corrupts the Will and so poisons all our Intellectual faculties that we cannot see the light of Faith or ardently love God or do any other Act that may speak us living Christians and in a State of Grace Secondly They are alike in their Infection The reason why we shut people up that are Infected and avoid their Company is because they easily communicate their Disease to those that are in health it is so with sin it insensibly creeps upon us The often seeing wicked men repeat their crimes first takes from us the hatred we should bear them and afterward by undiscerned progressions so far work on us that we begin to love and commit the same The Historian observes That Augustus soon perceived the Inclination of his two Daughters by the Company they kept The one affected none but the grave Senators and worthy personages of Rome and the Other none but the loose and debauch'd Gallants We cannot touch pitch but we must be defiled and we cannot converse with wicked men but we shall be tainted with their Impurities Thirdly They are alike diffusive Thucidides in his Description of the Plague of Athens tells us it began in Africa march'd from Aethiopia into Aegypt and so took its course for Athens which was a vast progress And hath not Sin done the like Hath not the Sin of Adam in Paradice spread it self over the whole World and so seized upon the mass of Mankind that we must all confess we are Vnclean and there is none of us righteous no not one Fourthly They are both terrible What a dismal sight is it to see an Army enter by force into a pleasant City and there in a moment by the licentious fury of the Soldiers view those streets floating with the blood of the Inhabitants which in time of Peace used to be strewed with flowers Yet when heat of blood is over some mercy is usually hoped for and many times obtained But the Plague like another Attila the Scourge of God sweeps all before it and seldom gives Quarter Sin does the like yea in a more terrible manner for it erects its Trophies upon the ruine of Souls The destruction of the body is but a momentary pain but that of the Soul is commensurate to the duration of it which is to all Eternity How much reason have we therefore to pray to be delivered from this Executioner that like another Nero loves to perpetuate misery and strikes a wretch ut sentiat se mori Fifthly They are alike in their Symptomes When a man begins to feel some distemper in his head stomach belly or other parts though we apprehend some danger yet we think him not past the benefit of Physick and a possibility of Recovery but if once his body begin to be purpled and the plague spots discover their dismal hue we then quit all hopes and think nothing less than a miracle can recover him Sin also hath her spots and they are as ill boading to the Soul as the other to the body V. 23. and therefore St. Jude in his General Epistle styles wicked men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spots in their feasts of Charity Lastly They are both of a quick dispatch Other Diseases seem to give us some warning that we may set our house in order and by repentance blot out the Score of our sins prodigality but the pestilential sword like the Italian Stilletto carries death upon the point and at its first entrance summons the wounded to his Funeral so that we may now sing in a mournful Dirge Our pleasures cease our joys are flying Death is alive but Life is dying Hence it is that Galen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its Mortal quality and Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its spreading nature This deadly disease we see lays heaps upon heaps and if the Almighty power puts not a stop to its violent proceedings it will in a short time scarce leave living enough to bury the dead Where God gives it a Commission it runs like fire in a Corn field That passage in Samuel is very remarkable 2 Sam. 24.15 where it is said So the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the Morning even to the time appointed Some think this appointed time was six hours and of this opinion is St. * Super Psal 37. Ambrose * quaest 37 Theodoret and the Jewish Historian Josephus Others think this appointed time was until night and that at the beginning of the Evening Sacrifice it ceased which St. Hierome followes V. Casp Sanctium inâ—l Others with Tostatus Abulensis think it lasted three dayes However all agree that it was but a short space in which this Tragedy was acted although the quamdiù is not certain Upon this account the Septuagint reads the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I send Death amongst my people to signifie other diseases by Medical herbs and the skill of Physicians may be Cured but this is an infallible Executioner as sure as death it self And doth not Sin do the same with the Soul Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye not a year after but in the very day thou breakest my Commandement thy sin will prove deadly So Annanias and Sapphyra no sooner lyed to the holy Ghost but at St. Peter's Examination their Consciences became their condemning Jury and their Sentence a sudden Death We have now seen their agreement I shall only say there is this happy dissimilitude that whereas the Cure of the Bodily plague is uncertain that of the Soul plague is infallible if we fly to Christ with a due sense of our misery and seek from his Merits that Alexipharmacon that is an Antidote against the greatest Crimes But I shall desist from speaking any longer indefinitely of Sin and come to those particular ones that in so high a degree have drawn this plague upon us First then The sin that leads the van is our Sabbath-breaking How loud doth this cry in the Ears of God! A sin more frequent impudent and unpunish'd than in those late black days when the greatest were justified by a Law This blessed day is now as much mangled and broken as once the Lord of it was And as the Poet deriding the immoderate dress of a wanton Girl told her that she was minima pars sui so is this day so divided that it is now become the least part of it self and you may seek for a Sabbath in a Sabbath and not find it And whereas it ought to be the greatest Festival and holy Rest now other days are more innocent then this Those we spend upon our Callings and this the more is our shame on our sins In the Primitive times sanctifying the Lords Day was an eminent Character that Christians lived in the purity of their profession When the Question was asked Servasti Dominicam The Answer returned was Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and may not
do otherwise How are we fallen from our first love by prophaning the Sabbath either through Schismatical Petulancy or Idleness and Security snorting on a Bed or walking in the fields forgetting that he which on this day gathered sticks was paid home with stones Considering therefore the judgement of God that hangs over our head for this particular sin it is Christian Prudence to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law Secondly Another Sin that pulls down God's vengeance on us is that of Pride Boetius sayes excellently well Cum omnia vitia fugiant à Deo sola Superbia se Deo opponit When all Vices flye from God Pride alone opposes it self to God In other vices men seek some imaginary good but in this they endevour to dethrone God it is an opposition to his very Being as he is Alpha and Omega the first Efficient and last End no wonder therefore if he blasts the persons and designs of those that harbour this Monster which beginning first in heaven will never forget its old Attempt And therefore St. Prosper in his Excellent Epistle to the Noble Virgin Demetrias says finely Cum aliae cupiditates ea tantum bona quibus adversantur imminuant haec dum omnia ad se trahit simul universa corrumpit That whereas other Lusts waste only that Good and Virtue to which they are contrary Pride whilest it arrogates all to it self corrupts all at once God therefore scatters the Proud he maketh them like Smoak to speak with the Psalmist which perisheth in ascending and vanisheth in dilating of it self I shall not need to tell you how he hath punish'd it in Wicked men as in Nebuchadnezzar Herod and Antiochus for he will not allow it in his own people And therefore if Corah Dathan and Abiram will be holier than Moses and Aaron and tempt the Jewish Congregation to a Contempt of their Superiours he will presently open the Earth and bury them alive They were ante Sepulti quam Mortui as the African Father Optatus speaks If David out of pride will number the People and sure it was so for the Text saith 1 Chr. 21.14 his heart was lift up to number the People God will send his Plague and sweep away seventy thousand of them 3. A third sin is that Cursed one of Swearing so much in Practice Because of Oaths saith the Prophet the Land Mourneth Jer. 3.10 And how can we but expect that God will send the lightning of his judgements from heaven when we do so thunder out Oaths on Earth This is a Reigning Sin not only amongst the Basest but those that would be thought the Ornaments of the Age as if Gentility consisted in belching out blasphemy If the King be spoken against it is high treason and deservedly punish'd with Death if a Noble man be traduced or slandered it is punishable by the Statute of Scandalum Magnatum yea a private man in cases of Obloquy hath his remedy by Action only the name of God though dear to him is not so tenderly regarded but is most grievously rent and torn by this common and Soul-ruining Sin of Swearing But let me advise the black mouthed Swearer to have a care of swearing in jest as men are apt to pretend lest he go to Hell in earnest for every Oath he swears gives his Soul a wound and that wound will be vocal enough to peirce heaven and call for vengeance on the Swearer Have not many of us uncharitably and blasphemously wish'd that the Plague of God would light upon our Brethren How justly now hath it overtaken us Curses and Execrations have proceeded from us like Arrows shot against heaven and now they are returned back upon our own heads Fourthly I must name that of Vncharitableness to one another upon occasions that should rather administer grounds of Repentance then of Malice The Apostle tells us Charity covers a multitude of Sins but we as if we were true Children of Noah delight in our Relations Nakedness What heart-burnings are between us upon small differences of Judgement The Turk cannot hate a Christian with a more Vatinian hatred then we persecute one another though baptized into the same Faith and equally professors of the same Gospell Is not the Plague come upon us that our Lord foretold that Father should be against Son and Son against Father will an Independant endure a Presbyterian or the Anabaptist and Fifth Monarchist one of the Episcopal persuasion No no we have known to our grief what blood hath been shed upon this account and that their mutual animosities have boyled to as great a height as those at present between Turk and Persian Constantine the Great when he summoned the first General Councel at Nice to extinguish the Arrian Heresie concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ with his Father caused all the private Contentions and Strifes that were enflamed amongst the Bishops themselves to be drawn up into a Compendium of Articles before they should deliberate about that grand Affair which being done he sealed them up with his own Royal Signet and kept them in his bosome for a while as a Secret afterward in his Speech exhorting them to unity of Spirit and a serious discussion of those things that concerned the Cause of Christ he burnt all those envious Libells together Car. in Nice Conc. Appar pag. 45. in 16. Ne innotesceret ulli odium sugillatio Sacerdotum as Caranza informs me Let us that serve at the Altar imitate this Pious Prince and if there be any unchristian uncharitable fends amongst us bury them in Eternal Oblivion left they hinder us in the prosecution of the Cause of God and not only prove our shame but a stumbling block of Offence to the Enemies of the Faith Our Lord and Saviour at his departure left us this New Commandement that we should love one another but we have so affronted this Injunction that it is no marvel if he says he is come not to send Peace but a Sword a Sword that shall draw out our vitals and render us the victims of his fury Fifthly That Rebellious murmuring humour with which we have outraged Prince and Priest The Sacred Scripture never gives us an Account of Murmurers but it tells us likewise their Punishment Pharaoh murmured at the Israelites and God entombed him and his hoast in the Red Sea Joseph's Brethren murmured at him and their reward was vassalage they became his Servants Saul murmured at David's ten thousands and God left him to be his own Executioner Judas murmured at the Box of Oyle that was poured on his Masters head and what was his reward he hang'd himself And is not this our Case When King Charles the first lived though we may say of him as Homer said of Greece that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pap and Dug of the Earth He the Cream and Excellentest of Princes how did our ungodly and malicious humours load him
be thus wounded if we consider that the Jews did but once crucifie him but We by the committal of fresh sins and Impieties crucifie him every day and grieve his holy Spirit It is therefore infinitly necessary we should have this due sense this holy wounding of heart if we expect God should repent of the evil done unto us and heal our Land 2. The second branch of Repentance is Confession As we must be sorrowful for sin so we must make a true confession of sin Now in confession we must observe these Rules First Our confession must be humble and self-accusing Non vis ut ille damnet Tu damna Vis ut ille ignoscat Tu agnosce Wouldst thou not that God should Condemn thee condemn thy self Say with the Publican Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Wouldst thou have God pardon Do thou crye guilty We must not imitate our Grandfather Adam that cryed The Woman thou gavest me presented me the fruit and I did eat We must take the sins we have committed upon our selves it being altogether unjust we should file that Evil on anothers score of which we have been the Authors How many are there in these days that when they are accused of any Vncleanness lay the fault upon Nature as St. Austin complains many in his time did and consequently accuse God himself We ought rather with the Prophet David to cry out Lord it is I that have done this Great Wickedness and with Jeremiah confess our ways and our Evil doings have brought all these miseries upon us Secondly We must not put our sins to the Devil's Account He may tempt us but he cannot force us to sin The Devil might have offered Eve a thousand of those beautiful Apples without prevailing had she not been as willing to tast that forbidden fruit as he ready to perswade her it was good If he could force us to sin we might justly lay the fault at his dore and make the very necessity of sinning our Apology But the Apostle St. James bids us resist the Devil and he will fly from us to teach us we have a power to combat and through Grace baffle his pernicious temptations Thirdly Neither must we make God the Author of our sins He is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and what blasphemy would it be in us when we have committed sins that even some natural men would abhor to father them upon God the source of all purity and goodness The Psalmist steers another course when he says I will confess my sins unto the Lord Psal 32. He doth not say he will accuse God as the author of his Lust to the Wife of Vriah or of his Pride in numbering the people no but I will confess to him against my self he is righteous and I have done wickedly God cannot be tempted to evil neither tempts he any man it is a principle of corruption within us that brings forth this viperous brood and we must wholly acknowledge God righteous when he punisheth for Sin Fourthly Our Confession must be Integra perfecta There are many that will be ready to acknowledge those Sins which they see the best of Men are obnoxious to but their Dallilah's their darling Sins like the true name of Rome they keep concealed But this is not the Confession that will do our work a lame half-confession is no more acceptable to God than if we should offer him half our heart when he requires the whole Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart which he can never truly be said to do that leaves some Sins unconfess'd and as it were hid in the inward recesses of his Soul because God being a profess'd enemy to every Sin such a concealment is a taking part with that which he most hates Thirdly The third part of Repentance is Conversion Now there is a two-fold Conversion 1. A Turning and total Conversion of a Sinner from Sin to God and in this Signification is comprehended the whole work of Grace Psal 51.14 And Sinners shall be converted unto thee this is passive Conversion wherein God is the Chief Agent but our selves by our natural power work nothing unless it be to hinder the work of Grace 2. There is a turning from some particular Sin or Sins whereby we have offended God or Man Luke 22.32 When thou art converted and Jer. 31.18 Convert thou me and I shall be converted This is an active Conversion performed by men who being already renewed by Grace do work together with this Grace Now this conversion is a turning of the heart unto God whereby we contract a perfect aversion to those things which we formerly delighted in and have such an alteration in our will and affections that we desire nothing and affect nothing but what we find agreeable to his blessed will It is not a turning of the Brain an alteration of this or that opinion that is Vertigo Capitis not Conversio Cordis but it is a meer alteration and turning of 〈…〉 of our hearts So that the perfection of this conversion consists in the turning of the whole heart This true turning is a thing no way pleasing to the Devil If he could he would not have us turn at all he sowes pillows under our Elbows and perswades us we are in a blessed condition but if we will needs turn he will persuade us to Turn any whether rather than unto God If he cannot effect this yet his Artifice and cunning is to make us leave our hearts behind Now if that will not do but we will Turn with our heart in Corde yet he labours all he can it may not be in toto he would have us have some private ends some Lusts to gratifie he would have our affections broken and not entirely subservient to the Divine Will But Beloved if we would remove these judgments that lye heavy upon us we must not divide our hearts between God and the Devil but must turn to God with our whole hearts for he is the great Physician that only can heal our diseased Souls And thus I come to the fourth and last Branch of the Text the Physician prescribing the Medicine GOD in these words I will hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land St. Chrysostome tells us that Christ the second person of the Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his death became Physician of the Dead in his very humility and state of Exinanition he baffled Sin and Death and the Balsam of his Blood shed upon the Cross closed up the Serpentine wound received in Paradice If this be true of Christ as without doubt it is whilest he was in the form of a Servant we ought not to question the performance of the promise made us in my Text by the whole Trinity I will hear from heaven c. I God the Father I God the Son I God the Holy Ghost I one yet three at whose presence the