The Cause of the Disease Sin implyed in these words and turn from their wicked ways Thirdly The Medicine to be used which is Compounded of three Ingredients 1. Humility 2. Prayer 3. Repentance Fourthly The Physician prescribing this Medicine God I will hear from heaven c. I begin with the Disease of which I need say but little since it speaks so much for it self But something I must say lest I seem to pass that over that passeth by few in a house or City where it comes The word is sometimes rendred Pestilence and sometimes Plague from the Latine word Plaga which signifies a Stroke but by reason of the Streightness of our English Tongue they are promiscuously taken The Plague in other Languages extends further and notes any extraordinary Stroke that comes from God the Prophets under that Word contain these four Famine Pestilence Wild Beasts and the Sword which per eminentiam are called the four plagues of God 'T is true God creates every thing both light and darkness Isa 45.7 good and evil as the Prophet speaks but because Strokes if they be private particular or ordinary have no great operation on us we observe their second and not their first causes and so we neither reverence God's Justice nor discern his hand nor fear his power Upon this Score when mens sins cry aloud and peircing the Heavens mount to the very throne of God it is fit likewise that God's loud Justice should peirce the heavens Heb. 1.21 descend upon man and like the voice of Sinai make poor mortals quake and fear The plague is a Stroke able to extort from any man the confession of Pharaoh's Enchanters Ex. 8.19 This is the Finger of God It 's an Arrow of his own shooting 2 Sam. 24.15 and may better be called Morbus Sacer then the Falling Sickness And therefore in our Language we style the Pestilence the Visitation of God and the Tokens thereof God's Marks and upon our Dores write LORD HAVE MERCY VPON VS By which we clearly confess whilest the Angel executeth divine wrath we all stand at God's Mercy And thus I come from the Disease it self to the Cause of it which is God's anger enflamed by Sin I know there are some that following the Sentiments of Physicians will needs ascribe it to the Infection of the Aire to gross and unwholsome Diet or to the predominancy of corrupt humours But Physicians may be excused if they say something when they see an Angel As I will not deny but in all Diseases there may be something of natural so I may likewise affirm there is in this something divine and above nature 1. For the natural part First The Infected Aire may contribute very much and therefore we read that by casting the Ashes of the Furnace towards heaven Ex. 9.8 the Aire became Infected and the plague of Botches and Blains spread it self over Aegypt Secondly Corrupt humours may do the like for to them doth King David ascribe the cause of his Malady when he complains that his Moisture in him was corrupt Psal 32.4 dryed up and turned into the drought of Summer Thirdly The contagion comeing from the Sick Thus we see by the Jewish Law the Leprous person for fear of Infecting others was commanded to cry aloud Vnclean Lev. 13.45 46 52. Vnclean by which he gave the Sound warning they should not approch nigh for fear of Contagion He was besides to have his dwelling alone and the garments he wore were to be washed and if the plague was spread in them the Priest was to burn them Yea the very house walls in which the Leper dwelt were to be scraped and in some cases the house it self to be pulled down The Learned Fernelius more judiciously confesses this Disease hath a hidden beginning some secret principle that occultly wounds and we may assure our selves that though things ab extrâ contribute to its progression yet the real cause is the latent Corruption within us Sir Tho. More Epigr. Nugamur mortemque procul procul esse putamus At mediis latet haec abdita visceribus But let us come to the supernatural Cause of this Disease and that will not require a Physician so much as a Divine And I suppose many of them think it a difficult point that they go into the Country to study it and by their absence expound S. Paul's words thus We preach not our selves i. e. our Curates or who else will preach for us But to the supernatural Cause the Scripture observes it as a crime in King Asa that in the time of his Sickness he look'd more after the Physician than after God He did not consider the Infirmity of his Soul was to be healed as well as that of his body and therefore look'd for natural remedies only But if we would avoid his fault we must acknowledge the hand of God in this Sickness and something above nature For if we observe the way of inflicting it we shall find it oftentimes done by Spirits Thus we see an Angel a destroying Angel in the plague of Aegypt Exod. 12.13 Another in the plague that destroyed the host of the Assyrians under Senacherib We find a third in the plague at Jerusalem under King David and St. John in the Revelations brings in a fourth pouring his Vial upon Earth Rev. 16.2 and there fell a noisome plague upon Man and Beast So that God is the great Agent in this Calamity But how Not willingly his anger must first be enkindled by our Sin for as the Psalmist saith Psal 106. They provoked him to anger with their Inventions and then the plague brake in amongst them Thus Deut. 28.21 God says Because of the wickedness of thy doing whereby thou hast forsaken me the Lord shall make the Pestilence cleave unto thee And Hosea cries Hos 14.6 O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine Iniquity The perdidit te in the Prophet doth not proceed from neighbours become Enemies or from the Locust Caterpiller Mildews and such other things as cause Famine and Pestilence but from the corruption and Sin hatch'd in these Israelites and therefore in the second verse he counsels them as the only way to recover their former happiness to Take with them words and turn to the Lord and say unto him take away all Iniquity and receive us graciously So that sin which is the plague of the Soul begets the Plague of the Body This viperous Mother brings forth a child so like it self that it 's hard to know the one for the other I shall shew you in a few particulars their Similitude and Agreement First They are alike in Nature The Corporeal Pestilence aims not at the more ignoble parts of the body but at the very Source of Life the vital Spirits and by its contagious quality oppresses them The like doth Sin by its secret Malignancy to the Soul It blinds the understanding
his holy Spirit to guide your Souls in the Path of Holiness here and bring you to the Palace of Happiness hereafter So prayeth The earnest desirer of your Souls welfare Rich. Kingston From my Study at St. James Clerkenwell Octob. the 18. 1665. PILLULAE PESTILENTIALES 2 Chron. cap. 7. v. 13 14. If I send Pestilence among my people If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land GOD that from all Eternity was happy in himself created the World and Man the most glorious part of it not out of necessity but a diffusive Goodness by which he would have some Beeings represent his Supremacy and receive the Style of the Sons of the most High Other Artificers either out of Ambition or Profit transmit to the World their Skill and Knowledge only He induced by a charity proportionable to his own Nature resolved to bring light out of darkness and constitute a Lieutenant upon Earth that should largely speak the grandeur of his Maker Thus Adam sprung bright and glorious out of the Chaos imbued with those perfections which We his posterity since his transgression can never hope for His Patrimony was large and he might have left it to his Heirs who now by sad experience find that he not only became bankrupt himself but entayled his misery upon them He came into the World its Lord and Master and left his children Peasants and Vassals and the truth is with so much unhappy fertility they have improved his Crime that being but one at first the Eating the forbidden Fruit it 's now become infinite and able to puzzle the Arithmetick of Angels Upon this score one might justly wonder that God should say IF I send the Pestilence amongst my People If is a Word of Uncertainty and argues an irresolution One would rather have expected the Lord should have sworn by himself that since this Darling this Peâ—â—â—ker of his divine Excellencies will ever be abasing them and choose rather the Livery of the Devil than that beautiful Vest of Innocence with which he came clothed into Paradice that therefore he would send his Plenipotentiary the Plague and without compassion cut off his Favourite But by this doubtful way of Expression we are taught how unwilling he is to give his justice a full draught which he will and must do where Impenitency stops the Progress of his Mercy The Heathen could say Val. Max. Lento gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira tarditatemque supplicii gravitate compensat We shall find this Truth cleer if we consider the Series of his proceedings against Sin Adam no sooner sins but is whipp'd out of Eden Cain kills his brother and becoms a Fugitive Sodom grows luxurious and burns with un-natural Lusts and fire descends from heaven to extinguish those hellish flames Jerusalem a City grac'd with more privileges than any in the World as being the place in which God would have his name in a more particular manner called upon the Seat of the Temple and the Metropolis of that Nation which he owned above all others Jerusalem I say that heard the Prophets yea Christ himself preach and saw his Miracles is now for her Sins nothing but a heap of Rubbish and as Adrichomius observes One may seek Jerusalem in Jerusalem and not find her The Eastern Church whose couragrous Martyrs whose General Councels whose Prelates those burning and shining lights are so highly celebrated is now for her Arrian Heresie and other Sins with which she abounded enslaved under the Turkish Yoke and hourly tormented with the Impieties of the Impostor Mahomet Neither can We of the Latin-Church here in Europe say our Sins have been hid and Divine Justice as it were asleep during their Committing In what a field of Miseries hath the whole German Empire been this last Century Nay if we have a mind to look nigher home what a calamitous Scene can Great Britain and Ireland show you for twenty years where fulness of Bread and a long Peace begot stiff Necks and obdurate hearts and these pull'd down the former and this present destruction so that We may well conclude that there is no Nation or Countrey so graced with privileges so crowned with blessings and so beloved by God but Sin will beget a deadly quarrel between them and cause the Subversion of the most flourishing States and Empires Let the Epicure ascribe the alterations unto Fortune the Stoick to Fate Plato and Pythagoras with the learned Statesman Bodin to Number Aristotle to a Symmetry or Disproportion Copernicus to the Motion of the Centre and Cardane with the Generality of Astrologers to the Malignant Influence of the Errattick Stars We that have bin otherwise built up in the most Holy Faith are taught by the Divine Oracles that Sin only causes this Controversie between God and Man and therefore whilest they like Ixion in the Fable embrace only a Cloud of palbable darkness instead of the Juno of bright and clear Truth let us since we know the True cause of Gods wrath endevour to avoid it by newness of life which is holyness in the Inward Man And indeed it is but fit if we will offend that God should right himself Nec enim Lex aequior ulla est Quam necis Artifices Arte perire sua We have Sinned and God justly strikes our heads with giddiness drawes paleness on our faces and dyes our Skins with purple The Prophet Amos saith C. 4. v. 10. God sent the Pestilence among the Israelites after the manner of Aegypt and he hath now sent the Plague amongst the English after the manner of Israel Israel's Calamity in the time of King David is England's Case in the Reign of King Charles Facta est narratio de te Anglia mutato nomine cum numero Change but the Names of the Countrey with the Circuit together with the time that Plague lasted and the number of peo it consumed in that space and we are parallel Repentance was their only Balsam and it must be ours for as the great Bishop of Hippo sayes St. August Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam We must by resolution of better obedience blunt the Edge of that Sword that causes so great a Mortality amongst us And thus I come to the words of my Text If I send the Pestilence amongst my people In which Words we have a Gracious promise of God unto his Church or a direct Answer to Solomon's Prayer which he made at the finishing of the Temple assuring Penitent Souls that if they turn from the Evil of their ways he will turn from the Evil of his wrath and free them from destruction I will hear from heaven and forgive their Sins Where we may observe four particulars First a Disease the Pestilence si miserò Pestilentiam in Populum meum Secondly
many are there in the World that pass from month to month yea from year to year that scarce ever pray as if there were neither a God to reward nor a Devil to be his Executioner and yet if you tell them they are not Christians they will esteem you the most injurious persons in the world But we must not be content with the bare name of Christianity and think it is enough that our Parents brought us to the Font and that there we received our Christian Livery We must come up to the life of christianity which is Prayer it is that in the Soul which Springs are in Clocks and Watches if they be broke the motion of all the Wheels ceases and if we devote not our selves to prayer all our Theological virtues are idle and as it were pinnion'd in us and therefore St. Chrysostome says excellently Tom. 1. de fide as when a Queen enters a city not only a great Retinue but an amass of Wealth comes along with her so likewise when the Soul is enflamed with a love of prayer all other virtues croud and throng in upon her Of Men it makes us the Temples of Christ Now as gold and precious stones and the richest Marbles constitute the Palaces of Princes so Prayer builds up these Temples of the Son of God that he may dwell in our hearts as in a Sanctum Sanctorum the noblest Seat of his Residence That we may therefore pray aright and like good christians that God may cease the plague and heal our wounds I shall show you what qualifications are necessary First then Our Prayer must be an earnest fervent Prayer it is St. James his character The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much indeed it peirceth heaven and is Clavis Coeli as St. Bernard speaks the Key that unlocks the Treasuries of heaven that it may showre down its blessings upon us We may learn the Nature of this effectual Prayer from the Royal Prophet when he says Ps 141.2 Dirigatur Oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense in which words he briefly comprehends all the requisites of a fervent prayer by comparing it to Incense First In the Incense was Frankincense Onyx Galbanum Oyle of Cinnamond or Myrrh and Mastich so our Prayer if it be effectually fervent must be mingled with Faith Humility Charity Confidence in God and Patience these as lesser Stars must wait upon this Queen and Mother of virtues this Breviary of the Gospel Secondly This Incense was appropriated to the Temples and lodged in the Holy of Holies so likewise the Soul of Man is the Temple and House of God as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost we therefore must burn this Incense of Prayer in the inward'st and purest part of this Temple Thirdly This Incense was to be offered by none but the High Priest so likewise all our prayers must be offered up by our High Priest Christ Jesus if we hope they shall prevail for upon this account the Church teaches us to conclude all our prayers with this clause Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly This Incense was to be fir'd before its grateful perfume could be sented If the High Priest flung never so many handfuls of it on dead coals there came forth no odour so our Prayers are altogether frigid and no way pleasing until kindled by the flames of the Spirit where heat and fervour is wanting in him that prays the very Soul of prayer is absent Fifthly says David Dirigatur Oratio mea c. let it mount let it tend towards thee he that will pray fervently and effectually must have a good end a sincere intention and a constant attention he must not pray like Pharisees to be seen of men that he may purchase the Repute of Religious and holy he must make God and his interest his ultimate end and therefore our Lord the Great Master of Prayer says When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy dore pray to thy Father which is in Secret By which he would teach us rather to acquit our selves to God than Man God only being able to reward our Integrity with better blessings than vulgar applause can afford Secondly But in the second place as our Prayer must be earnest and fervent so it must be without ceasing If we would have a Truce with God's judgments it is an argument of an evil heart to proportion our Prayers to the increase or decrease of Judgments for though the rule in Philosophy be That Oratio is quantitas discreta yet in Divinity it is most certain That Oratio ought to be quantitas continua according to the Apostle's Maxime Pray continually and indeed now 1 Eph. 5.17 if ever we had need to be constant in Prayer when thousands dye in a week and every parish yea every street is the fatal Theatre of so many sad Tragedies Is not this a time of trouble when the rich and abler sort are fled citè longè tardè and the poorer through necessity are oblieged to tarry notwithstanding infinite dangers surround them their Servants and their poor children Is it not a time of trouble when Tradesmen become poor and poverty enforces beggary and that unhappy profession cannot keep them from Starving Is it not a time of trouble when trade in general is so Dead that the Sexton and the Grave-maker have the most Employment in the parish Surely this is a time of trouble and this time is our time O therefore let us take up holy David's Resolution and give neither sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our Eyelids till the Lintells of our dore-posts are annointed with the blood of sprinkling that the destroying Angel may pass over our habitations Ask and give not over till you find seek and leave not till you find knock and cease not till a dore of Salvation be opened unto you 3. But thirdly We must lift up pure hearts and holy hands unto God in Prayer It is the work of the Seraphims to be continually crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth to express the ardent affection in them and the ready adoration of the Holyness so repeated by them it being that noble attribute that indeed is only proper to God Now if we would take a part in this Seraphick Consort we must endevour to have holiness and purity in our hearts and hands and then our addresses will be musical in God's Ears To this purpose the Schoolman Victorinus observes That a reasonable Soul is the chief and principal glass wherein to see God Ric. Victor lib. de Patriar This the Israel of God must continually hold wipe look on hold lest falling down it sink to the Earth in love wipe lest it be sullied with the dust of vain thoughts look on that it divert not the eye and intention to vain
studies Can we hope that that Man's prayer should be acceptable to God whose heart in stead of being lifted up to the throne of Grace is sunk into the Earth by the love of Terrene pleasures No we must have hearts purified with the fire of Divine love and hands wash'd in innocency before we can be acceptable Under the Law the burnt offerings were to be flea'd and cut in peices and their Legs and Inwards were to be wash'd Upon which Saint Cyril of Alexandria says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fleaing off the Skin was a riddle of naked discovery Hom. Pasc 22. p. 240. for nothing at all in us is hid or veiled from the Divine and pure eyes of God We must not be content with the superficies and out-side of a good life but we must flea our Sacrifices and look to the Integrity of our inwards we must as it were cut our selves in peices by a strict examination of the particular actions of our whole life whatever belongs to us our desires our thoughts all must be purified if we would have our Sacrifice Grateful How many are there in the World that make long prayers yet devour Widows houses How many that have nothing in their mouths but Gospel light and the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ yet do but flea them and you shall find them full of Avarice Pride Faction and the greatest uncharitableness Godfrey of Bulloine being asked by the Ambassador of a Sarazen Prince how he had his hands tam doctas ad praeliandum so able to fight returned this answer Quia manus semper habui puras ab impuris contractibus peccati Because I never defiled my hands with any notorious Sin Our Prayers will never be prevalent with God until we first combat and foyle our own Sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato defines Purity a Separation of the worse from the better We must in a good sense be Separatists and come out of Babylon before we can be fit company for the Lamb and when we have once done this we may confidently hope a relaxation of our miseries and that God will hear from heaven forgive our Sins and heal our Land And so I come to the third Ingredient in the Text Repentance If my people humble themselves and pray and turn from their evil ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land In the Pythian and Olympick Games the Contenders for honour and renown had their way chalk'd out with two white Lists out of which they were not to salley so it was with Adam in Paradice his via morum was rayled in with Innocence aswell as his via pedum adorned with Flowers and other delightful Objects but he having leap'd over the pale by eating the forbidden fruit took upon him the Trade of wandring into by-paths and his children like so many Gypsies have ever since exercised the same Profession I have heard of some that they have been so much in love with the wandring humour that though they have been heirs to good fortunes yet they have consorted themselves with the begging Crew only to have the Liberty of roving up and down And thus it is with man generally as to his Spiritual condition though God hath elevated us to the dignity of Sons-ship and Christ accepted the Title of our elder Brother yet we have strayed away from his blessed Company and that heavenly inheritance he purchased for us with his blood We have taken more delight in the meanders of Sin and folly that can afford us nothing of sollid worth than in those durable and eternal riches of Grace and Holyness Upon this score it is that the Text saith If my people turn from their evil ways which implyes they were out of the way of God and altogether journying the Mazes of Idolatry and Sin that God would heal and redress the miseries that for such deviations were come upon them But because I will speak more distinctly of Repentance I shall consider it in its three parts 1. Compunction or Contrition for Sin 2. Confession of Sin 3. Conversion from Sin to God First Compunction or Contrition And now how happy should I be if my discourse to you at this time could have the same operation on your hearts that St. Peter's Sermon had upon his Auditors as St. Luke describes it in the second of the Acts and the 37. vers where it is said Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do A true and holy Sorrow like so many Needles peirced them thorough as Eupolis recounts of Pericles's Oration to the People of Athens Cicero de Clar. Orat. In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit it left stings in his Auditors minds Now that we may a little consider the phrase we must make a difference between spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit of Compunction which St. Paul complains of in the unbelieving Rom. 11.8 believing Jews and Compunction of Spirit or of the heart mentioned in this place of the Acts St. Paul says God hath given them a Spirit of Slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day as if he would say they are possest with a Spirit of stupidity and obstinacy in Sin that slash and wound them never so yet they will not be sensible but this compunction or pricking of the heart which St. Peter's Auditors endured was a godly Sorrow for their Sins and sight of their miserable Condition Now Lorinus affords us a ternary of reasons why godly Sorrow for Sin is called compunction of the heart Act. C. 2. 1. Quia vel aperitur Cordis apostema 2. Vel quia vulneratur Cor amore Dei 3. Vel quia daemon dolore invidia sauciatur Either because the corruption of the heart is discovered as an Aposteme or Vlcer is opened by the prick of a Launce Or because the heart is wounded with the love of God as the Spouse in the Canticles cries out I am sick of Love Or because thereby the Devil is wounded with Indignation and Envy as knowing the ruine of his Interest and Kingdome must needs be caused when Sinners return to God the Centre of their happiness from which they recoyled But if any one ask me the reason why they were thus pricked thus wounded at the heart the 23. 24. Verses of the second of the Acts will tell us him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God Ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain It was high time for the Jews to be touched to the quick that had put to death the Lord of Life their Messiah and Saviour of the World And truly if we reflect aright upon our selves we shall find it high time for us to
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