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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	add_v	book_n	plague_n	2,933	5	10.1547	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10242	The heart of the king, and the king of the heart, or, A briefe vnfolding of that remarkable proverbe of the royall preacher ... written in the time of His Maiesties abode at Plimmouth, and preferred vnto him in his returne from thence, anno 1625 : together with a short meditation vpon 2. Sam. 24.15., preached at a weekely lecture in Deuon, in those fearefull times of mortalitie / by J.P. Master of Arts and minister of the gospell.	Pyne, John.; J. P.	1628 (1628)	STC 20521.8; ESTC S4427	27,924	64

not himselfe to numbers neither should we seeke to bring him to it by our abstruse obseruations and schoole-quiddities Ne sutor vltra crepidam Wee may not thinke if I may so speake to fit him with the seauens who filleth heauen and earth making the one his throne and the other his footstoole T was chiefly for curiositie of numbring that so many fell of the pestilence in the Text. Much better had it beene for Dauid and so t were for vs in this case instead of such a foolish and needlesse numbring shortning the dayes and hastning the deaths of thousands to haue desired as else where he doth that God would teach him to number his dayes and so to apply himselfe vnto wisedome All Histories diuine and humane are so full of proofes for the confirming and illustrating of my doctrine that me thinkes I delight to dwell longer vpon it then ordinarily I vse to doe vpon other Doctrines How memorably hath Gods hand punished notoriously sinfull acts in their owne kind in all Ages Doe Nabab and Abihu prouoke and incense the Lord with strange Incense God punisheth them with strange fire Leuit. 10 1.2 Are the Israelites not contented with the Lords feeding Numb 11. hee maketh them leaue their carkasses where they lusted after flesh Doe the people of Ierusalem offer Incense to the Hoast of Heauen on the tops of their houses Ier. 19.13 The Caldeans shall come and set fire on that Citie and burne it together with those houses Chap. 22.29 Doe the Ammonites sacrifice their children to Molech their Idoll themselues are forced to passe through the Brick-kilne in all their Cities 2. Samuel 12.31 Doth that cut-finger Adonibezek make himselfe sport with mangling the hands and feete of captiue Kings the Lord maketh him when hee is taken captiue to beshrew his fingers for it by dipping them in the same bloudy dish and seruing him with the same sawce Iudges 1. Doe the stiffe-necked Iewes crucifie Christ at the time of the preparation of their Passeouer It seemed good vnto the most iust God that Titus should plant his siege before Ierusalem at the time in which the Iewes were assembled to celebrate that Feast in which siege he also crucified diuers thousands of them before the walls of Ierusalem as Iosephus reporteth Doth the Whore of Babylon set fire vnto Gods faithfull witnesses What saith hee who calleth himselfe the faithfull and true witnesse Apoc. 3.14 Hee acquainteth Saint Iohn that she shall bee burnt with fire Apoc. 18.8 Doth shee cast the Saints of God aliue into the fire shee her selfe shall bee cast aliue into a Lake of fire burning with Brimstone Apoc. 19.20 Doth Edward the Second King of England burne with the vnnaturall lusts of So dome Gods justice suffereth his vnnaturall Subiects to depriue him of his Souereigntie and to force a hot burning Spit thorow his fundament into his entrailes Doth Henry the Second King of France protest that with his own eyes he will see a Protestant burnt to ashes See how in a iust Retributiō at a Iust or Tourney the splinter of a Speare passeth through the sight of his Beauer pierceth thorow his Eye perisheth his Braine and procureth his death Doth Alexander the Sixt Pope of Rome prepare a cup of Poyson for his Cardinals that by destroying their persons he might enioy what they possessed himselfe vnawares is made the first taster and dieth of his owne drench Doth bloudie Gardiner Bishop of Winchester deferre his Dinner vpon a greedie and bloudie desire of hearing certaine newes from Oxford of some Martyrs Dispatch wherewithall he might make merry God deferreth not long the kindling of a fire in his body through the intolerable heate whereof he dieth miserably as he liued mercilessely Two other examples I find in the Martyrologie of our Church making mainly for the farther proofe if farther proofes yet need of my last proposed doctrine I purpose to mention no more but those The first is of a certaine Smith who had seemed to haue beene sometimes a zealous professor but left his Sauiour to saue his life and forsooke the faith for feare of the fire giuing no other answer to a message brought him from a dying Martyr by which hee was exhorted to constancie but this That he could not burne What became of him He was afterwards burnt as he went in to saue his goods when his house was fired The other example is of a most vnmercifull Churle who willingly suffered a poore diseased Christian Brother to lye and dye in a ditch neere vnto his house and would by no meanes suffer him to be sheltred in any of his Barnes or Back-houses Stalls or Styes Master Fox compareth him to Diues and well he might for as Diues loued the Dogges which hee kept more then Lazarus which lay at his gates fed them but cared not though he sterued so this wicked wretch would not afford so much as a Dogge-kennell to that distressed creature Now marke the miserable end of this Miser not long after he was found in a Ditch not farre from that in which he left his poore Brother not only dead but sticking in the stinking puddle of the ditch GOD punishing him in the same kind in which he transgressed and returning his reward vpon his owne head as the Prophet Obadiah speaketh Thus yee haue seene the Lord measuring vnto men according to their owne measure that hee may be memorably knowne by the iudgements which he executeth Yee haue seene him following men close by the heeles in their owne wayes to shew in despight of all cauils that his wayes are equall and his iudgements iust Yee haue seene the fat Buls of Bashan beastly and bloudie men frying in their owne torments like Perillus in his brazen Bull that they might know their tortures to be as a Heathen speaketh Indigna passis Autoribus dignissima vnworthy of the Martyrs who indured them worthy of the Authours who inuented them It is high time to wind vp the threed of my speech in a word of application Doth the Lord then vsually confound sinfull men in their owne proiects cast them in their owne play as it were pay them in their own coine Beware we then that we willingly sin in no case sith God can punish vs in the same kinde If wee haue sinned let vs soone iudge our selues least hee suddenly condemne vs. Let vs weepe for sorrow and blush for shame lest he make vs bleed to death O ler vs not proceed in sinne least we giue him a patterne by which he may punish vs. In the second place let vs consider how wee haue dealt with God when wee cast with our selues and seeme to wonder why he should thus and thus deale with vs. His iudgements are alwayes iust and sometime wee may see them manifestly marked out vnto vs with the character of 〈◊〉 on He suffering vs to please our selues 〈◊〉 speciall sinne till it procureth a speciall iudgement proportionable thereunto as Anacreon the Poet so long fell to his wine till at last he was choaked with the kernell of a Grape Let vs beloued conferre Gods workes with ours and see how iustly he hath proceeded against vs in many instances or may at least whensoeuer his abused patience shall disdaine any longer to leaue our prouocations vnpunished If the corrupt Magistrate shall spare to execute Gods iudgement on notorious offenders is it not iust with God to powre downe iudgements on his owne head If hee deny patronage to the innocent depriuing the Orphan of his due and put him by his portion what can hee expect but that the Lord should also put him out of his protection If the sacrilegious person and Symoniacall Patron shall prey vpon God by pilling his Church shall he not pull downe Gods plagues vpon his owne house If the superstitious person shall adde vnto Gods Word out of mans inuentions shall not the Lord adde vnto him the plagues which are written in his Booke If the Swearer shall as it were teare the Name of God with his teeth shall not the Lords curse enter into his house Zach. 5. rent the timber from the stones and consume both together If we take away ought by Extortions and vniust exactions and will not restore 〈…〉 in iustice depriue vs of his blessings 〈…〉 ●●store them also If wee shut our eares at the cry of the poore wil not God shut his eare at the cry of our prayer If we seeke to Egypt for helpe looke for shelter from Idolatrous associates will not the strength of such Pharaohs be our shame and the trust in such shadowes our confusion Esay 30.3 Let vs consider these things beloued and is it not time to consider them now the Lord sendeth his messengers abroad to call vs to an account Shall wee shut our hearts alwayes against him euen now when he is ready to shut our doores vpon vs and seale them vp with his plagues which waxe so hote among vs of this Countrey yea of this Countie God forbid The Lord giue vs vnderstanding and repentant hearts the Lord turne vs vnto him and his fauourable countenance towards vs The Lord receiue our Prayers heare our groanings and helpe our griefes c. To the Reader ANd thus Gentle Reader I haue communicated vnto thy view these precedent pape●● which were penned for the most part in great want of time a● thou are already aduertised Yet are they sent abroad without adding altering augmenting or amending of any materiall passage that so they may follow their originall Copy which together with another Tract not yet published found acceptance at the hands of our Dread and Deare Soueraigne In respect of whose gracious Aspect I haue the more cause to presume of thy fauour or if that may not bee obtayned the lesse reason to esteeme thy Censure

of humiliation stay Gods punishing hand With teares let vs ioyne prayers pouring out our soules like water before the Lord. When the Lord bid Hezekiah prouide for present death he prayed and wept sore hereupon the Lord heareth his prayers seeth his teares healeth his sore and lengtheneth his dayes And in this Chapter God hauing denounced a three dayes pestilence doth yet vpon Dauids humble petition shorten the time and in the time appointed cease the plague which hee threatned They of Tyre and Sidon made Blastus the Kings Chamberlaine their friend but as for vs non Blastum sed Christum Intercessorem habeamus Let vs not sue or seeke to those glorious Seruants and Chamberlaines of the Almightie who stand euer in his presence not to Seraphins or Cherubins not to Saints or Angels But as Themistocles tooke vp the Sonne of King Admet into his armes Plut. in vit Themistoc that by him hee might appease the angrie father so let vs take vp Christ the Sonne of God by the hand of faith and set his merits betweene vs and his fathers wrath that hee may dull the point of his punishing sword in the wounds of his beloued Sonne O let vs make him our friend that hee may make our peace with God for otherwise teares and prayers they are all in vaine no better then the howling of dogs or the lowing of Oxen. Let vs goe out of all confidence in our Selues in our Worthies in our Allyes in our Armies in our Nauies and stripping our selues naked cast our selues ouer-board into the bottomlesse Sea of his mercie as our onely safeguard and saluation Lastly they of Tyre and Sidon in the height of blasphemous flatterie hearing the Herodian oration said it was the voice of God and not of Man But let vs in the depth of a contrite penitencie feeling the hand of God say and acknowledge that it is the stroke of God and not of man and that it is in vaine to looke for any helpe but from him Vna manus nobis vulnus opemque feret The hand that casts vs downe can onely raise vs vp It is God that dealeth with vs of England now as of old he did with Ephraim Hos 5.14 taking away when none can rescue If wee shall crye vnto him how long Lord It may bee answered as it followeth in the next verse of the same Chapter till wee acknowledge our offence and seeke his face O let our hearts answer in the Psalmists Eccho Thy face O Lord will wee seeke So it followeth againe in the same verse In their affliction they will seeke mee early they are the last words of that Chapter Then according to that ioynt-motion for a generall humiliation in the beginning of the sixt and next Chapter Come let vs returne vnto the Lord for he hath torne and hee will heale vs hee hath smitten and hee will bind vs vp This doing as it there followeth in the next words After two dayes hee will reuiue vs in the third day he will raise vs vp that is if wee seeke him early he will soone cease his plagues as he ceased this generall pestilence after the terme of two dayes in the time of King Dauid and as he moderated in like manner the violent rage of the Parisian massacre in which within three dayes space there fell ten thousand as it were on our right hands through the raging crueltie of the Romish Catholickes Psal 91 7● and yet as the Psalmist hath it it came not nigh vs. Let vs goe onward with the Text. The Lord sent a Pestilence vpon Israel from the morning euen to the time appointed and there dyed of the People euen from Dan to Bersheba seuentie thousand men Doct. Seuentie thousand men Hence I gather that oft-times the Lord God punisheth sinfull man in the same thing and in some sort after the same kind in which sinfull man prouoketh the Lord God Dauid is a speciall instance for proofe of this point here and elsewhere elsewhere he vnsheathed the sword against Vriah drew the Lords sword vpon his owne house Vriam iniusto sed non inulto cruore respersit the shedding of Vriahs bloud as 't was vndeserued so 't was not vnreuenged but was punished in due time in its owne kind Here he falleth to numbring of his people and a number of his people fall by the pestilence Hee sendeth about to vnderstand the number of his nation and to know the end thereof And God is about to number his people as hee did Belshazzars Kingdome and to finish and make an end of it Dauid reckoneth without the Lord. It is the poore mans guise saith the Poet to number his small flocke Pauperis est numerare pecus I am sure t was great weakenesse in Dauid to number his great forces as though by their strength and by his owne right hand he had gotten his victories chased his enemies and compassed the Crowne of Soueraigntie Yee may set Dauid in this act in opposition with Abraham Abraham hauing but one Sonne will entrust him with God who telleth him that hee will for a reward of his obedience multiplie his seed Dauid hauing a multitude of people will relye on their strength and the Lord sheweth by this plague that hee can reduce them to nothing he sweepeth away vpon a suddaine seuentie thousand men I suppose there are few trauellers who hearken after strange newes but haue heard of that vulgar report in the Eastern parts as fabulous I thinke as famous concerning those vast stones scattered within a small compasse in that warlike monument on the Playnes of which they tell you that after you haue once numbred them if yee number againe yee shall faile of your former reckoning the Deuill it may be increaseth mens superstitious and groundlesse credulitie by deluding the sight or dazeling the eye But in this wonderfull pestilence popular plague dispersed in that Easterne Israel if Dauid had gone to take an account of his warriers after the first numbring he might haue found a wonderfull abatement threescore and ten thousand fallen off from the number and felled by the pestilence within Israels confines God punishing his pride in not reposing his alone safetie and securitie vnder the meere and mercifull protection of his mightie hand Now beloued not to rest the proofe of the doctrine too long vpon Dauid If considering this septinarie Decade of Thousands destroid and decaid in Dauids number I should affirme that Dauid had specially offended God by his numbring and that God is set downe in the Text punishing him in a most speciall number Those who are so curious in obseruing numbers and haue such a number of curious obseruations touching the seuenth number terming it with Ambrose a sacred number and with Augustin a number mystically portending a kind of perfection might happily befriend me herein But Chrysost would more iustly befoole mee for my labour who tearmeth this curiositie a fabling and a deuice of mans braine God tyeth