which helpes the soule of one sinne can cure it of all Returne to me saith the Lord and I will heale all thy Rebellions Jer. 3.22 And therefore out of this booke let me take up one peeble to throw against the brow of the Gyant Despaire though the Lord like an inraged Lyon does smite and teare us with his judgements yet wee here learne if we will returne he wil heale us hee will binde us up and why will he O because with him there are multitude of mercies with him there is plenteous redemption and with this hope Israel in captivity did now even guild their chaines It was prophesied in the fourth of Malach. ver the second Vnto them that feare my name shall he come with healing upon his wings Who is Hee that shall come O 't is Messiah the Saviour of the World hee shall come with wings to shew his speede that he will even flye to be mercifull Secondly he shall come with infinite vertue and unspeakable comfort hee shall come with healing upon his Wings and therefore never feare your sanabit but God will heale and bind you up and this is the second argument The third is drawne A potentia bonitate Dei from Gods power and goodnesse After two dayes hee will revive us the third day hee will raise us up AMong many opinions of these dayes I will name but one and that is of them who by two dayes understand a short time by the third a long time and both of them uncertaine whose accomplishment they might not know but ought to expect and blessed is he that waites saith the Prophet Dan. 12. but cursed is he that saies with the King of Israel Why should I waite upon the Lord any longer 2. King 6.33 Now if two dayes bee taken for a short time then the argument runs thus The time wherein we are to be afflicted is no long time therefore never despaire 't is but two dayes no more and therefore O yee seede of Abraham beare your Crosse with patient spirits your afflictions are not everlasting afflictions though heavinesse may endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning and if not the first yet sure enough upon the second Post biduum after two dayes he will revive us But if the third day bee taken for along time then thus The Lord can raise a carkasse as well after three dayes when it beginnes to smell and putrifie as the first day and houre it dyed Elishas Coffin raised a man that had beene many yeares dead as easily as Elias did the childe that had been so but a few houres Now if Prophets could doe thus surely the God of those Prophets could doe much more and therefore although three daies that is along time we have laine in the grave of our captivity yet the Lord can raise us up Some have undertaken to shew these three dayes in the Chapter before my Text at whose 14. ver the Lord said He would be a Lyon to Ephraim and Iudah and would teare them as a Lyon doth his prey and sell them for nothing to the Kings of Assyria and Babylon and this may be the first day Dies Crucis Mortis The day of their death Secondly at the 15. ver I will goe saith the Lord to mine owne place I will wash mine hands of Israel as a people that are dead and buried they shall lie in desperate captivity without Prince Priest Ephod and Teraphin and this is the second day Dies sepulturae The day of their buriall Thirdly the Lord sayes in that same ver he would not forsake them for ever Donec Vntill they acknowledged their faults and sought him no longer shewing that after those dayes of death and buriall hee would returne and put new life into his people which is to be understood not carnally but spiritually and respects not onely their deliverance out of Babylon but their freedome from the slavery of sinne and hell to be accomplished ere long by Emmanuel the Savior of the world Now out of their Vivificabit we may learne that mans best life comes from Gods grace unlesse he revive us with his Spirit wee are dead in sinne like the Widow in pleasure 1 Tim. 5. She was dead though alive Secondly these men buried in miseries cry Vivemus We shall live to teach that life is to be hoped for in the jawes of death and though the Grave gapes never so wide yet it cannot devoure the Article of our Resurrection Wherefore my spirit and flesh shall rest in hope for though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet with these eyes I shall see God Thirdly here are Gods children in the darke night of Captivity raising arguments of comfort to helpe one another teaching that man should never despaire of Gods goodnesse or his owne Salvation but to beleeve in hope though against hope He that is good to himselfe neede not feare that God will be ill to him Would time permit I might shew you how this Text was verified upon Christ and how upon each Christian how Christ had these three dayes of Death Buriall and Resurrection upon whom God did let fly like an enraged Lyon did teare and smite him in the day of his fierce wrath and how each Christian must drinke after him in this bitter cup and in this life passe through the Iewes purgatory But I hasten to the period of all which like Iobs latter end is better than his beginning which stands like a beloved harbour beyond a churlish sea which looks like a cleare Heaven after a battaile of clouds and thunder 't is Visio Dei after all these tearings and smitings deaths and burials Vivemus coram eo We shall live in his sight ANd this is no meane happinesse to live in Gods sight in the last Chapter the Lord turned his backe upon them and did what he threatned Ier 7.15 I will cast you out of my sight And this Cain confessed to be no light punishment but one greater than he could beare Gen. 4.14 Behold thou hast driven mee out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I bee bid and it shall come to passe that every one that findes mee shall slay mee Some affirme that wheresoever Caine set his foote the earth trembled and Procopius adds a tradition that hee perpetually saw certaine Spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him the truth whereof I know not Yet this I am sure of no sword could be more fiery than that of his conscience which every moment with hidden launches did open his breast and made him thinke every creature he met owed him a murder And such is the estate of every one whom God turnes his backe upon but now it was Israels comfort that the Lords face was turned to them his favour and protection and though hitherto they had been cast out of both yet now they should live in his sight In a word the life
LONDONS Returne After the decrease of the SICKNES In a Sermon appointed for the Crosse but preached in St. PAULS CHVRCH January 8. 1637. By O.W. P. And when he was come neere he beheld the city and wept over it saying c. Luk. 19.41 LONDON Printed by N. and I. Okes and are to bee sold by Richard Whitaker at the signe of the Kings Armes in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1637. To the truly noble and my much honoured friend John Puliney Esquire Sir I Have read of gratitude in Birds and Beasts of a Lions thankefulnesse to a Romane Captive of a Storke which cast a precious Stone into the bosome of a Maide which had healed her of a wound Which deeds of Nature doe speake to me that Gospel Luk. 10.37 Vade tu fac similiter Goe thou and doe likewise Now if Solomon thought to shame the Sluggard into pains by sending him to the busie Ant I le thinke it no disparagement to learne in Natures Schoole gratitude of a Bird. Those many favours of Love which your noble spirit hath heaped upon me laid such a strickt siege to my thoughts that I knew not how to rescue my selfe but by this publike declaration wherein whil'st I shew my duty I proclaime my weaknesse and deserve this censure from the world to bee a man guilty of gratitude yet no matter 't is a lesse crime to commit an errour then to forget a friend and if Naaman did not remember his maide which told him of the Prophet I dare say his ingratitude was a fouler disease then his leprosie The last Summer when Divine Justice had scattered us over all the Land your house was my noble Sanctuary where I saw as much Religion practised as an Hypocrite can talke of and such reverent conformity in your private Chappell that obedience might there safely stand for a Lecture and bending the knee to the Jesus of men would not loose a voyce but get a blessing And now sir for my royall entertainement I present you with a paper paiment this poore Sermon which wear's no costly dresse preach'd in a time of sadnes when sorrow is the best eloquence To your hands I tender it and your religious Lady who to the glory of her Sex sees her selfe oftner in a Booke then in a Glasse and is so enamour'd with saving knowledg that she resembles the Bee which lives in honey or the Birds of the fortunate Ilands which are nourished with perfumes Now the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush preserve you both and your virgin sister second to none in Vertue who now increaseth the poore with Almes Mrs. Mary Puliney as she will hereafter Heaven with a Saint and the God of Jacob give you the blessing of Joseph the precious things of Heaven and the precious things of the Earth grant that what you sowe beneath you may reape above God Almighty lead you by the hands from Grace to Glory 't is the prayer of him who is and ever will bee Your vertues bumble and devoted servant O. WHITBIE Londons Returne Text Hosea 6. vers 1. Come and let us returne to the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath broken and he will bind us up Text Hosea 6. vers 2. After two dayes he will revive us the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight HEere are a sort of good people met in my text and I hope within mine eye too and though we are not all of one blood yet we are all of one businesse they and wee are now met about a returne to the Lord. And the time fitly conspires with our purpose for the yeere is now returned the Sun begins to returne and lengthens the day after him the Spring and Fowles will follow and most of you here are returned from your last yeeres exile to your owne houses O stay not behind in the best and chiefe of all returnes your returne to the Lord. Here is none in this needes feare Solomons Va soli woe to him that is alone for if you will returne you shall have a whole Nation to be are you company the twelve Tribes are now ready to set forth their way is our way their case our case even smiting and tearing and their Physitian our Physitian oh then let their voyce be ours and every one of us say to our neighbour as they here did Venite revertamur ad Dominum c. The words are a story of the egresse and regresse of prodigal children a cleare christall glasse wherein may bee seene the face and perfect proportion of penitent mens conversion Now as Travellers in a morning will not stay at every man they meete to enquire the way but having tooke good direction in their Inne passe on with speede No more will I now stand to dispute with all expositors of these many wayes which is the best but leade you on like Ahimaaz by the way of the plaine neither marching too furiously like some Iehu's of Rome who thinke to winne Heaven by their spurs nor yet creeping a snailes pace with our lasie Solifidians who would get to heaven too when they dye and yet live with their armes a crosse but leade you fairely on as Iacob did his wives children and in your way desire you to take notice of these observations First Israels proposition Secondly their reasons The Proposition is revertamur ad Dominum let us returne to the Lord. In few words they have spoke much Their reasons 1. Drawne from Gods Justice Hee hath torne and he hath smitten us ideo revertamur therefore let us returne 2. Drawne from Gods mercy and the profit which shall redound to us Hee will heale hee will binde us up He is a Chyrurgion that can heale all sores a Physitian that can cure all diseases ideo revertamur therefore let us returne 3. Is drawne from Gods power and goodnesse he can revive and raise us up though we are now dead in misery yet he can revive us though buryed in the graves of Assyrian bondage he can raise us up and this with as much speed as power after two dayes he will doe it and if not upon the second yet hee will bee sure to doe it upon the third ideo revertamur come therefore and let us returne Last of all here 's the happy estate we shall enjoy after our returne We shall live in his sight now wee suffer a living death in the Assyrian land where they that hate us are Lords over us but when once wee returne to the Lord we shall live in his sight In the proposition wee have the Persons Israel and Iudah their Act a returne their Object to the Lord Wherein they make 1. An ingenuous confession of their faults they acknowledge that they had gone astray because they desire to returne 2. Here 's their faith in that they durst returne had they not beleeved in Gods mercy they would not have come backe to him
3. Their charity they would not steale to him in private nor come alone like Nicodemus by night but all joyne together in the bands of love with a venite Come let us 4. Heer 's their humility in that they confesse to the glory of Gods justice with Daniel tibi Domine justitia nobis confusio facierum to thee O God belongs justice but to us smiting and tearing as at this day 5. Heer 's their hope in Gods power and goodnes that as he can so he will revive he will raise them up 6. Heer 's their patience that they would tarry the Lords leisure not only to the second but till the third day and blessed are all they that wait Isaiah 30. Last of all which is the Crowne of all they should live in his sight which was They should leade the life of Grace here and that should conduct them to the life of Glory hereafter And these parts are distillatio favi the voluntary droppings of this Honey-combe which I intend to speake of with much plainenesse the sadnesse of this time and subject will admit no descant sicke men must sigh and groane out their words the whole may sing and be witty I begin with the persons Israel and Iudah and their ingenuous confession That they had gone astray inferr'd out of their venite revertamur Come and let us returne THis life is a journey to another to a better life 't is mans way upon earth so said David I am going the way of all the earth 1. King 2.2 and no long way neither 't is but a short walke betwixt Cradle and a Grave But as in a Labyrinth so here many turnings there are many aberrations and therefore the Scripture cryes cavete take heede for straite is the gate and narrow is the path which leades to life and therefore the Prophet Isaiah ch 30.21 tells us of a voyce behinde us that cryes O all ye that passe on turne neither to your right hand nor your left this is the way walke in it The Church is your way the Priest your guide follow them and you shall finde rest to your soules But alas we are men while we cary about us these bodies of clay we shall either fall as the most righteous man doth seaven times a day or else forsake the right way as Baalam did who followed the wages of unrighteousnes 2. Pet. 2. in many things we all offend and who can say that when pleasure and profit have beckned to him he has not beene ready to say to God as Elisha did to his Master 1. King 19. Suffer me I pray thee to goe kisse them and I will follow thee this is our misery O but her 's our comfort the errors in our life are not like those in warre for which all repentance comes too late no being out of the way we may get in againe in the valley of Achor there was the doore of hope left open for us Hos 2.15 and we have a Saviour that tooke compassion on them that were out of the way Heb. 5.2 who sent forth his Disciples to be guides and leaders to all the World who lift up their voyces like Trumpets who cry heus vos O all yee that are out of your way make haste backe againe ye that have turned aside returne this is your way walke in it But what is it that so makes us loose our way O 't is sinne and therefore it is called transgressie from gressus our going and whereas it promiseth us a nearer way and a fairer as theeves doe the true men when they leade them into a wood yet alas 't is meere deceit and therefore called the deceitfulnesse of sinne Heb. 3.13 'T is Gull a tricke which the grand Cheator put upon our Mother in Paradise who promised her the nearest way to Divinity but shee found the cleane contrary Serpens seduxit the Serpent hath deceived me and led me out of the way In Hebrew the same word goes for sinne and error because every sinne is an error a turning out of the way which God commands us to walke in nonne errant omnes saith Solomon Proverbs 14. Doe not all sinners erre yes they doe we may see it in two places 2. King 21.9 where wicked Manasseh who drew Israel into heinous abominations is said to have led them out of the way Gods way and the way of life into the Divels way and way of death Manasseh led Israel out of the way The second is in the 53. Psalme 3. God looked downe from heaven upon the children of men to see if any would understand and seeke after God but hee findes they are all gone out of the way some had bought Farmes and must goe see them some yoakes of Oxen and must goe prove them and some had marryed wives and must goe bed them that is their affections like Sisera were nailed to the earth and the wayes of God not once thought on yet let all worldly wanderers know that truth of Solomon There is a way that seemes right to a man in his owne eyes yet the end thereof is death And though sinne may set a man a chaire as it did the scorner in the 1. Psalme or a stoole as it did in the 94. Psalme yet they must quickly be diseased of both and lye in Hell Psal 49. No Chaire of State nor Stoole of ease there Ther 's none of us I am sure that would endure that man who in a strange place in foule weather should purposely set us out of our way especially we being weary our beasts tyred our Inne a great way off and the night at hand surely if ever we met with that man again our blood would rise at him and we should have somewhat to say yet sinne leades all out of the way the way to heaven and who is angry who falls out with that It leads the old man out of his way who should make haste home death being close at his heeles and it leads the young man out of his way and betrayes him to theeves which wound his conscience and rob him of his innocence and often time casts him into a pit the pit of despaire from whence there is no redemption And therefore seeing young and old seeing all of us like sheepe have gone astray and have turned to our owne wayes Isaiah 53.6 let us make haste backe againe and seeing with the Prodigall we have gone into a farre Countrey every sinner goes farre from heaven and the God of it our mouthes being fill'd with laughter and our tongves with joy let us come backe by Weeping-Crosse and as travellers love good company we have in my Text all the Israel of God who having like us travelled into the wildernesse of Sinne are now making haste backe againe their way is our way their home our home let their faith bee our faith too and their voyce our voyce we stirring up one another as they here doe venite revertamur Come
which the Prophet here meanes was primarily a temporall life secondarily an eternall life absolutely the life of Grace by consequence that of Glory So the Chaldee para renders my Text vita donabit nos in diebus consolationis qui venturi sunt in die resurrectionis mortuorū suscitabit nos vivemus coram eo That is wee shall leade a happy life here and a glorified life hereafter these two following one another like the twinnes out of Rebecca's wombe the later laying hold upon the former and more then these two no covetous Jew could desire I cannot stay to shew you how this Prophesie was verified upon Israel Iudah whom the Lord after seventy yeares captivity raised from the graves of Assyrian bondage and brought them back to that Ierusalem which they beheld with as many tears of joy as they remembred with sorrow when they sate down by the Waters of Babylon where again they lived in Gods sight until new sinnes provoked a more consuming wrath and the Romans for crucifying theire innocent Messiah made the Jewes blood as cheape as their mothers teares The few sands which are yet behinde shall run forth in a short review of my Text by way of application and so I le commend you to God Come let us returne to the Lord c. HAd Hosea uttered his Prophesie the last yeare it would have beene hard to say whether hee meant Israel or England the Sceanes are the same onely the Actors differ both of us have beheld a Tragedy commenced in our owne blood Ierusalem bore the first part London the second Lord how are we spoyled said the Prophet of them and may not I say so of this place A City undone and no man the richer Above 1200 slaine and no sword seen Lord how are we spoyled How is Ierusalem become a desolate widow It was the Lamentation of Ieremiah and may it not be revived upon London how was she forsaken not onely of her children but of her God and many moneths sate like Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Your doores which were used to be opened to your friends were shut up by disease and the very casements whereat you tooke the breath of life did let in death so that wee may cry with Israel The Lord hath torne and the Lord hath smitten us and as the Magicians said of the lice of Egypt Exod. 8.16 They were digitus Dei the finger of God Wee may of our Visitation 't was manus Dei the hand of God and therefore we call it plaga a stroake a blow from heaven Yet see the goodnesse of the most high no sooner had we by the appoyntment of our most gracious Soveraigne run to the second of Ioel and proclaimed a Fast called a solemne assembly and cryed with Israel venite revertamur O come let us returne unto the Lord. But that power who repented of making us did also repent of destroying us and said My Spirit shall not alwaies contend with man least the soules which I have made should faile before me Isai 57. And as Ieremiah cryed God is the health of Israel Chap. 3. so may I God is become the health of London it was not the Frost nor the Snow nor any of natures colds throwne downe from those moving shops of Meteors but Dominus sanauit the Lord hath healed the Lord hath bound us up And now let me direct my speech to you right Honourable and the inhabitants of this City and say in the words of the Saviour of the World Art thou made whole sinne no more least a worse thing happen to thee though yee have escaped the last yeares contagion yet there is a Tophet in Isaiah where plagues are eternall And therefore let every man beginne a reformation at home as those cryed out much more will I every man to his tents O Israel to his conscience O London Now looke to thine owne house David I make no question but much cost and labour has beene bestowed in ayring and cleansing your houses but it is to no purpose unlesse you sweepe out sinne which Solomon calls the plague of the heart turne that out of your shops and consciences it will prove a better antidote than all the Pitch Rue and Franckincense in the World Infect the aire no more with your oathes and courteous equivocations make not your selves worse in belying your wares that they are better the most winning eloquence a trades-man can speake is truth and the best way to thrive apace is to pray Look not upon the next life as Mathematitions do at heaven through a cranney or hole out of a darke Chamber which renders it poore and small not venture your hopes of heaven like Cain to build upon earth Raise not the walls of your houses with the ruine of Gods house or your neighbours nor pay your Lecturers with your Parsons tithes let not the wrack't out blood of the Tenant cry against you nor your workmens wages be kept backe Use not false lights and a deceitfull ballance wherein your soules are put and found too light And beleeve me before it is too late Godlinesse is great gaine and there 's no such policy in this World as to bee an honest man And you my Lord and your brethren to whom the government of this City is committed I know you have taken all the courses that wisedome can thinke of to stay the infection when there is but one way to doe it that is to make your Citizens good but you will say 't is God that must doe this you cannot t is true your part is only to shew them the way by a good example and seeing your spirit is the first wheele whereunto all others are fastned it is necessary that you give a good motion for it is held by some Astronomers that when the Sunne stood still in the time of Ioshuah the Moone and Starres kept the like pause Now if you that are Governours would have the Plague a stranger in the City then see that in your Courts of Iudicature justice and mercy kisse each other Let justice runne downe like water and righteousnesse as the river Amos 5.24 It will clense the City better then all your Conduits let loose upon Sundayes Suffer not the wicked Advocate who plowes lies and exchanges God for a bribe to put Trueth upon the Rack and stretch a Clients cause with delayes as the Shoomaker doth Leather with his teeth these men are our Plagues in the times of health and it put Gods mercy to a stand when in Ierusalem there was not found a man that executed justice Iet 5. How shall I pardon thee for this saith the Lord ver 7. But God hath set you on high to no other purpose then to punish vice beneath you and if you suffer that to rise it will trample you under foote and therefore continue my Lord like a good Moses to stand in the gap pleade before God the cause of his people with your prayers and before his people the cause of God with your sword And let me beseech all that heare me that they would leave no sparkes of sinne raked up in their consciences least the fire of Gods wrath breakes out againe more furiously the next spring Verifie the first part of my Text Returne to the Lord with all your hearts with all your soules and he will verifie the second sanabit hee will heale hee will binde us up And though for two dayes you and your shops and your tradings have laine dead yet there 's a third day wherein God will raise you up and make you live in his sight where Divine protection shall watch over you here and keepe all Plagues from your bodies as the Nurse does flyes from the face of her sleeping childe till you enter into the other vision of God the sight of Glory where our miseries can have no beginning nor our felicity any ending where youth shall not waxe old nor health impaire but these bodies which are now the shops of all diseases shall become as impassible as Angels as subtile as rayes of light as radiant as the Sunne and as swift as the wings of thunder and we shall lead no other life than that of God of the knowledge of God of the love of God and that as long as God shall be God and therefore venite revertamur ad Dominum Come and let us returne to the Lord for hee hath torne and hee will heale us hee hath broken and hee will binde us up After two dayes hee will revive us the third day hee will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Which God of his mercy grant c. FINIS