but if thou hadst then dyed thou wouldest without doubt have been eternally damned because thy resolutions were not penitential resolutions as appears by the fruit of them in my returning to thy sin again and that thou didst not indeed love God and his holy ways for if thou hadst thou wouldest nor so soon no never after turned from them in the general course of thy conversation 11. This will encourage the devil to more frequent tempting of thee For if by temptation he can prevail with thee to do that which is contrary to thy resolution what hopes will he have to draw thee into sin against which thou hast made no such particular resolution If he overcome thee where thou art strongest what spoil will he make upon thee where thou art weakest It is a great advantage we give unto the devil when we sin against our resolutions 12. This will be a great provocation unto God when thou dost sin not only against his Precepts but against thy own purpose not only against the obligations he layeth upon thy soul by Mercy and Afflictions but against the Obligations thou layst upon thy self by thy Purposes and Resolutions And in thy Affliction and fears didst thou not apprehend God to be exceedingly provoked but thou must after he hath preserved recovered thee go on to provoke him more 13. If this neglect be found in thee who hast the truth of grace yet it will much hinder thy confidence at the throne of grace and stop the Influences of the Spirit of God and obstruct the illapses of the Spirit from descending upon thy heart When thou keepest thy resolutions and keepest out of the wayes of sin thou canst go to God with an humble holy boldness and pour out thy heart with much enlargedness before God and there is sweet intercourse betwixt God and thee thou feelest thy heart to burn in love to God and thou perceivest God to bear a love to thee and oh how sweet is this unto thy soul But when thou neglectest to watch against sin and to walk with God when thou hadst resolved to do both when thou goest to thy duty thou wilt finde Conscience reproach thee and thy heart straitned and thy mouth stopped and thy confidence abated thy heart much estranged from God and God carrying himself as a stranger unto thee when thou art upon thy knees And this is the bitter fruit of a careless heart after heightned Resolutions 14. If this neglect be found in thee that hast the truth of grace it will much occasion the doubting of the sincerity of thy heart A Childe of God may fail and be remiss in prosecuting of his purposes sometimes but if he be it will make him jealous of his own heart and suspicious that it is not well betwixt God and him and is not that a sore evil and much to be opposed and lamented which doth blot thine Evidences for heaven and will make thee question whether thou hast one dram of grace in truth conferred upon thee infused into thee Thus I have finished this Direction also shewing how you may live in some measure answerable to the great goodness of God in sparing you in time of Plague when so many thousands fell round about you By being carefull to be as good when the Sickness is over as you purposed and resolved to be when you were in expectation of death and waiting for your change and dissolution when the Arrowes of God were flying amongst you in the time of this sore Judgement of the Plague DIRECTION III. HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion that you live when others are dead or were you sick and are recovered then Endeavour that the Cure may be a thorow Cure that your Soul be healed as well as your body that there be not spiritual Judgements upon your Soul when temporal Plagues are removed from your Body You may observe that such that came to Christ with diseased bodies Christ healed their bodies and their souls too he took away their corporal sickness blindness distempers and the guilt of their sins too Mat. 9.1 2. Many are delivered from a Corporal Plague that yet are infected and in danger of eternal death by the Plague upon their hearts That remain under spiritual Judgements and Soul-sickness when temporal Judgements and corporal sicknesses are cured and removed When St. John wrote to Gaius he desired that it might be as well with him as to his bodily health as it was in respect of his soul and spiritual health 3 Ep. John v. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But it may be matter of our desire concerning those that remain alive and are well after this Visitation that their souls may prosper and be in health even as their body prospereth It is a greater mercy to have an healed soul in a sickly body than to have spiritual sickness remain in an healthful body It is not so great a Judgement to have the body full of Plague-sores as to have the soul full of reigning sins If your body be cured and not your soul the cure is but half done Therefore in speaking to this Direction I shall shew these things 1. Wherein it appears that sin is the sickness of the soul 2. Wherein it appears that sin and spiritual Judgements upon the soul are worse than sickness and temporal Judgements upon the body 3. How we may know whether our souls are healed of spiritual sicknesses 4. What they must do that lye under soul-sickness that they may be healed 5. What such should do that are healed of their soul distempers to improve the Cure to the glory of God SECT I. I. Wherein doth it appear that sin is the souls disease and the sickness thereof In these particulars 1. SIcknesses and diseases do abate and take away the Appetite Sick men have not the Appetite to their food as men in health have So sin takes away the spiritual appetite of the Soul that it doth not hunger after Christ nor thirst after righteousness and hinders its feeding upon Christ and the Word of God which is the spiritual food for the souls nourishment and growth 2. Sickness and diseases do abate the strength and activity of the body So sin doth weaken the soul and all the faculties thereof and doth disable it in all its actings to and for God 3. Sickness and diseases often fill the body full of pain aches and sores making men to cry out Oh my head and oh my heart and oh my bowels I am pained I am pained So sin doth fill the soul full of racking fears and perplexing torments and doubts and sometimes make some sinners cry out I am undone I am undone I am damned I am damned 4. Some diseases do stupifie and make men insensible and those are the worst So sin sometimes makes some sinners stupid and unsensible of their misery and
הוהיל ×‘×™×©× ×”×ž OR A Serious Enquiry For a SUITABLE RETURN FOR Continued LIFE in and after a Time of Great Mortality BY A WASTING PLAGUE ANNO 1665. Answered in XIII DIRECTIONS By THO. DOOLITEL Psal 116.8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling 9. I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Isaiah 38.18 For the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth 19. The living the living he shal praise thee as I do this day c. London Printed by R. I. for â— Johnson and are to be sold by A. Brewâ—er at the Threee Bibles at the west end of St. Pauls and R. Boulâ—er at the Turks-head in Cornhill 1666. To such whom the Lord hath kept alive in the time of so great Death by the Plague in the Land especially in the City of London THe design of these lines is neither to commend the Author nor the Book which in these few following sheets is presented to your view the former being as needless to them that know his Person as the later to them that read his Directions but I would commend the Subject being so seasonable to your perusal and the Duties being so necessary to your Practice It was the saying of a Learned Divine who had the honour of being made a Prisoner as well as Minister of the Lord That it was great pitty there were no more Prisoners of Jesus Christ to write songs of his love I will not say I could wish that more of our Citizens had in this late Dreadful Plague remained in this then Doleful place which to the Countries seemed more formidable than a Prison but I believe that many of you whose Calling and Duty did tye your hands and feet and shut you up in the City have found such sweet experiences of the goodness and love of God that they will be recorded And 65. will be remembred by you with thankefulness so long as you live You have seen the Destroying Angel entering the City and Death riding upon the Pale Horse Triumphant in the streets Arrows flying the sword bathed Garments rouling in blood and this grim Conqueror breaking in upon Houses without resistance taking Captive Men Women and Children and clapping them up in the Prison of the Grave where they must remain fast bound in his chains of darkeness untill the opening of the doors by him who hath the keys of the Grave who having Conquered Death himself will at his appearance loosen the Bonds of all Deaths prisoners that they may stand before his Judgement Seat to receive their Final Dooms In the midst of which slaughter and Captivity the Captain of your Salvation hath stood by you held his shield over you set his mark upon you and given you singular experience of his Power and Goodness in your preservation You have been in a storm God hath shown you his wonders in the Deep and when so many Ships have been cast away before your eyes and so many Persons have been devoured by the cruel Waters and your selves inviron'd with waves on every side yet the Lord hath kept you alive like Jonah in the Belly of the Sea or made a way for you to pass through when so many not onely Egyptians but Israelites have been drowned you have been in the water but the Lord hath been an Arke about you You have been in the fire like the three Children but the Son of God hath walked with you and suppressed the violence of the fire that it hath not prevailed over you you have been like the Bush which Moses saw burning but was not burn't because God was in it And when you look back upon those dark days and black Bills of Mortality where you have had account of so many thousands dying for so many weeks together Do you not wonder at your strange escape Do you not look upon your selves as Brands pluckt out of the fire And must you not acknowledge it is the Lords mercy you are not consumed You who have continued in the City in the time of the Plague when such throngs of people have been crouding out of this world daily into another have had singular advantages of looking into and preparing for Eternity which few think of with fixed seriousness till they be awakened by some dangerous sickness whereby withal they are usually so weakened in body and spirit that they are rendred unfit for such cogitations but to be in such danger whilst in so good health and in such Leasure from encumbring employments I doubt not but it hath effectually moved many of you to soar a loft in your thoughts and Meditations that you might take a view of the other Country which the Scripture doth set forth of the City which hath foundations whose builder and Maker is God I believe the wicked have had dreadful apprehensions of the burning lake of the Ocean of Gods wrath which every day they were ready to launch forth into and that however some have been hardened and are as bad yea worse than before yet I hope others have been so awakened with this dreadful Providence that they have been effectually perswaded to Repentance and Faith in Christ who alone can deliver from the wrath which is to come I believe that others have had deeper impressions of Eternity upon them than ever they had in their lives which the borders thereof on which they have been walking have given them so near frequent a prospect of and I doubt not but all of you have made vows and promises to the Lord of a Holy conversation of leaving those sins your conscience at that time upbraided you withal and dedicating your lives to the Lord if he would be pleased to spare your lives Take heed of dropping asleep again after you have been awakned of returning again unto sin after it hath been imbittered of forgetting or abusing Gods mercy after such a wonderful preservation retain the same thoughts of sins evil and the worlds vanity of the worth of true Grace and Christs beauty retain the impressions you had of Eternity when you were so near it in your apprehensions hath God laid obligations upon you by his preservations and deliverances And have you laid obligations upon your selves by your purposes and resolutions Labor then to live up to your obligations and if you be at a loss what return to make to the Lord You have by his Providence this little Book put into your hands to give you directions receive them not as the bare counsel of man but so far as backt by the Scripture as the Prescriptions of God as if the Lord should speak to you from Heaven and say This is my will these are your duties and see that you perform them Hereby you will both please the Lord and rejoyce the heart of
say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsell of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Thus sinning with judiciall hardness and dying in finall impenitency are at the bottom round from whence they step into endless misery Thus you see how great a matter a little fire kindleth and from how small beginnings some have proceeded to the very pitch and height of sin that can scarce be worse save in the frequent iteration of the sins that they commit for they have got into all kinds of sin they are guilty of spirituall wickedness which the devill is malice enmity against God and goodness c. and of corporall wickedness as Adultery Drunkenness Gluttony c. Which the Devill is not capable of committing the Devill being only a spirit but men consist of body and spirit and so may commit more sins for kind than the Devill himself can do But God forbid that after such a judgement amongst us should be found such sinners this will be an evil requitall to the Lord for his removing his sore judgement from us SECT VII Vnder what dispensations do wicked men grow worse and worse IN the generall I answer wicked men are the worse in all conditions that God puts them into more particularly they are worse and worse Under Gods Providences Gods Ordinances First Wicked men wax worse under all Gods Providences whether Of Prosperity Adversity Deliverances I. Ungodly men are worse under their prosperity when the world smiles upon them and when they have all that their carnall hearts can wish and desire If the Sun shine it hardens the clay and the more it makes the dunghill send forth unsavory smels Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ver 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God A wicked man is more hardened by Gods kindness to him Animus Iniquus beneficio fit pejor A wicked heart is made worse by every kindness As Christ fed Judas at his table and he runs presently to betray him The more God aboundeth to them in common goodness the more they abound against God in multiplied wickedness Neh. 9.16 ad 27. Psal 78.12 17. Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Isa 26.10 Let favor be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. They are worse by prosperity 1. Because they are thereby listed up with pride and carnall confidence many men the more rich the more proud and the prouder the worser the more their riches increase the more they set their hearts upon them and the more a mans heart is upon the creature the worse he is Prosperity is full of snares and we are apt then to forget God and to lift up the heel against him Deut. 32.15 But Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Here is great prosperity and great impiety and God seeing how apt his own people are to be worse by prosperity doth caution them largely against it Deut. 8.7 11 12 13 14 17 18. 2. Wicked men are worse by prosperity because then they have more fuell to feed their lusts Sodomites had fulness of bread and that did feed their uncleanness They turn Gods grace into wantonness and his mercies into fuell for their wickedness Those things which should be cords of love to draw them to God they turn to the nourishment of their sinnes against God and desire riches not that they may glorify God but gratify their lusts Jam. 4.3 The more abundance of outward things a drunkard hath the more he is able to please his palate with great abundance of the richest Wines the more the adulterer hath the more he bestows upon his harlot and so the greater plenty the more they lead a sensuall bruitish flesh-pleasing life and the more of that the worse they be 3. Wicked men in prosperity are the worse because they are apt to gather Gods special love to them from the common bounty he bestowes upon them Because the world smiles upon them they think God doth so too Because Gods hand is opened to them therefore they think they are engraven upon his heart and think Divine Toleration is Divine Approbation when indeed it is a sign of Gods great displeasure to give prosperity to a man in a sinfull course God was angry with the rich man in the Gospel when he gave him more abundance than he knew how to bestow Luk. 12.18 19 20. and 16.19 20. They are apt to think that is the best way which is the most prosperous way Jer. 44.17 But we will certainly doe what soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink-Offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cityes of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for then had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil Vers 18. But since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink Offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine By prosperity they take encouragement to proceed in their Iniquity 4. Wicked men by prosperity are worse because they are apt to put far from them the evil day and the hour and thoughts of Death and Judgement and the Life to come In health they have not serious thoughts of sickness a wicked man is too apt to think that the Sun of Prosperity which shines upon him will never set nor be clouded Psal 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations they call their Lands after their own Names In Prosperity they think little of death Luk. 12.19 And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry They promise themselves a continuance of their outward happiness and so sin more freely and abundantly Isa 56.12 Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant This perswasion begets carnal security and the more secure still the worse SECT VIII II. WIcked men are often times worse under adversity judgements and afflictions that do befall them the more they are punished the more they are hardened there is nothing in adversity and judgements in sickness and plagues in poverty and distress to
them still The sins that were offensive unto God at first are amongst us still the sins continue the Judgement removed Oh stand and wonder at this that when Justice hath cut down so many that Mercy yet hath spared so many especially if you seriously consider Gods holiness and purity Gods justice and severity Gods infinite hatred unto sin and that it is not the death of thousands that can satisfie Gods Justice nor the death of those that are gone down into the grave that have pacified Gods wrath for us that do yet remain alive What may be the Reasons 1. God hath done this for his own Names sake If you goe to the Church-yards and Burial places in and about the City and see the heaps of dead bodyes and ask Why hath God done this We must answer We all have sinned If you goe into your houses and dwelling places and finde so many living after so great a Mortality and ask why hath God done this We must answer It is for his own Name sake The Plague was inflicted because we had displeased him but it is removed because Mercy hath pleased him We had deserved the inflicting of it but could not merit the removing of it In this late Providence Justice and Mercy have been wonderfully magnified Justice in removing so many thousands and laying them in their graves Mercy in sparing so many thousands and maintaining them in life that have been so long walking in the Valley of the shadow of death This is because God in the midst of Judgement hath remembred Mercy Ezek. 36.21 But I had pity for mine holy Name ver 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake So when God gives good things as well as when he removeth evil it is for his Name sake God hath taken away your sickness and plague-sores and given you health Vers 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loathe your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations V. 32. Not for your sakes doe I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel Oh if you have been spared for his Names sake then let all the praise of your life be unto his holy Name But then you must not be worse but better than you were 2. God hath removed his Judgement in answer to the Prayers of his people Prayer hath been an ancient Antidote against the Plague and many have been preserved from the grave as a return to prayer and so it hath of old been prevalent for the removing of the Plague And therefore Magistrates commanding the people to fast and pray proceeded in Solomons course to have it removed 1 King 8.37 If there be in the Land Famine if there be Pestilence whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be What must they do then Vers 38. What prayer and supplication prayer you see is a Panpharmacum a remedy for every disease soever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Vers 39. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive Prayer is the remedy prescribed by Solomon But what are the persons whose prayers shall prevail for the removing of so sore a judgement Not those that have Plague-wishes so often in their mouthes but the prayer of any man that knoweth i. e. seeth and is sensible of the Plague of his own heart 3. God may remove judgements for the benefit of his Elect that yet may be unconverted and in mercy to them who may be yet in their sins God may stay this Plague it might be for some yet unborn that may proceed from the Loyns of some that are now worse than they were before The patience and long-suffering of God is conducible to the conversion and salvation of Gods Elect 2 Pet. 3.15 And doth lead men to repentance Rom. 2.4 Many peradventure have not yet repented whom God will bring to glory and he that hath designed them to the end will preserve them in life till the means have been effectual to fit them for that end 4. God may spare some that are worse by removing judgements because as yet they are not ripe enough for slaughter The Oxe is spared longer time because not yet fit for the Shambles Thus God spared Jerusalem till they had filled up the measure of their sins Mat. 23.32 And so God exercised patience towards the Amorites till their iniquity was full Gen 15.16 God may remove and keep off judgement from some and this may be in judgement to them as he may in mercy deny some mercies unto some SECT XII What are the aggravations of this great impiety to be worse after Gods sorest judgements than they were before THat many wicked men are so we have shewed before and given the proof and reasons of it But wo to you whose case this is Is this the return you make to God Is this the fruit of his patience and forbearance to you Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 Will you seriously consider this evil frame of heart and this ungodly practise in your lives in these following particulars I. Are you worse then you were before then you are more like unto the Devil than you were before and the more unlike to God that made you A man full of all sin and bent to every wickedness is called a childe of the Devil Act. 13.10 The Devil sins as much as he can and thou dost as wickedly as thou canst Jer. 3.5 It is a folly in men to picture things immaterial and invisible and living by things without life material and visible never send a man to view the picture of the Devil with a cloven foot drawn by Art the most exact and accurate lively picture of the Devil as a Devil that is as a sinner is the worst of wicked men and who are worse than thou that neither mercy can draw nor judgement drive to God and Christ II. The worse you grow and the further you proceed in sin the more impudent you will be in the commission of it The beginnings of sin are often done with blushings of face but the progress in sin is voide of all modesty then you will be drunk and glory in it then you will swear and not be ashamed of it Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Pro. 7.13 III. The further thou proceedest in making progress in thy sin the more it is to be feared thou wilt never return but if thou shouldest the more thou hast to sorrow for It is but very rare that God bringeth
what manner of persons ought you to be in all manner of holy conversation after such a sight as this IV. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the worlds vanity You have seen what miserable comforters riches are to men in time of Plague and at an hour of death you have seen death haling men from that which they had set their hearts upon you have seen death dragging men from their riches and from their pleasures and hath forced them to come away to the Bar of God and leave their riches behinde them and their pleasures behind them You have seen that riches could not go with them into another world but left them in a time of need You have seen that those that loved riches could finde no comfort in them when they stood in greatest need of comfort You have seen that what men have been laboring for and scraping together all the time of their health and life death hath come and scattered in a moment Oh how weaned should you be from the world and the riches and the pleasures thereof after such a sight as this Oh how much less should you afford the world of your heart and affections of your love desire and delights that is so unkind to dying men even unto those that served it most and loved it most Oh do you learn to deal so with the world as you have seen the world to deal with others i. e. turn it out of your heart with as little love and pity to it as you have seen the world turn its followers out of it and shake them off notwithstanding all their entreaties to abide and stay therein The world may now entreat you that it might stay in your heart and live in your love but hearken you no more to its entreaties than it hath hearkened unto others and you must expect the world ere long will deal with you as it hath dealt with others therefore part with the world before you leave the world V. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the short continuance of all relations you have seen death taking Husbands from their Wives Parents from their Children Ministers from their people and so Wives from their Husbands Children from their Parents People from their Ministers Those that had but one onely Son Plague and Death hath stripped them of him and teared one relation out of the others bosome fain they would have kept them but death would not suffer them they wept and cryed but death would not have pity on them nor hear their cries nor regard their tears but said this is your childe but I must have him this is your husband but I must seize upon him God hath given me a Commission and I always use to do according to the Commission I receive from God if God will not spare you in vain you look for pity at mine hands I saith death am blinde and cannot see the beauty of your childe that hath drawn out your heart so much towards him I am deaf and cannot hear your pleadings for the continuance of your childe or husband or friend if God doth not hear you I cannot and if God doth not spare and pity you I will not therefore I will smite him and stick my arrow in his heart and dippe it in his life-blood and take him from you Oh how many have thus experienced the dealings of death and you have seen it and will not you learn to sit looser in your affections towards your nearest and dearest relations You have seen death hath seized upon them that were most beloved by their friends and perhaps did therefore do it because they were over loved and took up too much of that love and that delight which should have been more and would have been better placed upon God Your lesson then is set down by the Apostle for I would not teach you by rott nor without the book of Gods word 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the time is short or rolled up or contracted a metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up onely a little left at the end so some As Mariners near the Haven winde up their sails or make them less When the sails of time are thus contracted it is a sign we are near the Harbor of eternity It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none Vers 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away VI. In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the lesson of humility How many humbling sights have you seen every Corpse that you have seen hath been an humbling sight It may be you have been proud of your beauty but have not you seen that beauty vanisheth away when death comes that beautiful bodies by the Plague and Death have been turned into loathsome bodies and those that you have loved and been delighted to look upon you have been glad to have them buried out of your sight when once dead How many open Graves have you seen and those that have been nice and curious of their comely bodies have been interred and given to be meat for worms and to be a prey to rottenness and putrefaction Have you seen any difference betwixt the poor and the rich beâ—wixt that body that was fed with courser fare and that which was nourished with more delicate dishes Have you not seen bodies that were made out of dust been turned to the dust to be turned into dust and will you be proud after God hath taken such an effectual course to teach you to be humble VII In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you that all things fall alike to all that the wise must dye as well as the fool and the good must dye as well as the bad And though God hath promised conditionally preservation from the Plague unto his people which hath been literally fulfilled to some of his yet some of his have fallen in this general mortality God hath been teaching of you that though grace doth deliver from eternal death yet not from temporal though from the sting yet not from the stroke of death that you though godly should be preparing for your own departure out of this world VIII In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the difference between the death of the wicked and the death of the righteous that though good and bad alike have dyed yet they have not dyed alike But as there was a difference in their life so God did make a difference in their death Have not you seen some wicked dye without any sense of sin or fear of God or Hell and
should walk in newness of life Ver. 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin In which Scripture are set down these things viz 1. The parts of Sanctification Mortification Vivification 2. The cause of our Sanctification viz. communion with Christ in his Death Burial and Resurrection 3. The Testimony and Pledge of it our Baptism 4. The growth and progress of Mortification we should aime at the total destruction of the body of sin by the Crucifying Destroying and Burial of sin You have seen the death of thousands and you have seen the Burial of thousands to all these add one more Funeral and that is the Funeral of your sins Do you out-live this Judgment and shall your sins do so too God forbid This would be to live altogether unanswerably to so great a mercy You live but your sins should be dead in you and you unto your sins Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though you live yet must you be buried Now Believers are buried in three respects 1. In respect of their good names as they are reproached by the wicked The throats of the wicked are the Sepulchres or burial places of the good names of Gods people this is part of a Believers sufferings 2. In respect of Self-denial Believers must be no more taken with the things of this World so far as to draw them from God than a person dead and buried and lying in his grave 3. In respect of the Mortification of sin and these two last are our duty and of this last I would speak a little following the Metaphor in which there is some difference and some agreement in the burial of our sin and in common burial The difference in these Respects First We bury our friends weeping for their death desirous of their life wishing oâ— that this my Friend had not died oh that I could have kept him in life But we must bury our sin rejoycing as those that are glad of its death Not weeping because sin is dead but that it once did live Secondly We bury our Friends with hopes that they shall rise again and live again But we must bury our sins with hopes they shall never live more never return to them more The resemblance holds in these particulars 1. The Burial of sin supposeth the death of sin Never any man yet buried his sins alive For while sin doth live it is in the heart as in a Throne and not as in a Grave 2. The Burial of sin supposeth the ceasing of the love of sin that we see not that beauty and comliness in sin as we did when it was alive A man that loves his Relation while he lived put him in his bosome yet will not do so when he is dead a man while he loves his sin will never bury it 3. The Burial of sin includeth the removal of it out of our sight and as much as may be out of our thoughts We love not to look upon dead friends nor many times to think or talk of them who while they lived were pleasing objects to our eyes and the delightful matter of our discourse While Sarah lived she was beautiful in Abrahams eyes but when dead he desired to have her removed out of his sight Gen. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight The presence of sin is a trouble to you when it is dead and you would have it out of your sight and this removal of sin when dead and buried hath these three properties First It is a total removal the whole body of sin and all the members of it are buried Death might arise from the disease of some particular part but burial covers all He that makes a shew of the burial of sin and yet keeps any in his heart as his love and delight hath indeed buried no sin For who doth so bury his friend as to keep any of his members in his house Secondly It is a voluntary removal when one is dead we make it matter of our choice to have him buried Yea we look upon it as a sore evil and great annoyance to have burial denied to our dead friends So it is your choice to bury your sins and the thoughts of not having them buried is a great trouble to you Thirdly It is a perpetual removal we bury our friends so that we would not have them taken up again and brought into our house So you bury sin never to have it brought back to live again in your heart One that hath buried his sin doth earnestly desire it might be removed out of the sight of God by free pardon out of the sight of his own eyes by the evidence of the pardon and out of the sight of others by leading a contrary Conversation 4. The Burial of sin includes the rotting of the old man in its grave the mouldring of it and the daily wasting of it as dead Corps buried in the earth do consume and wast daily Though a body buried doth not presently totally consume Many years after the burial if the grave be opened you may find the bones and the skull the reliques of sin in the heart of a Child of God are but as the bones and the skull but the body of sin is destroyed 5. The Burial of sin includes the loss of the power and authority that sin had in the heart while it was alive Though a man were never so potent while he lived yet when he is dead and buried he hath no more power nor jurisdiction Though thy sin did sit as a Lord and rule in thy soul while it lived yet being dead and buried its dominion ceaseth Now if you are buried with Christ these things will be a comfort to you viz 1. Those that are buried with Christ are most comely in the sight of God A man that is naturally dead and buried is not so with us but he that is spiritually dead to sin is beautiful in the eyes of God 2. Those that are buried with Christ have converse and Communion with God those that are naturally dead have no more converse with us but a man hath no Communion with God till he is buried with Christ 3. Those that are buried with Christ are past the hurt of death As those that are naturally dead have past through all that death can do unto them if you are buried with Christ though you must come under the stroke of death yet the sting of death is taken out 4. Those that are buried with Christ shall be raised at the last day and shall for ever live with God and Christ and with holy Angels and Saints in the Kingdom of God Rom. 6.8 Now if we be dead
would improve this Mercy that God hath spared you you must live to God and walk in newness of life DIRECTION IX HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion Then keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in his preservation of you Let not length of time if God give it you wear off the greatness of this his Mercy towards you if you forget Gods goodness you will not walk worthy of it This was the sin of the People of Israel for whom God did such great things Psal 78.10 They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Vers 11. And forgot his Works and his Wonders that he had shewed them Psal 106.21 They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt God hath done great wonders for you in preserving of you in the valley of the shadow of death God hath not given you over unto death God hath not laid you in the Grave where you would soon have been forgotten do not you lay Gods Mercy towards you in the grave of oblivion nor bury his mercy of saving you alive in forgetfulness David laid a charge upon his Soul that he should not forget the benefits of the Lord towards him Psal 103.2 Set down therefore and Record your danger what it was Such a Moneth in such a Year the Plague was nigh my dwelling it came into my house it took away so many of my Children and Servants but God spared me he took away the Wife the Husband of my bosome but God spared me yea it was upon my Body so many Plague-Sores were running at once and God delivered me from the Grave and from the very jawes of death and will you forget this while you live That you may have and keep a sense of Gods mercy to you in preserving of you consider these few particulars 1. Consider you had deserved the Plague and death by the Plague as well as those that have fallen into their Graves thereby and it may be more too do not think that those that have died were greater sinners than you Luke 13.2 And Jesus answered and said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things Vers 3. I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish Vers 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all Men that dwelt in Jerusalem Vers 5. I tell you nay but extept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Do you think that those whom the Plague hath slaughtered that they were greater sinners then all that dwelt in London Take heed of such conceptions Or if many have fallen in this judgment that were of worser Lives than you yet none have fâ—llen that had worser Hearts than you naturally hâ—ve Nay have not your sins been capable of greater â—ggravations than the sins of many Dâ—unkards and Swearers and prophane Peâ—sons that did never sin against a God that pardoned their sins that did never sin against such love nor after such experiences of the working of Gods Spirit upon their hearâ—s as you have had Nay consider that you are not likely â—o do God that service nor bring to God that Glory that some of them might have done that are now in their Grâ—ves if God had spared them and yet God hath lengthened out your life Oh what an Obligation should this be to you to remember Gods Mercy that you had Plague-deserving-sins but yet you had not the Plague that you have death-deserving-sins and yet you are not dead 2. Consider you had a Body as liable to Infection as many others had There were such natural causes in your Body that might have laid you in your Grave if God had not prevented it and did not you suck in the same Aire as others did yea as others breathed out and yet God hath kept you 3. Consider you had no better Preservatives nor Cordials then many others had that yet by the Plague are laid silent in the Grave and are now resting in the dust and others that now are dead used the same meanes as you did and it may be more and better too and yet God denyed his blessing to the use of those meanes that were more probable to prevent Infection then yours were by this you may be convinced that it was the hand of God that hath preserved you and therefore by this you should be obliged to remember and keep upon your heart a sense of Gods mercy towards you 4. Consider you have been in more visible danger and when you were called did venture further then many others did some were more reserved and kept from Company more than you have done being called to Duty where Visited Persons have been as to help them that were sick of this Distemper c. and yet some that lived more retiredly and kept themselves more close were Visited and are dead and yet you have escaped this is the finger of Divine Providence and will you let the sense of this weare off from your heart 5. Consider that you have been more weakly and more infirme of Body then many of them that the Plague hath removed Many that were more likely to out-live you are cut down before you Many that were strong and of healthful constitutions are laid in the Dust while you that have been waiting for your dissolution many Moneths or Years because of the infirmity of your Body and the frequent distempers that have been upon you are preserved 6. Consider how great a Mercy your praservation is not onely to your self but to those to whom you are related You have many little Children that are not able to help themselves nor to provide for themselves that in all likelihood would have been exposed to hardships and to want if God had taken you from them They are sharers in this Mercy of your Preservation and the more are concerned in it the greater the Mercy is and the deeper and more lasting sense it should make upon your heart The thoughts of your Children did increase your feares and trouble when you were in danger and should not the consideration of this advance the greatness of the Mercy of being continued to them DIRECTION X. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence when he hath taken away many of your own Relations then the fewer objects you have for your love now the stronger let your love be towards God then it was before In steâ—d of murmuring against God that you have lost those whom you did love the greater let your love be to God since you hâ—ve not so many for to love Love lâ—id out upon many objects is the weaker buâ— love united and spent upon one object is tâ—e stronger As those that have but one only Son love that more then those that have more do love any because their love is divided
empty and unsatisfying pleasures they do not fill content nor satiate them that give themselves most to follow after them IV. Should not you be dead to and take heed of resting in the wisdom of the World in the attainment onely of Humane Learning after you have seen the Learned die as the Ignorant and the Wise Man as the Fool Humane Learning is more desirable than Riches and Honours and the Pleasâ—res of this World but yet it is not to be acquiesced in without the knowledg of God in Christ Notions in Learning will never deliver from the Torments of Hell many learned sinners have gone to eternal Misery and their torments there are greater than the torments of the Ignorant and unlearned the vanity of the wisdom of this World compared with the knowledge of Christ appeares in that 1. It cannot redress the sinfulness of the thoughts nor help against the vanity of the mind The wise and learned Heathens became vain in their imaginations Rom. 1.21 2. It doth not prevent sinful elections and choise of the will Men of great knowledge choose the World and Honours and Ease and Preferments before Christ 3. It doth not remedy a sinful Conversation Mâ—ny know things to be evil and yet do them and so is an aggravation of their sin and will be of their misery 4. It doth not season Mens communications nor prevent corrupt Discourses but makes them more witty and able to scorn Godlâ—ness jest with Scripture and deride the Professors of the Gosspel But the knowledge of Christ iâ— is 1. the sweetest knowledge 2. It is the surest knowledg being by the Revelation of the Spirit of God 3. It is saving knowledge Thus take a true account of all the things the best the most excellent the most desirable things in this world and you will see no reason why you should wholly spend the residue of that time which God hath â—ent you from the Grave in such an eager pursuit of any thing of this life SECTION II. BUt that you may know whether you yet living are dead to the things of this world I shall give you this general Character viz. If you carry your self towards the world as those that are dead to God do carry themselves towards God then are you dead unto the world and this general is resolved into these particulars 1. Those that are dead to God they see no real excellency in God and Christ but they see something more in the things of the world they see more excellency in their Gold and Silver in their Profits and Preferments in their Pleasures and Delights so if you are dead to the world you do not admire the Choisest and the Chiefest things that are therein but do see more real worth in God and Christ and one dram of Grace then in all the Mines of the most precious things in Nature and in your practical judgment do account them but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. Those that are dead to God do make choice of the World and the things thereof before God The will following the ultimate comparative practical dictate of the understanding in wicked Men doth choose Earthly things before God and Christ For though their absolute judgment might be for God yet the comparat judgment all circumstances considered is for the world and their will doth make choice of it accordingly So if you are dead to the world you make choice of God for your chiefest good and greatest happiness For though you may in your absolute judgment look upon the Things of the world used with moderation and kept in their proper place as good yet in your comparative judgment all circumstances considered you do ultimately conclude That God is better in himself and for you yea in both respects and your will doth choose him accordingly 3. Those that are dead to God though they may Pray to God and talk of God yet they do this as though they did it not and Pray as if they Prayed not God hath their Tongues but the world hath their Hearts So if you are dead to the world though you may talk of the world and Trade in the world yet you do all this as if you did it not You buy as if you possessed not and you use this world as if you used it not and though the world may have your hands yet God hath your heart 4. Those that are dead to God they are not troubled at the loss of God nor rejoyce at the tidings how they may have the enjoyment of him So if you are dead to the World you are not chiefly troubled at the loss of these things nor count it so great matter of joy if you have them and enjoy them A man that is dead to God desireth the world and let who will look after God So a man dead to the world desireth God and let who will look after the World as his portion and his chiefest happiness he will not 5. A man that is dead towards God is not restrained from sin by Gods most terrible threatnings though God threaten him with eternal death and everlasting damnation with the loss of heaven and eternal happiness if he persist in his wickedness and continue in sin yet fear of the punishment of loss nor of the punishment of sense will not awaken him to Conversion and through Reformation So a man that is dead towards the World all the threatnings of men that he shall have inflicted upon him divers penalties loss of goods liberty life yet all this is not cogent to bring him in to a course of sin and to do wickedly 6. A man that is dead towards God is not drawn nor allured with the precious and most glorious promises of God to do that which is good Though God promise him heaven and eternal happiness the pardon of sin and his favour yet all this moves him not to come to Christ nor forsake his sins So a man that is dead to the world all the offers preferments enticements of the world to allure him into sin will not prevail he is dead to these things and offers and overâ—ures of the greatest things move not a dead man Thus you may try whether you are dead to the world or no. You live in the world even after such a devouring Pestilence you cannot live answerably to this great mercy except you be dead to the World DIRECTION VII HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence then now be dead to sin kill your sin and solemnize the funeral of your lusts because you live after such a judgment such a mercy doth oblige to the death and burial of sin You are not buried with others in their graves but you should be buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also