there be necessary cause of the sound or some of their attendance or repaire Moreouer it may be that the sound or some of thē be profitable members in the Church or common wealth now the more hope there is of good by them the more care there ought to be of their preseruation according to the peoples care for the safetie of Dauid before spoken of Profess In my conscience this seemes to be very true but I pray you tel me what you think of them who send their seruants vnto the Pest-house Preach Right wel especially if they want conuenient roome other means at home for I vnderstand of the Cities right honorable and christian prouisiō for that house I know diuers there wel vsed and thence well returned and it is extant in print that when there were buried in and about London 3385. in one wéek yet of all pestred in that house there were buried but six And therfore I condemne those that raised a slander vpon that house holding them as despisers of gouernment and wicked ill speakers of them that are in authoritie Prof. If you conuersed amongst people as I do and must do I know your spirit would be griued to see how ready they be to lay hold on euery light occasion and false report to speake their wicked pleasure of Gouernors O that they would consider the example you lately in a Sermon vrged of a plague kindled amongst the Israelites for charging Moses and Aaron with killing Corah and his rebellious complices Well God amend vs all and giue vs grace to humble our selues vnder this his heauie hand that we may be raised again and comforted according to the dayes he hath afflicted vs. Now I speake of cōfort that we may go on with the main matter I wold know if it might be without offence whether you would haue those pittifull creatures that are tormēted with the plague to want the comfort which they may take by the very presence of their good neighbors friends much more by their comfortable words Preach O neighbour I wish them all true comfort of body and mind the Lord knoweth and I graunt that the very presence of those we loue is very comfortable in time of sicknesse but yet I aduise all visited with that deadly and contagious disease to manifest their mortification from vnnecessarie desires their charitable loue to their friends by not desiring them to come into far greater daunger than their presence can do good without necessarie cause And let them remember how Dauid refused that water which was gotten with ieopardie of life and called it bloud though he had longed for it the daunger was past As for comfortable words I likewise acknowledge their speciall vse but before I answer that point let vs consider how needfull it is especially in time of mortality to hide in their hearts the word of life lest wée be iustly punished with want of comfortable words when we most need them according to that of Amos where a famin of the word is threatned to despisers of the Sabboth and that at such a time when to find the word they would run from the East to the West Now to the point Sith all sicknesse especially the plague vntill the worst be past when cōfortable words are not vsually in great request maketh vs vnfit for long learned discourses therfore short sentēces may through Gods blessing do much good whereby attendants friēds repairing for necessary causes may sufficiently comfort the afflicted according to that which is required by the Apostle in Thess 4. 18. except there be extraordinary néede of resolution or consolation whereof I haue spoken before Again the Spirit of God is called a Comforter because he bringeth the words of Christ vnto remembrance and that especially in time of néed as when we iustifie wisedome before authoritie so when we are sick For when the outward man perisheth the inward man is renewed so that we often heare not onely men but euen children also speake diuinely and admirably in their sicknesse We may the rather make account of this holy assistance if we follow Christ his counsel in laying vp his words in our hearts and praying for the holy Ghost All the premises constdered I hope that you are now of my mind touching the restraint as of the infected from the sound so of the sound from the infected Profess Indeede I confesse that your probable discourses haue won I know not how a certaine inclination to your opinion but yet I must suspend my resolution till you haue answered certain obiections against the maine grounds of your opinion but before I come to them let me haue but one word with you about buriall I say but one word for if those that are infected in person or garment are to keep from Church for a time conuenient and if friends are to forbeare resorting to friends sicke of the Plague except they haue necessary cause then I may of my felfe conclude that we are not to throng after infected corpses which haue no good thereby without some reasonable cause That one word I spake of is this I would gladly know if I may obtaine that fauour your iudgement concerning the direction of authoritie that but sixe persons besides the Minister Clerke and bearers should accompany infected corpses Preach I dare not presume to iudge of the determinations of authoritie without sufficiēt reason which I want in this case but rather I am perswaded according to that I am commaunded by these words Honor thy father and mother to indge the best and take it as an argument that authoritie careth more for the liuing then for the dead their pompe so dangerous in these times and not necessary as wise men thinke But mine own opinion is this I could wish the friends of the diseased would respect the preseruation of life more than complements of buriall But I vtterly mislike that infected persons should thrust into the throng and it grieueth me to heare how the poorer sort yea women with yong children will flocke to burials and which is worse stand of purpose ouer open graues where sundry are buried together that forsooth all the world may see that they feare not the Plague This peruerse course of too too many in doing that which authority forbiddeth and despising that which authoritie commandeth to wit fasting and praier occasioneth me to obserue a notable proportion betwéene the plague the wickednes of this time by which proportion God séemeth to teach men to say in their hearts we would not be ruled neither by reason nor authority therefore are so many as it were distracted in their sicknesse and by no meanes to be ruled so that some leape out of the windowes and some runne into the Thames As the rough spéeches of Ioseph caused his brethren to say As we would not heare Ioseph so this man will not heare vs. I rather obserue
the ministration of the word by ministring to the poore and therefore put ouer that duty to speciall men If the Apostles extraordinarily assisted by the Spirit both with gifts and blessing cast off an impertinent burthen yea such an one as is no lesse necessarie then visiting Alas why should Ministers who néede all helpes as much reading diligent conference and frequent meditation be further charged than they are by Christ Indéed I confesse that a Minister ought as you said to be an example of all good workes especially of that as being the fittest man to satisfie the doubtfull conscience to humble the stubburne heart and to comfort the wounded spirit Profess I neuer heard this matter doubted of before But I pray you Sir doth not Iames say Is any sicke among you let him call for the Elders of the Church Doth he not vnderstand Ministers by Elders If so doth not this place proue plainely that it is a Ministers dutie to visite the sicke Preach I say not but that it is a Ministers dutie to visite the sicke for example sake and as he is more able to do good than other but not as he is Minister I graunt also that long since the same doctrine from this place hath bene gathered which you now apprehend So as vpon the same Papistes haue grounded their bastard Sacrament of Extreame vnction Which taken away the cursed people which know not the law neither care to know it being euer addicted to superstitious vanities must néedes forsooth in stead thereof haue a Minister to visite their sicke though they be more then halfe dead As in stead of Dirgies and Trentals they must haue funerall Sermons for fashion sake Thus the holy Ministery and most glorious name of God must be abused and taken in vaine by following the vaine humour of arrogant Folly which neuer cared for Ministers or Sermons as al ought to haue done in time of health I graunt that some Professors for all this Plague whereby humours I trow should be mortified haue a mind that funerall Sermons attend their credit So strōg a temptation is the Pride of life incouraged by Custome But to come to the point this place of Iames doth not proue that it is the proper dutie of a Minister to visite the sicke For the Elders were sent for to heale the sicke by prayer and oyle according to that miraculous grace which was then bestowed vpon them for confirmation of the Word so that I am of your mind that teaching Elders be here vnderstood Which gift discontinuing this Canon is annulled so that in time of Pestilence it is absurdly concluded that because Iames inioyned Ministers to go to heale the sicke therefore Ministers must vpon euery call aduenture their liues by visiting the sick of the plague Againe if it be the proper dutie of Ministers to visite the sicke as it was the proper gift of Elders for confirmation of the word to heale with oyle then none must visite the sicke but Ministers as none must minister the Sacraments which properly belong to their function but they Lastly this word Elders in the plurall number putteth me in mind that Ministers were in the primitiue Church assisted with other Elders for there were two sorts of Elders who looked to the manners of people and with Deacons who looked to the poore that they themselues might attend their studie prayer preaching and the Sacraments Why then should we thinke that visiting the sicke was laid vpon them as a dutie properly pertaining to their ministerie But rather that Elders by spirituall comfort and Deacons by outward reliefe visited the sicke as there was néed so that the Minister was not troubled but in extraordinarie necessitie As when none but he could satisfie the despairefull conscience or mind doubtfull in a fundamentall errour of one likely otherwise to die out of the faith In which case I thinke a Minister ought to hazard his life My reason is It is the reueiled will of God that he must saue a lost shéepe but it is Gods secret whether he shall be infected And the rather because of the promise made to him that walketh in his way The premises considered touching ordinarie visitation thus I conclude that as Ministers are exemplarily but not as Ministers to releeue the poore according to their abilitie and where they haue some speciall calling so they are exemplarily but not as Ministers to visite the sicke according to their leysure and where they haue some speciall calling Profess I know not whether I should be glad or sad for drawing from you so probable and it may be a profitable discourse but I will suspend my iudgement sith you submit your opinion to the censure of the Church and proceede with your fauour to require the iustifying of that vncharitable doctrine so seeming against visiting the sicke of the Plague and so contrarie to Christ his iudgement as hath bene shewed Preach But haue you shewed that the plague is expressed And haue you neuer heard that there be few rules so generall but they admit some exception By the same iudgement prisoners are to be visited and yet none were bound in conscience to go into the dungeon there personally to visit Ieremy though he were the Lords prophet Againe you vtterly mistake the point for the question is not whether the sick of the Plague are to be visited which God forbid that any Preacher should gainesay but whether they are to be so visited and with such resort as other sicke of diseases not contagious Lastly in the place so much vrged Christ doth not necessarily require personall visitation though that also be comfortable in cases conuenient and so required accordingly but real that is by reléefe either brought sent or procured for in the 44. verse of that chapter you may find Ministring to Christ vsed for all other workes of Charitie before specified Whereby it is manifest that Christ requireth not so much personall visiting as charitable ministring to the necessitie of the sick Of all other Princes and Magistrates who are foster-fathers and shepheards are to visite the sicke But who will say they are to do it in person and not rather by a faithfull care that the sicke of the Plague be wel prouided for Profess But how can the sicke be wel prouided for if none do personally attend them and if none be bound in conscience personally to visite how shall they be attended Preach All this is true But husbands and wiues parents and childrē masters and seruants neare neighbors and deare friends are mutually to attend each other if otherwise conuenient attendance cannot be procured Profess Why do you adde this condition Preach Because life is precious so that we must not destroy the dam with the yong and therfore séeing the plague swéepeth where it findeth many together life ought to be preserued with as much care as may be by separating the sound from the infected except
garments and therefore if it fal out so that they sit together their fearefull conceipt may bréede the Plague Profess O sir are you of that mind that the Plague may be in a garment and the partie not sicke and that one may take the Plague onely with feare and do you beare with such a conceipt Preach No I do not But I déeme them guiltie of their owne bane who take it with such a conceipt And yet I thinke euery charitable Christian will grieue at the heart that he should be the occasion of such a fright and could wish that he had rather béen from the church a moneth especially being in some sort Gods prisoner and the affrighted hauing likelyhoods that either he or his garment might be infected That a garment may be infected and the Plague taken onely by feare experience and reason do make manifest Concerning the former it hath béene proued that clothes of infected persons layed vp and not well ayred being opened though a yéere or more after haue instantly renewed the Plague Againe we perceiue by the smell that garments wil retaine the sent of Wormewood or muske for a long time the cause is not in the sent by it selfe considered but in the ayre which is the subiect of the sent The plague in a garment is a poysoned aire being according to the nature thereof called by the learned the Death of the ayre procéeding from the partie infected and infecting the garment though not perceiued by smell as the open cléere and wholesome ayre of the heauens is healthfull for the body though not perceiued by smell Lastly leprosie infecteth garments and he that sléepeth or eateth in an house shut vp for leprosie must wash his clothes which argueth that infection may be by the ayre sith a man may eate in the house and not touch the walles infected If Leprosie be so contagious much more the Plague which is a stronger poyson because it infecteth and killeth Profess This is more then euer I heard and considered and I think it reasonable but I cannot conceiue how the garment can be infected and yet the person that weareth it escape the Plague Preach I will shew you that in a word Do you not consider that either the infection may be but weake or the party of a strong and healthfull constitution Cinders will not set fuell on fire so soone as burning coles neither will gréene wood be so soone kindled as chips and drie deale-boord Profess I now see and in some sort assent to your opinion proceed therefore I pray you to giue reasons why by onely feare a man may be infected with the Plague Preach The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can beare it saith Salomon By spirit here is meant a comfortable heart which animateth a man in all troubles but if that fayle hée is soone ouerthrowne From the heart procéed as Phisitions say vitall spirits whereby man is made actiue and couragious If they by feare be inforced to retire inward the outward parts be left infirme as may appeare by the palenesse and trembling of one in great feare so that as enemies easily scale the walles of a towne abandoned by souldiers so the Plague especially in a season disposed to infection doth find readie passage into the outward parts of a man destitute by feare of the vitall spirits which should correct the same Againe as faith maketh vs partakers of Gods helping hand so vnbeléefe depriueth vs thereof feare aduersarie to faith pulleth to the wicked the euill which he feareth Profess By this conference I haue learned to feare more then I haue done and yet to take heed of feare to feare because the plague may be caried about in garments and therefore may infect me keeping company with one that is cōuersant with the infected I being peraduenture not of so strong a constitutiō as the party To take heede of feare lest I be guiltie of mine owne bane Preach Your collection is good especially if you remember the distinction of feare in that sence which I haue often taught it to wit Feare is contrary either to Security and so it may be called Héedfulnesse or to Faith and so it is cousin germain to Despaire But hoping that now you see our doctrine against vnruly and vncharitable going abroad of the infécted either in person or garments not to be a checke to Pietie and Charitie I pray you tell me what you can say for vnnecessarie and desperate running to the sicke and buried of the Plague Profess What I tell you be it without offence that many maruell I will not say cry out that Preachers who should be examples of loue and faith in visiting the sick according to their office do yet so flatly speake against the expresse words of Christ For doth not he say That we shall be iudged at the last day according to our workes of charity and amongst the rest our visiting or not visiting the sicke Preach O neighbour you now lay on loade I must therefore ease a litle the shoulders of Preachers whom you charge heauily for not visiting the sick of the Plague before I can nimbly encounter your maine obiection Surely ye Professours who so vrge this pretended dutie are farre from the louing care and kindnesse of the Israelites who would not suffer Dauid to hazard himselfe in battell lest if he being woorth tenne thousand of them were slaine and the light of Israel should be put out Againe ye forget that Christ said to him that desired to burie his father Follow thou me let the dead burie their dead If ye did consider this well you could not but thinke that as Paule said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach so Preachers may say Christ hath sent vs not to visite the sicke but to preach and thereupon cōclude that the lesse dutie if a dutie especially being daungerous must giue place to the greater and the visiting of a few sicke and lesse capable of instruction must giue place to the teaching of the whole congregation and more capable of doctrine and comfort Now if they visite euery one that is sicke how can they attend vnto reading and follow Christ in the most proper and necessarie worke of the ministerie Lastly I sée not but herein I humbly submit mine opinion to the Church that visiting the sicke is a proper dutie of a Minister as he is a Minister For as none can ordaine officers in the Church but Christ so none as I am perswaded can prescribe duties to those officers but Christ But I cannot find where Christ prescribeth visiting of the sicke as a Ministers dutie If not Christ why should any surcharge Ministers and the rather because they are not no not the best sufficient for duties prescribed Did not the Apostles pronounce it an vnmeet thing to be hindred from giuing themselues continually to prayer and to