the Plague of Sin Afflictions are designed by God for our amendment Let that designe take effect upon us let those terrible Thunder-claps clear and purifie the air As Naturalists observe that one poison is an Antidote against another So let this grievous Pâ—stilence which is now upon the Land and upon this Town drive out the Plague of the Heart Ringing of Bells they say is some ways serviceable to remove the Infection Oh! let every sad toll for our deceased Brethren put us in minde of our Mortality and promote the death of sin in us Lastly Keep a diet in order to the preserving of thy self from the Souls Plague Too high and plentifull a feeding increaseth any disease in us see that thou be moderate in the use of the creatures Take heed to thy self least at any time thy heart bâ— overcharged with surfetting and drunkeness and cares of this life Indulge not an intemperate course of living for death is in the pot which is set on by luxury and wantoness If thou callest thy self a Christian be content to be diâ—ted kept in and confined by the stricter rules of the Gospel And now what ever effect those usuall Medicines and Receipts may have for the curing of the Bodily Plague I am sure these that I have named are approved by Christ and his Apostles that great Colledge of Physitians you may take them safely and with confidence of success and I pray God give a blessing unto them And thus having insisted on the Metaphor in the Text I shall now treat more at large and descend to some plain Dirâ—ctions for our better behaviour in these sad times both in reference to the present visitation of the Plague and the sad concomitants of it poverty and necessity And the first Direction is this Be sensible of Gods Judgments now upon you and tremble at them Know therefore and see that it is an evill thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God This was the use which that Holy man made of Gods dismall providences My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am affraid of thy judgments And again Thou even thou art to be feared Who knows but that these present calamities are prologues and presages of far worser Certain it is that this is the duty incumbent on us at present to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear seeing our God is a consuming fire Here then you are to be called upon to acknowledge that it is Gods Hand that is now heavy upon you Shâ—ll there be any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it No surely there is no evill in the great City of this Nation no evill or Plague in the Countrey but God must be acknowledged the author and disposer of it This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divine superintendency in all our calamities which Hippocrates speaks of and frankly acknowledgeth in all diseases And Christians should much more allow of it looking beyond second causes to the first and chief of all Say not then that the influence of the starrs and heavenly bodies or the late glaring Comets which appeared were the causes of the burning feavers and malignant distempers and even of this fatall Pestilence which sweeps so many into their graves blame not this or that Indeed as Philosophers and Naturalists you are permitted to search into the secondary and physicall causes of this dreadfull distemper but as Christians and those that live by higher principles you are first to look up unto God and then down into your selves and there behold the Hand of the Lord stretched out against you God is the great Soveraign of the world the wise disposer of the Universe who doth what seemeth good unto him both in heaven and in earth If he shall please to correct and chastise us all naturall causes shall give way to his providence which can find us out though we labour to run never so far from it The Plague can climbe over walls never so high and strongly built it can come in at the windows though they are made never so fast it can make it's passage through the doors of the house though they are never so closely lockt and bolted Labour then to be convinced of this that there is a God that judgeth in the earth that you are in his hands and that whatever you suffer is by his disposall I even I am he and there is no God besides I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up And it is clear from Davids Choice that the Pestilence is more remarkably the Hand of God Let me fall now into the Hand of the Lord saith he and by Davids Seer it is stiled the sword of the Lord. The present Arrows of the Almighty are not like that with which Ahab was wounded which the Story tells us one shot at a venture No chance and fortune have nothing to do here Apollo was fitly feigned by the Poet to have sent the Pestilence into the Graecian Army no less then a God in their Divinity could do it But I pass to The second Direction Be more sensible of your sins then of the punishments that are upon you be more fearfull of the Plague of the Heart then of the present contagion that raigns in your streets be much more troubled in your souls to have committed a sin against God then to have it punished by him and for the future choose rather to undergo any suffering from men then to dishonour God Avoid that which grieves the Holy Spirit rather then what troubles and afflicts thy outward man How timorous are we and dejected at the thoughts of the Plagues approaching near us We have much more reason to be fearfull of sin which is the sting of all judgments We are apt to sit down and bemoan our selves after this manner Alas our condition is very sad the place we live in is Infected we see whole Families drop away here Parents are bereaved of their Children there the Children survive their Parents but alas are left shiftless to the wide world Many houses are shut up and onely sickness and death are Tenants there Neighbours are affraid of one another and it is not Trading but poverty and want which bring them to the sight of one another How many are buried as it were while they live and when they are dead they can hardly finde any one to befriend â—â—em with a Grave What cryings and complainings are there in our streets and if Gods Hand should continue on us longer it will be hard to tell whether scarcity or the Sickness be the worst Plagues After this sort do we bemoan our selves under Gods judgments but where is the man among us that cryes out of his sins his sins Where is the spiritual mourner that lays
THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART Its Nature and Quality Original and Causes Signs and Symptoms Prevention and Cure WITH Directions for our behaviour under the present Judgement and Plague of the Almighty By JOHN EDWARDS Minister of Trinity Parish in Cambridge CAMBRIDGE Printed by Iohn Field for Edmund Beechinoe Bookseller in Cambridge 1665. To the Inhabitants of the Town of Cambridge especially to my loving Parishioners of Trinity GRACE PEACE AS you have the Plague of the Body wasting in your streets so you are to take notice of a worser even the Spiritual Plague of your Hearts To this purpose I hope this short Discourse may be somewhat serviceable which even when it shall please God to take away the Bodily Disease may still be usefull to you to guard you against the Spiritual but more poisonous Distemper It is recorded to the honour of Queen Eleanor that when her Royall Husband in the Holy War was wounded with a poisoned Knife by a desperate Saracen the Incomparable Lady sucked the poison out of his Wound A signal instance of her Love to him Sin Beloved is Poison I wish unfeignedly I could by any holy skill and method ease you of that more dangerous Venom at your Hearts O that this Paper might prove a Plaister to draw it It is true I must confess my self one of the meanest and unworthiest of all those Physitians and Guides of Souls that are in the Church I may not be able to treat so successfully of this Spiritual Disease as those worthy persons who are of greater practise and larger experience But I request you that when you make tryal of what is here you would call upon God for a blessing and if you find any good thank God for it not me I will not beg your excuse by telling you these are very slender Preparations for the Press for I chose rather to hasten this little Thing and give it you as it is then to loose the opportunity of doing good by making it better There is nothing in it can render it worthy of the publick view but its seasonableness and your kind acceptance of it Many of the Directions which you will meet with I gave you lately in some of my Sermons which I Preached since the Hand of God hath been heavy upon this Town I must tell you I designed not language but living well It is not required that the Physitians Bill be curiously Penned but that the Medicines be there faithfully prescribed Besides a gaudy and flaunting stile is no ways suitable to these Mournfull Times I have onely this to beg of you that you would be mindfull of me at the Throne of Grace beseeching the Lord that he would crown my Ministery with the conversion salvation of many souls and that he would make me feel the power and influence of those saving Truths upon my own heart which I deliver unto you And my earnest Prayer for you shall be that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God The Great and Good God multiply his Gifts and Graces â—pon you The God of all blessings bless you and yours and keep you from sin and sickness This is the earnest Prayer of Yours in all Christian service J. E. Cambridge Novemb. 11th 1665. THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART 1 KINGS 8. 38. Which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart THese words are part of King Solomons prayer which he made at the dedication of the Temple the drift of the whole is that God would be pleased whensoever any judgements and calamities befall the Israelites to hear their requests and answer their prayers put up in that place and to remove their crosses and forgive their sins This is the design of the Prayer and the Lord appeared to Solomon afterwards assuring him that he had heard this his supplication Here then is a refuge and an escape for penitent sinners against Distresses Plagues and Troubles But every Prayer will not prove effectuall observe therefore the severall Requisites fairly intimated in this Holy Addresse of Solomon namely confessing of Gods name confession of sins and turning from them and then lastly the prayer and supplication must be made by those Israelites which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart Which shall know 1. Take notice of 2. Lament and be sorry for 3. Avert and cure Every man Every one all persons of both sexes of all qualities The Plague 1. The stroke the blow that 's the Originall signification 2. Any great judgement sent by God for the punishing of sin the lashes of the Divine Nemesâ—s strokes on the estates or bodies of men 3. That signall stroke of God that Plaga Dei that infectious and fatall Disease which we call the Sickness with an Emphasis Thus the word imports but here it is applyed to the Heart 1. The soul and its faculties principally they received a blow a foul knock in Adam and since they are bruised daily by our venturing at the breach of Gods Laws 2. The life and practice consequently for out of the Heart are the issues of Life So that as we consider in the Heart in mans Body its passages apartments and ventricles so here we may well understand both the corrupt principles and evill dispositions of our natures and the vanities and follies of our lives which are but the emanations of the former His own Heart The man is to look into his own breast and see if he find any tokens there he must live at home he hath work to do within doors So that I might present you with an Observation from every word but my design at present is onely to take occasion from these words to treat of the Plague of the Heart for though as I have intimated already the word here used doth not properly and primarily signifie the Disease of the Pestilence yet in the Verse foregoing it is joyned with Sickness whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be and it plainly referrs to the Pestilence or Plague Emphatically so called If there be Pestilence in the Land One Plague suggested another to the good mans thoughts and indeed it is no unusuall thing with pious persons to make even the diseases of their bodies administer matter of devout meditation for the health of their souls there is nothing that they see but it brings God to their thoughts there is nothing in Nature nothing in Providence that they converse with but their sanctified minds can make some good use of a devout Fancy turneth earth into heaven and all secular occurrences into something Divine and Spirituall Did not our Saviour make use of Parabolicall speeches to slip in to the fancies
When I have brought them into straits can they by their own power extricate themselves out of them It would better become them to sit down patiently and shake of that base spirit of fearfulness and unwillingness to bear the yoak The Thracians they say when the Sun burns hot upon them and so when it thunders and lightens out of a kinde of revenge shoot up their Arrows against Heaven And we read that upon pouring out of one of the Vials men were scorched with great heat and blasphâ—med the name of God which had power over the Plagues This is the guise of some peevish and angry mortals but if thou callest thy self a Christian thou art obliged to be of anotherâ—piâ—iâ— â—piâ—iâ— undergoing with patience and chearfulness whatever thy Heavenly Father shall inflict upon thee Let not your hearts be troubled said our Saviour to his sorrowfull Disciples believe in God believe also in me 'T is Faith that must uphold thee and support thy spirits make God thy buckler and strength thy Rock and place of refuge trust in Him now or never It is he that must give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Do as David in his distress at Ziglag Encourage thy self in the Lord thy God His Providence rules the world there is not a Sparrow falls to the ground without his permission his eyes run thorow the whole earth he sees and knows thy soul in adversity thou perhaps sitâ—est solitary and hast no company to visit thee thou weepest alone in a dark corner and thy case is not known to the world but God takes notice of thee his Eye is towards thee But that is not all thou hast his Ear too thou art assured of this as well as of that other Prerogative from the words of the Psalmist The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry And in another place where this Holy King had laid open his sad and lamentable condition he at last concludes thus Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Thou hast Gods Heart too he pitys thy condition his bowels yearn towards thee he is afflicted in all thy affliction he hath the pity of a tender Father but because love and affection and kinde-heartedness is thought to lodg most of all in the other Parent therefore he tells us by his Prophet that he hath the love of an indulgent mother towards her sucking childe whom she then tends upon with the greatest care and compassion when she sees it is drooping and sickly But the mother may prove unnaturâ—ll and abate of her affection and kindness to her little Infant Yet will I not forget thee faith the Lord. When my father and my mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up That was the holy confidence and assurance which the distressed Psalmist had of Gods mercy and compassion towards him And it was an excellent contrivance of Divine Wisdome to this very purpâ—â—â— that Christ should assume our nature for hereby he is become such a High-priest as can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Remarkable are those words in St Matthews Gospel taken out of the Prophesie of Isaiah concerning Christ Himself took our inâ—irmities and bare our sicknesses yet was he not personally troubled with any disease but when he came to any sâ—ck and diseased wretches his manner was by pity and sympathy to afflict himself with their sicknesses as when he visited Lazarus both alive and in the grave thus he bears our sicknesses and distempers by a fellow-feeling and compassion And then also thou hast Gods Arm under thee to support thee in thy affliction thy neighbours may see thee and lâ—sten to thy sad complaints and pity thy sadder condition but they cannot help thee to bear thy burthen nay they oftentimes augment affliction by compassionating it but thy God is present with thee to succour thee he will not suffer thee to be tempted above what thou art able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that thou mayst be able to bear it Though thou fallest thou shalt not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth thee with his Hand Eastly Gods Hand is over thee to act for thee and in due time to deliver thee out of thy afflictions to this purpose is that promise made to every righteous man He shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in troâ—ble I will dâ—liver him and honour him Which promise is the more remarkable at this season because it is the conclusion of that Psalm which treats wholly of Gods Providence over his children in the time of the Pestilence In short then thou hast Gods Eye to take notice of thee Gods Ear to hear thee Gods Heart to pity thee and Gods Hand and Arm to support and deliver thee thou hast promises to live upon which cannot be taken from thee great and precious promises the Angels are promised as thy life-guard to defend thee and pitch their tents about thee upon condition that thou seekâ—st first the kingdom of God and his righteousness all these temporall things which may serve for thy necessity shall be added unto thee if thou fearest God there shall be no want to thee all things shall work together for thy good the Lord will be to thee aâ— sun and a shâ—eld the Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from thee if thou walkest uprightly And the whole Ninety first Psalm is full fraught with Promises which as I have intimated already may serve thee as Cordials to chear thee under the present Visitation Often think of and support thy self with these props of comfort often resort to these wells of salvation often read over these large expressions of love and compassion place thy whole trust and affiance in God the author of these priviledges and the onely sanctuary of thy soul trust in Him and despise this vain world whose pleasures are counterfeit and imaginary whose enjoyments are momentany and unsatisfactory Turn about this Globe often and view it's severall parts survey it but narrowly and that 's enough to bring thee out of love with it and to make thee desire after Heavâ—n that Land of Promise The Americans point to certain great hills and tell us there it is that they shall be happy hereafter there they shall wander in fine fields take their pleasures in brave Orchards and goodly Gardens and there dance and be merry Poor souls do these sensuall expectations these ridiculous fopperies and delusions chear them and shall not certain joys well-grounded hopes and reall promises make Christians live chearfully and smooth their brows in the greatest distresses and calamities Look up then by a steady Faith This is the Christian Telescopâ— hereby thou mayst discover and plainly discern the joys of Heavâ—n and the
your selves for this sinful land for this distressed Town 2. Disingage your affections more resolvedly from the world you see the vanity of it daily you have fresh experiences of the uncertainty of all creature comforts let your hearts be taken off from them even whilest you do possess them and be ready to part with them 3. Act Faith more strongly and trust on God when the world fails you 4. Walk more warily and strictly in your lives throw not away your time so vainly as heretofore be more sober and watchful minding the welfare of your own souls and calling upon others to serve God and credit the Christian Religion by a holy life Act to the utmost of your power in the place God hath set you be not weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not And lastly to draw to a conclusion when it shall please God in much mercy to remove the present Plague and judgment from this Town remember that you faithfully keep those vows and promises which you made unto God in the day of your fears and distresses Call upon me saith God in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mâ— See then that you glorifie God by walking answerably to the mercies and deliverances vouchsafed to you Vow and pay unto the Lord your God When you ate taken out of the Furnace of affliction do not return to your former hardness and inflexibleness If you have laid aside your sins in your affliction do not afterwards take them up again when the affliction is removed Do not as Pharaoh did who cryed out to have the Plagues taken away and withal acknowledged his sin and asked forgiveness and made large promises of amendment but when his request was granted he hardned his heart and returned to his former wickedness 'T was a bad requital Noah made for his escaping the flood to be drowned afterwards in wine 'T will be sad for thee if thy resolutions of living well end at last in forgetfulness of God and dishonouring of his Name by by a most scandalous life Think of it well then and be sincere and cordial in thy purposes and if with Hezekiah thou hast years added to thy life add likewise to thy promises and resolves a holy and blameless conversation If God shall in love to thy soul deliver it from the pit of corruption do thou shew thy self thankful unto him by walking in newness of life If God shall bring thee out into a wealthy place then pay the vows which thy lips have uttered and thy mouth hath spoken when thou wast in trouble If the Lord hath heard thy voice and supplications when the sorrows of death compassed thee and thou dâ—dst finde trouble and sorrow if he hath delivered thy soul from death thine eyes from tears and thy feet from falling break forth into the Psalmists professions of love and duty to God for his deliverance I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thansgiving I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Of the ten Lepers which were healed by our Saviour there was but one of them returned to give thanks unto Him We are greedy of mercies but how backward are we to acknowledg the receipt of them and to walk worthy of them But let us now at length bethink our selves of our duty and resolve to put our resolutions into action Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee This was the advice of that great Spiritual Physitian thus runs his Bill for that man whom he had formerly healed of a bodily disease Oh! let us have a care of a Relapse for that will prove unspeakably dangerous and destructive to us 'T was a sad aggravation of the Israelites sins acknowledged by the Levites in their Solemn Confession that after they had rest they did evil again before God Sins committed after great mercies are of a Crimson dye and are beyond measure sinful these do cause the fullest vials of Gods wrath to be poured down upon us if there be any sins that escape punishment to be sure these are not they as it follows in that place before-named Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies Those Cities Towns and Families which are or shall be delivered from the noisom Pestilence may very fitly take up the words of Ezra After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less then our iniquities deserve and hast given us such dâ—liverance as this should we again break thy Commandments and joyn in assinity with the people of these abominations wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hast consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor â—scaping Yea the Rod shall go about again the severities of Gods vengeance shall over-take us God will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lyes and your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overslowing scourge shall pass thorow then ye shall be trodâ—â—n down by it from the time that it goâ—th forth it shall take you for morning by morning it shall pass over by day and by night and it shall be a vexation onely to understand the report for the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon that he may do his work his strange work and bring to pass his act his strange act God will not spare neither will he have pity but he will recompence our ways upon our heads He hath variety of punishments he hath a store-house of judgments he hath a bundle of rods he hath several vials of wrath and he will pour them all out upon an ungrateful faithless and perverse people I will punish you seven times more for your sins and I will bring seven times more Plagues upon you according to your sins Nay this numerous curse is twice more repeated and denounced against those that will not hearken unto God but walk contrary to Him And to shut up all after God had smartly reproved and upbraided the Israelites for their incorrigibleness and reckoned up those several judgments which he had inflicted on them amongst the rest the Pestilence and at the end of every one of them had complained that nevertheless they had not returned unto him Therefore in the close of all says he thus will I do unto thee O Israel namely as thy sins deserve and as I have denounced against thee and because I will do this unto thee PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD O Israel Now unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS Chap. 9. Vers. 3. Veâ—se 37. Psal. 41. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 17. Isai. 1. 5 6. Psal 140. 2 3. James 3 8. Mich 7. 3. Isa. 57. 5. I saiah 57. 20 21. Acts 26. 11. Jer. 50. 38. Prov. 1. 18. Rom. 1. 21. Jer. 4 22. 1 Tim. 4. 2. Rom. 6. 13. Levit. 14. 41. Deut. 32. 5. Jer. 17. 9. Heb. 12. 1. Rom 7. 17. Jer. 13. 23. Isa. 64. 6. Ecclesiastes 9. 18. Mat. 7. 13. Gen. 6. 12. â—os 13. 9. Gen. 39. 9. Prov. 14. 16. Isa. 8. 13. Mat. 10. 28. Ephes. 5. 11 Prov. 4 14 15. Prov. 5. 8. Prov. 6. 29. Psal. 26. 4 5 6 1 Thes 5. 22. Ep. Jud. 23. â— Psal 32. 3 4. Vers. 5. Prov. 28. 13. Isa. 53. 5. Zac. 13. 1. Mal. 4. 2. Acts. 15. 9. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Prov. 6. 21. 22 Heb 4. 12. Act. 22. 37 41. Lam 3. 15. Vers. 19 20 21. Luke 21. 34. Jer. 2. 19. Psal. 119. 120. Psal. 76. 7. Heb. 12. 28 29 Amos. 3 6. Deut. 32. 39. 1 Sam. 2. 6. 1 Chron 21. 12 13. Neh. 9. 33. Jer. 2. 17 19. Isa. 59. 2. Lam. 1. 8. â— Cor. 11. 30. Psal. 103. 3. 2 Sam. 24. 17. Exod. 32. 30 31. 2 Pet. 2. 7. Psal. 119. 136. Phil. 3. 18. James 5. 12. Mat. 5. 34. Josh. 7. 12 13 Josh. â—4 15. Esther 4. 16. 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. Jer. 18. 7 8. Isa. 1. 4 5. â—aâ— 3. 7. â—ev 6. 9. John 14. 1. Psal. 60. 11. Psal. 34. 15. Psal. 38. 9. Isa. 49. 15. Psal. 27. 10. Heb. 4. 15 16. Mat. 8. 17. Isa. 53. 4. 1 Câ—r 10. 13. Psal. 7. 24. Psal. 91. 15. â—at 6. 33. â—sal 34. 9. Psal. 84. 11. Habak 2. 4. Habak 3. 17 18 Luke 12. 15. Deut. 32. 13. Dan. 1. 12 13. Psal. 37. 37 38. Psal. 46. 1. Psal. 68. 20. Psal. 41. 3. Psal. 39. 10. James 5. 13. Psal 103. 10. Psal 9. 10. 2 Cor. 1. 10. Isa. 38. 1. Psal. 37. â— 34. Psâ—l 9â— 11. 1 Cor. 7. 20. B. Iewel Isa. 57. 1 2. Isa. 26. 20. Hos. 13. 14. 2 Kings 19. 37. 2 Chron. 16. 12. Isa. 26. 3 4. Jer. 9. 1. Amos 6. 1 3 4 5 6. vers 7. Ephes. 5. 16. Eccle. 9. 10. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Gal. 6. 9. Psal 50. 15. Psal. 76. 11. Psal. 66. 12 13 14. Pâ—â—â— 6. 9 12 13 14 17 18. John 5. 14. Neh. 9. 28. Ezra 9. 13 14 Isa. 28. 17 18 19 21. Levit. 26. 18 21 24 28. Amos 4. 12. 1 Tim. 1. 17.