be if it be not done before the hand strike vs to death It is not then a temporall but an eternall plague for heereafter there is no hope of helpe Delay is one of the Deuils most dangerous assaults vvhereby he gets too much aduantage of the soules of men vvhile they dally vvith Gods iudgements and therefore Hodie To day if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts yet a little while is the day with you the night commeth vvhen no man vvorketh Seeke the Lord while hee may bee found call vpon him while hee is neere Esa 55.6 Now is the accepted time now is the day of saluation 2. Cor. 6.1 The time is now ours vve haue right in it that which is to come is the Lords to iudge the mis-spending of this Reuel 10.6 The Angell sweares by him that liueth for euermore that time shall be no more that is after this time no more time for repentance no more time for attonement therefore doe that you ought to doe for your owne good quickly This day this houre this time Now there is roome there will be none hereafter It will bee too late to knocke with the silly Virgins when the doore is shut Goe quickly They haue a rule in sauing pollicie for auoyding of the Plague and it consists in three words Citò Longè Tardè Goe quickly Goe farre enough Make no haste to returne I would we would be perswaded to vse them not in sauing Pollicie but in sauing Piety And first to begin with Citò for that I find in the Text a rule prescribed by the Holy Ghost to flie vnto God quickly not from him for alas whither shall a man flie from him the wings of the morning are too slow the bottome of the depth is too shallow the fathermost part of the earth is too neere to keepe vs from him Secondly Longè for that implyed in the attonement not farre from his Iustice seeing it is to swift for vs and will soone ouertake vs wheresoeuer but farre from our sinnes that haue called out his Iustice that by our repentance and amendment we may stay the course of it Lastly Tardè that is not to returne in hast to our sinnes againe for sinnes returned vnto prouoke a worse iudgement Sinne no more least a worse thing come vnto thee was the after dyet that hee gaue vnto the sicke man Ioh. 5.14 The tree that is twise dead is neere vnto cursing No Leper in Scripture is twice cleansed no Prodigall is twice receiued no lost Sheepe is twice brought home no dead man is twise raised no Deuill is twise cast out The relaps of sicknesse is dangerous but the relaps of sinne is more dangerous Goe quickly to God goe farre from sinne make no hast to sinne againe Goe quickly to the Congregation That 's the next circumstance the place where for albeit euery man should endeauour in his secret closet to reconcile himselfe vnto God and to commune with his owne heart euen in his Bed-chamber as the Psalmist aduiseth Psal 4.4 yet where all men are sinners and the hand of Gods wrath seemeth to bee stretched out in generall without respect of persons age or degree All men are bound to one and the same worke that with one consent and one act the Lord might bee intreated by the whole Congregation For howsoeuer the Lord is well pleased with euery particular mans seruice in prauate yet that which hee shall doe in publicke is de meliore bono and much more acceptable There was a Law made for it Deut. 12,5 In that place which the Lord your God shal chuse amongst all the Tribes to set his Name in in that his habitation you shall seeke vnto him Neither was this a Law Iudicicall or Ceremoniall that bound the Iewe onely for a time but morall and perpetuall that binds the Christian for euer nor was it a Law for the Iewish Synagogue onely wherein they taught and offered vp their Incense Sacrifice and Oblations on the Sabbath dayes but for the Temple vnder the profession of the Gospell also that as God is to be praised in the great Congregation so he was to be pacified in the great Congregation Therefore as the Prophet said well I will praise thee O Lord in the great congregation in much people will I giue thankes vnto thee Psal 35.18 So Moses did here aduise as well that what Aaron did herein he should doe it in the Congregation In the banishment of the Isaraelites by the waters of Babylon where they sate and wept Ierusalem vvas vowed to be their chiefest ioy not for any other thing but that there they might worship the Lord in his holy Temple and in the Congregation of his Seruants And vvhen Christ gaue the promise to two or three it is euident that he intended not priuate meetings so much as publicke Congregations in the Church as appeareth by the connexion of the Text Et ero vobiscum vsque ad confirmationem saeculi Mat. 28.20 Is a promise to the Assembly in the Church where vvith one mind and one mouth God may be serued glorified Rom. 15.6 vvhich vvas the Apostles exhortation Ephe. 3.21 That praises might be giuen in the Church through Iesus Christ vnto all generations for euer So that the fitnesse of place hath heere in Moses direction a good correspondence vvith the fitnesse of time as most acceptable to God and most apt for men to make their attonement in And therein vve fall vpon the third Branch the Medicine for the malady Goe quickly vnto the Congregation and make an attonement for them c. The vvhole need not the Phisician saith Christ but the sicke These people were sicke and sicke vnto death the vvay to cure them vvas to make an attonement for them the manner how it vvas to be done vvas by offering vp Incense vvhich albeit it vvere a ceremoniall action yet vvas it alwayes ioyned vvith a religious acte of deuotion in prayer and penitence To vvhich purpose the Prophet prayeth Let my prayer be set before thee as incense Psal 145.2 And indeed it is a most apt resemblance for as the vse of Insense vvas to sweeten that vvhich vvas vnsauory euen so the vvicked thoughts of our hearts and the vncleane actions of our liues which yeeld an vnsauory smell in the nosthrils of the Lord are sweetned by no other meanes but by the Incense of our prayers therefore to shew how the one is resembled by the other it is said that while the Incense was in burning the people were without at their prayers Luke 1.10 And in Reuel 8.3 the sweet odours that were offered in the golden Censers were offered with the Prayers of the Saints So that the first Ingredience for the Attonement was prayer but not prayer alone For as Mary Magdalene came not to Christ with the Boxe of precious Oyntment and sweet perfume onely but shee brought withall a sorrowfull heart and penitent teares for the sinne of her Soule So to the action of