or, A briefe vnfolding of that remarkable proverbe of the royall preacher ... written in the time of His Maiesties abode at Plimmouth, and preferred vnto him in his returne from thence, anno 1625 : together with a short meditation vpon 2. Sam. 24.15., preached at a weekely lecture in Deuon, in those fearefull times of mortalitie / by J.P. Master of Arts and minister of the gospell.	Pyne, John.; J. P.	1628 (1628)	STC 20521.8; ESTC S4427	27,924	64

I proceed to that which followeth The Lord sent a Pestilence vpon Israel from the morning to the time appointed From the morning to the time appointed Hence may we gather that Doct. The spreading and speeding of pestilent contagions is both appointed and limited by God He sendeth them and he restrayneth them They shall rage no longer then the appointed time they shall rid no more but Gods appointed and set number Heere the people dye of the plague and the King escapeth In the second of Kings the twentieth Chapter the King is sicke of the plague and the people free here though the popular plague were threatned for three dayes space yet it ceased before the terme was fully expired and there though King Hezekiah were told from God that hee should die yet hee humbling himselfe was raysed as it were from his death-bed recouered from his disease and the Lord added to his dayes We reade in Histories of diuers great generall plagues some raigning ouer all the Realme of England as that in the yeere 1348. vnder Edward the Third some raging ouer all the Romane Empire as that in the yeere 252. vnder Vibius Gallus that pestilent persecutor of the Christian faith Both which plagues and specially the latter in their seuerall times as Historians relate creeping throughout all the Regions of the Earth lasted very long and wasted many Millions of people Insomuch that Cyprian taking an occasion by reason of the greater of those two generall plagues to write his Booke De Mortalitate saith towards the end of that Tract Corruit iam mundus malorum infestantium turbinibus obsessus That the World was euen wasted and went to wracke with the boysterous stormes of maladies and molestations Now who spreadeth these plagues who beddeth the earth in this sicknesse but hee who spreadeth the Heauens as a Curtaine Hee who with-holdeth the waters and they dry vp Iob. 12.15 and also sendeth them out and they ouerturne the earth He restraineth the pestilence and the sore dryeth vp hee sendeth it forth and it ouerunneth the Earth he maketh desolations in the Earth Psal 46.8 Againe he maketh the plague as he doth the plague of warre in the Verse there following to cease vnto the end of the Earth Many there are who haue stretched their wits to discourse how the Lord should cause the pestilence to spread and disperse it selfe abroad Diuers men referre it to diuers meanes some affirming that all those who fall by the pestilence are felled by the immediate stroke of Gods punishing Angell Others conceiuing that the euill one who distilleth into the malicious minds of many who are infectious a desire to infect others as hee doth into the mindes of the seduced a delight to seduce others that hee I say conueyeth contagious infection from one to another deriuing it from place to place from person to person by apparell ayre and all those arts which hee is permitted to vse against a people whom God purposeth to visit Sure I am here is the lamentable effect of the pestilence set downe in this Chapter on which the present calamitie of our owne country maketh so large a Comment here is laid downe the prime Author that layeth it on the maine cause that leades him on and the meanes inducing him to leaue off The meanes of dispersing the pestilence must be left to him also they are in his hands who can vse what meanes hee will to accomplish his iust purposes and to punish a rebellious nation For vse of the point In that God spreadeth the pestilence wee see how wide they are of the truth who impute it rather to the fate of destiny or the influence of malignant starres or the confluence of much people or the closenesse of place or the corruption of the ayre or the inundation of waters or the repletion of humors then to the hand of God who disposeth of all these at his pleasure Againe we may learne that they doe but spred a net for their owne feet who thinke or seeke to flye from the spreading pestilence without flying vnto God Alas it is not the auoiding of places infected nor the correcting of ayres corrupted nor the taking of receits prescribed not the putting off of cloathes suspected that can secure thee from Gods plagues The arrow of Gods anger can passe swiftly through the Ayre and enter secretly into thy bosome as that arrow did into the King of Israels bodie notwithstanding the change of place or attire 1. King 22.30 34. It is not the change of Ayre or rayment but the change of the heart by repentance that can stand thee in stead Though thou presently shift thy selfe shirt and all yet there is no shifting from God hee will finde thee out Indeed the outward meanes of preseruation are to bee sought and vsed but not relyed on When Gods arrowes flye abroad we must primarily arme our selues with prayer and flye vnto God as Iehoshaphat did when his enemies came against him If euill come vpon vs saith he to the Lord as the sword pestilence 2. Chron. 20.9 c. And wee stand in thy presence and cry vnto thee thou wilt heare and helpe He knew that his Progenitor and Predecessor Asa had felt the smart of the contrarie practice who did not so much pray vnto God as desire the Physicians to practice with him 2. Chron. 16.12 and therefore the Lord made their helpes vnprofitable In the next place here might bee drawne an vse of comfort for Gods Children in that the sword is in the hand of their mercifull father who will not euer be angrie but correct them in measure and compasse them with his mercie But there is another vse to bee made and another doctrine likewise to be raised and therefore I will not insist on it The last vse then that wee may more neerly apply a point that so neerely concerneth vs serueth for direction vnto vs all Doth the Lord spread the pestilence among vs and send it out like a running armie wasting wheresoeuer it commeth Psal 91.6 walking in the darknesse and wasting at noone day like a raging and deuouring raine leauing no food like an vniuersall blast destroying all fruits Doth hee make his dreadfull forces post hither and thither amidst our preparations for warre as hee did among Dauids warlike people What should we then doe but as weaker countryes are accustomed vpon the approch of dreadfull Armies submit our selues send our Agents and sue for peace Consider we what those of Tyre and Sidon did in the dayes of Herod Act. 12. towards the end of that Chapter When they vnderstood that Herod did beare an hostile minde towards them they sent their Ambassadors with one accord to desire peace But as for vs mittamus legatos doloris nostri lachrymas let vs with ioynt consent send forth plentifull teares as the onely preualent oratorie of a pierced and wounded heart For as great flouds hinder the preparations of Armies so the teares

not himselfe to numbers neither should we seeke to bring him to it by our abstruse obseruations and schoole-quiddities Ne sutor vltra crepidam Wee may not thinke if I may so speake to fit him with the seauens who filleth heauen and earth making the one his throne and the other his footstoole T was chiefly for curiositie of numbring that so many fell of the pestilence in the Text. Much better had it beene for Dauid and so t were for vs in this case instead of such a foolish and needlesse numbring shortning the dayes and hastning the deaths of thousands to haue desired as else where he doth that God would teach him to number his dayes and so to apply himselfe vnto wisedome All Histories diuine and humane are so full of proofes for the confirming and illustrating of my doctrine that me thinkes I delight to dwell longer vpon it then ordinarily I vse to doe vpon other Doctrines How memorably hath Gods hand punished notoriously sinfull acts in their owne kind in all Ages Doe Nabab and Abihu prouoke and incense the Lord with strange Incense God punisheth them with strange fire Leuit. 10 1.2 Are the Israelites not contented with the Lords feeding Numb 11. hee maketh them leaue their carkasses where they lusted after flesh Doe the people of Ierusalem offer Incense to the Hoast of Heauen on the tops of their houses Ier. 19.13 The Caldeans shall come and set fire on that Citie and burne it together with those houses Chap. 22.29 Doe the Ammonites sacrifice their children to Molech their Idoll themselues are forced to passe through the Brick-kilne in all their Cities 2. Samuel 12.31 Doth that cut-finger Adonibezek make himselfe sport with mangling the hands and feete of captiue Kings the Lord maketh him when hee is taken captiue to beshrew his fingers for it by dipping them in the same bloudy dish and seruing him with the same sawce Iudges 1. Doe the stiffe-necked Iewes crucifie Christ at the time of the preparation of their Passeouer It seemed good vnto the most iust God that Titus should plant his siege before Ierusalem at the time in which the Iewes were assembled to celebrate that Feast in which siege he also crucified diuers thousands of them before the walls of Ierusalem as Iosephus reporteth Doth the Whore of Babylon set fire vnto Gods faithfull witnesses What saith hee who calleth himselfe the faithfull and true witnesse Apoc. 3.14 Hee acquainteth Saint Iohn that she shall bee burnt with fire Apoc. 18.8 Doth shee cast the Saints of God aliue into the fire shee her selfe shall bee cast aliue into a Lake of fire burning with Brimstone Apoc. 19.20 Doth Edward the Second King of England burne with the vnnaturall lusts of So dome Gods justice suffereth his vnnaturall Subiects to depriue him of his Souereigntie and to force a hot burning Spit thorow his fundament into his entrailes Doth Henry the Second King of France protest that with his own eyes he will see a Protestant burnt to ashes See how in a iust Retributiō at a Iust or Tourney the splinter of a Speare passeth through the sight of his Beauer pierceth thorow his Eye perisheth his Braine and procureth his death Doth Alexander the Sixt Pope of Rome prepare a cup of Poyson for his Cardinals that by destroying their persons he might enioy what they possessed himselfe vnawares is made the first taster and dieth of his owne drench Doth bloudie Gardiner Bishop of Winchester deferre his Dinner vpon a greedie and bloudie desire of hearing certaine newes from Oxford of some Martyrs Dispatch wherewithall he might make merry God deferreth not long the kindling of a fire in his body through the intolerable heate whereof he dieth miserably as he liued mercilessely Two other examples I find in the Martyrologie of our Church making mainly for the farther proofe if farther proofes yet need of my last proposed doctrine I purpose to mention no more but those The first is of a certaine Smith who had seemed to haue beene sometimes a zealous professor but left his Sauiour to saue his life and forsooke the faith for feare of the fire giuing no other answer to a message brought him from a dying Martyr by which hee was exhorted to constancie but this That he could not burne What became of him He was afterwards burnt as he went in to saue his goods when his house was fired The other example is of a most vnmercifull Churle who willingly suffered a poore diseased Christian Brother to lye and dye in a ditch neere vnto his house and would by no meanes suffer him to be sheltred in any of his Barnes or Back-houses Stalls or Styes Master Fox compareth him to Diues and well he might for as Diues loued the Dogges which hee kept more then Lazarus which lay at his gates fed them but cared not though he sterued so this wicked wretch would not afford so much as a Dogge-kennell to that distressed creature Now marke the miserable end of this Miser not long after he was found in a Ditch not farre from that in which he left his poore Brother not only dead but sticking in the stinking puddle of the ditch GOD punishing him in the same kind in which he transgressed and returning his reward vpon his owne head as the Prophet Obadiah speaketh Thus yee haue seene the Lord measuring vnto men according to their owne measure that hee may be memorably knowne by the iudgements which he executeth Yee haue seene him following men close by the heeles in their owne wayes to shew in despight of all cauils that his wayes are equall and his iudgements iust Yee haue seene the fat Buls of Bashan beastly and bloudie men frying in their owne torments like Perillus in his brazen Bull that they might know their tortures to be as a Heathen speaketh Indigna passis Autoribus dignissima vnworthy of the Martyrs who indured them worthy of the Authours who inuented them It is high time to wind vp the threed of my speech in a word of application Doth the Lord then vsually confound sinfull men in their owne proiects cast them in their owne play as it were pay them in their own coine Beware we then that we willingly sin in no case sith God can punish vs in the same kinde If wee haue sinned let vs soone iudge our selues least hee suddenly condemne vs. Let vs weepe for sorrow and blush for shame lest he make vs bleed to death O ler vs not proceed in sinne least we giue him a patterne by which he may punish vs. In the second place let vs consider how wee haue dealt with God when wee cast with our selues and seeme to wonder why he should thus and thus deale with vs. His iudgements are alwayes iust and sometime wee may see them manifestly marked out vnto vs with the character of 〈◊〉 on He suffering vs to please our selues 〈◊〉 speciall sinne till it procureth a speciall iudgement proportionable thereunto as Anacreon the Poet so long fell to his wine till at last he was choaked with the kernell of a Grape Let vs beloued conferre Gods workes with ours and see how iustly he hath proceeded against vs in many instances or may at least whensoeuer his abused patience shall disdaine any longer to leaue our prouocations vnpunished If the corrupt Magistrate shall spare to execute Gods iudgement on notorious offenders is it not iust with God to powre downe iudgements on his owne head If hee deny patronage to the innocent depriuing the Orphan of his due and put him by his portion what can hee expect but that the Lord should also put him out of his protection If the sacrilegious person and Symoniacall Patron shall prey vpon God by pilling his Church shall he not pull downe Gods plagues vpon his owne house If the superstitious person shall adde vnto Gods Word out of mans inuentions shall not the Lord adde vnto him the plagues which are written in his Booke If the Swearer shall as it were teare the Name of God with his teeth shall not the Lords curse enter into his house Zach. 5. rent the timber from the stones and consume both together If we take away ought by Extortions and vniust exactions and will not restore 〈…〉 in iustice depriue vs of his blessings 〈…〉 ●●store them also If wee shut our eares at the cry of the poore wil not God shut his eare at the cry of our prayer If we seeke to Egypt for helpe looke for shelter from Idolatrous associates will not the strength of such Pharaohs be our shame and the trust in such shadowes our confusion Esay 30.3 Let vs consider these things beloued and is it not time to consider them now the Lord sendeth his messengers abroad to call vs to an account Shall wee shut our hearts alwayes against him euen now when he is ready to shut our doores vpon vs and seale them vp with his plagues which waxe so hote among vs of this Countrey yea of this Countie God forbid The Lord giue vs vnderstanding and repentant hearts the Lord turne vs vnto him and his fauourable countenance towards vs The Lord receiue our Prayers heare our groanings and helpe our griefes c. To the Reader ANd thus Gentle Reader I haue communicated vnto thy view these precedent pape●● which were penned for the most part in great want of time a● thou are already aduertised Yet are they sent abroad without adding altering augmenting or amending of any materiall passage that so they may follow their originall Copy which together with another Tract not yet published found acceptance at the hands of our Dread and Deare Soueraigne In respect of whose gracious Aspect I haue the more cause to presume of thy fauour or if that may not bee obtayned the lesse reason to esteeme thy Censure