vs imitate the wisâ—dome that is often to be found among worldly men For if they hauing a suit to the King or some Noble man at Court misse of the successe and issue they hoped for they beginn to take themselues aside in the matter and to reckon with themselues in what circumstance point or points they sailed that the businesse went against them and hauing found their ouer-sight they seame by it to be wiser against another time So when in dealing with the Lord in our prayers wee finde that our cause sals to the ground and we are not heard as we expected we should reason with our selues religiously for what offence in matter in manner or of our persons God hath dismissed vs without hearing or refused vs in the prayers that we made vnto him and hauing found the fault to be as if we seek as we should we cannot but find to be all in our selues no blame in God we should further learn to amend that fault to beware of all such vntowardly comming to God hereafter Psal 66.18 If we pray in our sinnes or without repentance in any sinne wee must not looke to be heard nor if we pray without the putting away of wrath and the leauen of bitternesse If we aske not temporall deliuerances and blessings with a reseruation to Gods will we must looke to be denied much more if we aske things that God hath forbidden as his vengeance vpon our enemies their fall and our rising by it we deserue not onely to be denied but to be heauily plagued for our prophanenesse And if we would not be put back with shame when wee put vp our supplications to the throne of God we must keepe in with him at least wee must not prouoke his wrath by such a general vnreformednesse in tongue and manners as raignes at this day For who that meanes to obtaine his request at a mans hand will wilfully prouoke and displease him Let vs learne this for our selues that if Pestilence come or some sicknesse contagious or a dearth euer the land or some other affliction we may haue hope when they who sinne wilfully can haue no boldnes and therefore must needs despaire or haue small comfort in their prayers when in trouble they call vpon God A comfort to those who labour to take all impediments of Vse 2 hearing out of the way of their prayers by good affections and a holy life For they that pray with Faith and Repentance neede not to feare when they cry vnto God in the Plague in the Famine in oppression by foes and in other troubles Sometimes and for some time God in affliction may be as one that heareth not yet his eyes behold and his eyes may be as eyes of one that seeth not yet his eye-liddes consider Psal 11.4 that is the godly in trouble may think him absolutely gone from their help and that he is deafe in heauen at their prayers but when he winketh at the wayes of those that vexe them he sleepes not in them neither when he takes day with his afflicted and puts them to a new-hearing doth hee forsake their cause or them in aduersitie but onely taries the time when he shall see it best who onely knoweth when it is best and fittest for their deliuerance Gods eyes are not so shut at any time but hee sees vnder them what is done in the earth and when euill is deuised against the righteous the bright eye of the Lord is vpon the first thought and imagination thereof It doth not presently seeme so to vs because he takes leasure and respite to bring things to light but whatsoeuer we think or iudge to the contrary so it is And this d The Bishop of London D. King in a Sermon preached the 5. of Nouember 1608. at VVhite-hall The sometimes Reuerend Father of this Church and Right-worthy trumpet of the Gospel hath iustified plainly cleerely in Gods seuere watch ouer the Powder-traitors saying That he went with them in the whole course thereof that he saw them when they trudged to Doway and gadded to Spaine and marked the hissing of the Bee of Egypt to the Flie of Ashur and noted all the intelligence that passed betweene the Leiger Iesuit in England and the Leigers of Flanders and Spaine yet he bewrayed nothing of this at first but sate as with his eyes shut let them runne on till they had runne themselues to perdition After he shewed that hee slept not in so great danger toward vs but brought all to light and what the wicked had done which hee manifested by their own confessions and by publike example as vpon an hie Stage So when he seemeth furthest from hearing he heareth the very silence of his seruants prayers Exod. 14.15 Psal 55.17 And therefore the comfort of the righteous abideth firme which is that when they call they shall be answered first or last and alway in due time So wee haue spoken of one of the promises another followeth which is of deliuerance but otherwise then hath beene spoken of I will be with him in trouble I will deliuer him BEfore we heard of deliuerance but here it is promised in a strange manner to the righteous and that is that God will as it were put himselfe into their troubles to make himselfe a partie in them and so bee their deliuerer for by his being with them is not meant onely his being so by an infinite Essence and generall prouidence for so hee filleth all things and is with all his creatures but his being with them in a more speciall manner and more particularly by his Spirit of promise and comfort in their troubles it being certaine that the soules of the righteous sometimes eat and drinke and feast with Christ and at other times crie much and aske many watchmen for him before they can finde him Cant. 5.5 6 7 8. The meaning therefore is that God will assoone be foiled himselfe by the trouble of the righteous as suffer his children to perish in them From whence we learne Doct. that the godly haue the Lord alwaies a present deliuerer in great troubles They shall wade through many afflictions but when they begin to sinke his hand is ready to saue them Mat. 14.30.31 Psal 89.19 Hee is alwayes present with his Church but more familiarly in great troubles as a good father is alwayes affected to his childe but more tenderly in some grieuous sickenesse And as a King doth shew a more louing countenance to his houshold seruants at one time then at another sometimes frowning and sometimes smiling vpon them so the King of all the kingdomes of the earth doth not euer alike graciously shew himselfe to his dearest people though he be neuer from them more then the King from Court but sometimes in the smiles of his mercy and sometimes frowningly in displeasure hee lookes vpon them Yet howsoeuer mortall Princes may change their fauours God will neuer leaue his children The Prophet Dauid
repentance to flee vnto when a floud is sent the wicked hauing no such consideration stand naked by sinne in the face of euery storme that is sent and perish in it The summe of all is this they that be Christians indeed must and will take a true inuentorie of Gods fauours and iudgements and set downe in their minds by deepe obseruation as with a pen of iron what he hath strangely done where Christians in face onely haue no such notes about them of his strange acts and forget all his workes as if they had neuer bene Let vs therefore not forget Gods acts his strange acts neither Gods workes his fearefull workes worthy to be had in remembrance And put it in your bookes what he did so lately one yeare in a spring of no raine and the next yeare in a sommer of so much raine take your bill or booke of tables and write what God did scarefully in that great Plague Luke 16.6.7 and strangely in remouing it Also what desolations he made by the sea in those West-country flouds or if we haue forgotten let vs remember how God set his heauen as brasse against our faces of brasse and made it to weepe day and night in raine of long continuance because wee would shed no teares for our sinnes Let vs not forget the signes which he sent among vs and which haue not bene few nor his tokens on earth nor his wonders in the sea nor what strange lights he hath set with his owne hand in the firmament nor what a graue was made for vs by Spaniards once and once by men of our owne nation and how we were at both times deliuered and they throwne in as our ransome nor how often the sword hath bene set to our very heart in practises against our mother in Israel and our father now Gods end in causing the righteous to see the Plagues of sinners is to assure them the more in their weake faith and patience that he will ratifie what he hath spoken and here we learne That the Lord knowing whereof we are made Psal 103.14 doth dispense with his owne right to beare with our infirmities So he did not onely burie the Aegyptians in the sea but did it his people looking on Exod. 14.30.31 who saw them to go downe quicke to those graues and Dauid saith When the wicked shall perish thou shalt see Psal 37.34 His meaning is that the wicked shall die strangely and that the godly shall see their strange death they shall perish as God hath said and the other see it that they may not doubt or they shall perish that God may magnifie his truth vpon his enemies and his people see it that he may be magnified in his children The smoke of Sodome mounted vp as the smoke of a fornace and Abraham must see it Genes 19.28 Sedome was wicked and destroyed and Abraham the friend of God beheld her destruction Likewise the fiue Kings of the Amorites appointed to the sword could not be hid but were found and brought out to be executed before all Israel that same day Ios 10.24.26 it must be done and Israel must see it done For the man of power shall be destroyed and the man of wisedome the righteous man shall see it Psal 52.5.6 The reasons Our graces of faith patience perseuerance spirituall fortitude Reason 1 and the like are very weake many times without the vphold of the outward senses and therefore hee that for our weakenesse hath added Sacraments as seales to his word to beare it vp is content to vphold his promise in other things with these sensible helps And now as there is no sense more helpefull and certaine then this of seeing none that imprinteth deeper affections in the passiue part of the soule then it So the Lord chuseth in such cases to confirme and settle vs rather by seeing then by heare-say He that is able to say that he is an eye-witnesse to a thing may better resolue himselfe and perswade another in that thing then he that can onely say he heard it Secondly if God did not thus to beare with his children by Reason 2 dispensation giuing them for the helpe of their weake faith in him proppes of sense to hold by they would quickly not stagger onely but fall downe in a despaire of his promises but God will not see the fall of his people and his people shall see the saluation of their God Reason 3 Thirdly beholding in others with our eyes the recompence of sinne it will make vs if we belong to God in a fright to forsake that way that casteth such troubles vpon those that trauell in it Now the Lord knowing that such frights are sometimes necessarie for his children to the helpe of their conuersion to him doth set the wicked before them in the recompence of their errour by some notable destruction that they may take heede in time Vse 1 This dispensation of Gods mercy to his children in a time Pestilence or other publick visitation bearing with them and not suffering them to come vpon the scaffold where others are cut off by death should teach them from such matter of his patience toward them and seuerity to others to gather benefit to their amendment and not boldnesse thereby to doe euill Rom. 2.4 If God be terrible in his works that is if he visit with a wonderfull Plague with strange sicknesses and yeares with disorderly springs and summers with dearths and death it is that the world the godly at least should worship him and sing vnto his Name Psal 66.3 4. or that they should turne to him and not turne wantons For they are not spared by chance or because they are worthy nor doe they ouerliue the calamities of those who in times of mortalitie come sooner to deaths house then they that they should flatter themselues in an euill custome because God hath beene more fauourable to them then to these but they see the destruction of others in their owne safetie that by such a sight they may be made more fearefull to offend and more carefull to please God in his commandements now then before And this good vse must all Gods children make of his sparing hand to them or theirs not carrying the grace of it into wantonnesse for God doth it in loue to their benefit and they must apply it in wisdome to the cure of their vnbeliefe and purging of their wickednesse Some as if the Lord did punish at aduenture in such cases and not directly for sinne hold on their prouocations neither changing their skinne nor altering their spots Ier. 13.23 And these are more sensles then the sensles beast for the Beast feareth exceedingly when hee seeth one of his fellowes knockt downe before his face and pitifully roareth out when he senteth his fellowes blood but these are sensles of Gods strokes lift vp vpon men like themselues and are not moued where the beast is so greatly moued neither pitie Christian blood It is said of
THE SHIELD of the RIGHTEOVS OR The Ninety first Psalme expounded with the addition of Doctrines and Vses Verie necessarie and comfortable in these dayes of heauinesse wherein the Pestilence rageth so sore in LONDON and other parts of this KINGDOME By ROBERT HORN Minister of Gods Word PSAL. 3.3 But thou Lord art a Shield for mee my glory and the lifter vp of mine head PSAL. 91.3 Surely he shall deliuer thee from the snare of the Hunter and from the noisome Pestilence 4. His truth shall be thy Shield and Buckler LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith and are to be sold at their shop at the golden Lyon in Pauls Church-yard 1625. TO THE RIGHT Worshipful EDWARD WATIES Esquire one of his Maiesties Justices in attendance at the Councell of the Marches of WALES * ⎠* Worthie SIR THe first draught of these meditations on this whole Euangelicall Psalme I sent some yeeres agoe to a friend and louer of a One of the Iustices in attendance at the Councel in the Marches of Wales and chiefe Iustice in one of the welsh Circuits yours Richard Atkins Esquire now with God yet without any meaning then to bring thus vpon the stage of publick iudgement Howbeit if he had ouerliued this purpose in Mee of now sending them abroad into the hands of men I confesse or professe rather they must haue carried his name with them into the world to the Altar of which I did owe the Sacrifice of my best in this kinde which must haue beene so not onely though chiefly in respect of himselfe who was vnreproueable in his place of Iustice and priuate wayes as you know but much in regard of my bond to him while he liued whereof b In my Epistle before my Sermons on Luke 15.13 14 15 16 17. else where I gaue true and plaine signification But being translated since to the house of glory from his house of clay whom could I finde out next fitter vpon iust matter then your worships selfe to receiue the debt I owed him your similitudo morum with him or profession like his your great respect and loue to Me with your esteeme of all who in the Ministerie doe seruice faithfully and with paines may rightly command Mee in this Dedication which I esteeme much lesse then your owne Add vnto this that hauing long knowne you I could neuer finde other minde in you then that which was of the side and part of goodnesse opposing euill and the workers thereof Much else might bee spoken of you particularly and truly to the praise of God but He that seeth in secret will reward you openly This at this time made me bold with your Name which is as an ointment of sweet odour in the Countrie you liue in And so I make humble tender of a mean Commentarie vpon a Psalme of grace the Psalme was Dauids the Speakers God and Dauid God spake to Dauid with good words and comfortable as Zacharie 1.13 and the same Almighty God in the same most gracious Psalme speakes with like comfort to you and to all his by Him Reuerend Beza in his argument vpon it tells what comfort the had by it when hee first heard it sung in an assemblie of Christians It so carried him by diuine rape at that instant that euer after he laid it vp grauen in his heart for as if it had lift him vp from the earth into heauen it rauished all his powers making him to thinke hee heard God himselfe to call vnto him by particular name what that Worthy conceiued by the singing of the Psalme that may your worthy selfe gather by the meditation The Shield of it is large enough to compasse you also with the like mercie If you put on the defence of the Highest this Psalme will guide your wayes to peace and finish your course with much true comfort Thinke therefore Christian Sir in reading of this Psalme what godly Beza conceiued vpon the singing of it and that is that God calleth you by Name meaning to inuest you in these priuiledges of his Saints and to be on your right hand euer wherefore what is here spoken to the Saints reade with faith as spoken to your selfe being a Saint by calling with this meditation you may make your pillow when you shall bee ready to make your bed in the darke and the graue shall bee your house Iob. 17.13 Then shall you goe with much contentment to your bed of earth and in great peace to the Lord. Meane while turne your purer eyes into this excellens Psalme set foot into it rather walke through it in your deeper consideration and then confesse with gladnesse what God hath done for your soule May you not say that God hath been or will bee shortly all that vnto you that the Psalme so comfortable speaketh of for hath not God beene in all remoues your standing house to remooue vnto verse 1. hath hee not beene your hope from your youth nay from your cradle and haue you trusted in him at any time in vaine verse 2. haue not the feete of many beene taken in the Snare or Net of Pestilence and you deliuered verse 3. haue not thousands fallen and you stood verse 7. and haue you not seene your hope when there was nothing but destruction to sinners verse 8 9. haue not the Angels kept the Lords watch about you in your continuall safety to this day verse 11 12. Is not the Dragon of hell and that roaring Lion of the nethermost hell put vnder your feet for euer verse 13. In many troubles haue not you beene quit and not quit onely but raised to place and worship verse 14 15. and for length of dayes though not full of daies for I trust there are many behinde you are not farre from Dauids yeeres of seuenty verse 16. in which space of time I doubt not but you make your short life a short draught of the dayes euerlasting Finaly God hath shewed you his large saluation But these few from the Text of the Psalme may serue as so many fingers to point to much more which your owne experience can better enlarge and gather not to hee set downe in a short Epistle And now to God all-sufficient I commend the remnant of your dayes for his best blessings vpon them vpon your Christian yoke-fellow and vpon all the branches of you both As I am much bound to pray so I will and doe daily for the true prosperity of you and all yours being From Clon-bury neere Ludlow Iuly 1625. Your good Worships for my best seruice in the Gospell ROBERT HORN THE SHIELD Of the RIGHTEOVS PSALME 91. VERSES 1 2 3 c. Verse 1. Who or He that dwelleth in the secret of c. THis Psalme most comfortable and throughout most excellent seemeth to haue binne made at what time the destroying Angell in the daies of King Dauid hauing slaine with the sword of Pestilence so many thousands in so short time as threescore and
part of his glorie if he were not Doct. 2 able assoone as a sinner shall do euill to his dishonour to punish him for that cōtempt For were it not an indignity intolerable for a potent Monarch not to be able presently to set downe a Rebel in his owne Dominions yea to passe publike iustice vpon him to the taking away of his head But he that cast Adam out of Paradise as soone as he had sinned Gen. 3.24 lacketh not power to turne sinners into hell with all that forget God Psal 50.22 A conuiction of all notorious sinners who blesse that is flatter Vse 1 themselues in their talke saying They shall haue peace though they walke in the stubbornnesse of their heart adding drunkennesse to thirst Deut. 29.19 These would seeme to make question whether God be of any such strength or be able to bring any such troupes into the field against them or if he be whether he will vse them according to his threatnings in his word to their deserued ouerthrow sinning so against him These make falshood their refuge and haue their part in the drunken peace of that hypocrite who sayd My Master doth deferre his comming Math. 24.48 that is he will not come these many yeeres if he come at all either to account with sinners or to visit for sinne And what shall I say of these men but that they incourage themselues in an abominable thing promising peace where there is none Ier. 6.14 But if any dye of the Pestilence let such looke to be first and if any goe into captiuitie to be first that shall go captiue and if leannesse enter into any to haue it enter into them as soone as into any Indeed they often-times escape with life in such difficulties and straits of time when their betters do not yet they liue but to fill vp the iust measure of their certaine damnation that no torment may bee wanting to them when they shall suddenly and when they least thinke of death chop into hell Vse 2 But doth God set his plagues as his strong watch to obserue vs at all times night or day when we do euill then when we see his watch charged sometimes in the night-pestilence sometimes in the noone-plague sometimes in vnseasonable yeares by no raine or by raine in excesse sometimes in great scarcities of graine and fodder Let vs humble our selues in prayer and repentance standing with these in the gappe and breach that Gods hand hath made or may make by such calamities sent among vs for sinne and for iniquitie And let such Repentance and Prayer stand as Aaron with his holy Censer as in the case of Plague So the Lord may be intreated and his Iudgements may leaue vs. But for such as seeke no reliefe in the armory of these Christian exercises against the changes that come but behaue themselues in daies of mourning as when God maketh the hearts of men merrie with his chearefull countenance Let them goe whither they will Vengeance looketh for them at euerie doore the Plague by day and the Pestilence by night is ready for them day and night they are enuironed with feares at their tables and vpon their beds snares vpon their meate a curse vpon their sleepe and Gods anger in all their wayes And here let vs take heed how we prouoke the Lord by our stubbornenesse vnder his other roddes to bring the Plague againe I meane of Pestilence which while it kept some order among vs as his watch by night and ward by day how can it bee forgotten how many not by hundreds but by thousands a weeke in England it committed close prisoners to wormes and darknesse in the earth or if we haue forgotten that let those that go about their sinne closely remember the Pestilence that walketh in darknesse and such as sinne openly not forget the destruction that wasteth at noone day A reproofe of those who when this sicknesse is in a towne Vse 3 runne from it into the countrie as if God were impotent there as soone as the fire begins a little to burne in the deaths or infection of two or three they presently runne away by the light of it in their vnchanged liues as if they would giue more to their owne carnall forecasts then to Gods sweete prouidence But this hath bene spoken of and I adde that all going aside as hath bene said is not vnlawfull so these conditions in remouing be obserued First that the euill it selse be looked vpon as a messenger sent from God and messenger that is not auoyded by the change of the place simply without some other change Secondly that they remoue not with a doubtfull conscience but with good warrant to depart Thirdly that in such departure they breake not the bonds which should bee betweene man and wife the parents and their children Christian housholders and their Christian families And fourthly that they haue no publicke calling in the place from which they remoue as of Magistrates or Pastors For then they cannot depart with good conscience nor forsake their standings without sinne Thus farre hath the Pestilence bene described by some effects now the godly mans safelie in it and in other troubles comprehended vnder it followeth VER 7. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand c. GOds deliuerance of his children and their great safetie in such troubles as haue bene spoken of is propounded in this verse repeated in the tenth The first is affirmed simply here further proued in the two next verses as by a vehement asseueration verse 8. and infallible euidence verse 9. In the first there is a Prolepsis or preuenting answer to an obiection For some might say how can I bee deliuered when so many thousands are not who on euery hand of me fall vpon the edge of the Plague that destroyeth without mercie in darkenesse and at noone day To this the Prophet maketh answer saying Though thousands that is great numbers and ten thousands that is numbers without number so fall being cut downe with it or other diuers diseases and sundry kinds of death on the left hand and on the right of his seruants yet he can deliuer them For with him it is no more to saue his people when thousands die then when two and when tenne thousands perish then when ten onely are cut downe for the graue In a time of Pestilence he is able to passe by the houses of the faithfull as well when a whole towne is visited that is when no streete or lane is free as when a few houses are shut vp and as well if three hundred should die in a weeke as if onely three Now as God is able to do this so to aduance the credit of his power in the faith of his children he performeth it oftentimes in their outward safetie alwaies in their saluation which is best of all From whence wee learne Doct. that when the wicked are plagued Gods children shall haue deliuerance or comforts as
giuen and taken be neglected Thirdly their manner of keeping vs as it is set downe in the Reason 3 text cannot but promise great assurance For is not the little child safe while the Nurse carrieth it in her armes or beareth it in her hands So while these Nurses so beare vs can we be in danger but our Nurses on earth may fall these Nurses the Angels cannot Fourthly our protection is deliuered with a charge to the Angels Reason 4 that nothing be lacking as if the Lord should haue said I charge ye that ye looke well to all these little ones that I commit to your keeping see that none of them perish and vse your power in the safetie of them all First here is matter of thankfulnesse throughout all the Churches Vse 1 whose safetie is prouided for by so honourable a guard about them It had beene sufficient security to haue beene cared for by Gods prouidence and being to passe the seas of this troublesome world to haue had his Letters that is word for our safe conduct to our countrie but that God should giue vs besides his prouidence to keepe vs that hoste which is so glorious and neere himselfe to be alwaies about vs as if he should vouchsafe vnto vs not his princely Letters onely but his royall Nauie to bring vs safe to our heauenly Port and Land this must needes abundantly secure vs and expell all feare This is grace indeede and great riches of grace which should make his praise to bee heard his name to be excellent in al the places of his dominion If mens spirituall eyes were open they that are spirituall might see the Diuell and his Angels with a whole hoste of wicked men in continuall assault against them they might see themselues to goe continually in danger and euery step in death but that the strength of heauen goes with them and is there not matter in all this for the praise of God with heart and mouth In the yeere of our Lord 1588. the bragging power of Spaine could doe nothing against vs that came to destroy vs and to roote out our memoriall for the Lord kept our coasts by his Angels and what could they doe against such keepers should not this be remembred and should it not be remembred how the Angels haue encamped about defended this Realme against so many hostes of diuels diuels-children that more then 60 yeers haue sought by innumerable engines of Treason and threatnings of death to haue made it a Sepulcher of Christian carkesses for the Gospels sake that is yet among vs And let it not be forgotten what the Lord did so lately by his Angels in the mouth of our Soueraigne for the discouerie of the powder-plot Thus we haue been and are at this day kept safely by the Lord in the hand of his royall Angels for which grace of his what can wee giue to him lesse then praise in our mouthes and obedience in our liues continually Vse 2 A comfort to the righteous who in this that the Angels are their mighty keepers haue a spirituall preseruatiue of great vertue against all Plagues that come whether of sword famine or contagious Pestilence They that walke in the waies of the Lord when others runne out haue promise in a common euill of particular safety if it be expedient for them the Angels attend them for that purpose and the Lord knoweth how to deliuer them as he did Lot when he meaneth to turne a whole Sodom of filthinesse into ashes Gen. 19.16.22.29.2 Pet. 2.7.9 If God send Pestilence or famine or any other euill in the hotest Plague and greatest dearth that he sendeth they neede to feare nothing that haue reuerenced his truth and done his will keeping themselues vnspotted of abuses and sorrowing for the abuses they could not helpe for hauing such Leaders as the Angels are they shall not walke where the Plague walketh or if they doe they shall walke in the aire of it without danger hauing in these mighty ones about them so strong a counterpoison against it and when some dearth is sent the Angels will one way or other see them prouided for that the Scripture may be fulfilled which saith doe good and thou shalt be fed assuredly Psal 37.3 So when any other euill commeth God will not forget the loialty and good seruices of his people who hath put them all downe in a better and more lasting booke of record then was that which Assuerus kept for a remembrance of such Subiects as had deserued well of him Hest 6.1 2. but will defend such by his Angels as hee hath marked with fauour for speciall deliuerance in the euill day or else how should so many of the godly and few of the wicked escape in a towne visited with the Pestilence seeing the sicknesse is as infectious to one as to another and seeing that at the first beginning of it and before it was knowne or suspected both one and another went indifferently together into the house then infected with it The case is plaine the good Angles beare as many in their hands as God will haue them to deliuer from perill of death or common infection at such times Obiect You will say it often falles out otherwise Obiect in the visitation of God by Pestilence for the most wicked haue beene deliuered from it and the godly taken away Answ First it must bee remembred what was said before Answ which was that the godly shall be deliuered if it bee expedient for them and then not deliuered from that Plague they are deliuered from a greater by it euen a Plague of Plagues a most accursed life full of sinne fraught with miseries and dyings without end and number And for the wicked though they escape them they are not deliuered properly but repriued for a time to be more tormented hereafter either with that very death or with some other of a more horrible kinde or with euerlasting death in hell or they are reprieued till another visitation or to their day of assize in their deaths-day or day of generall iudgement But to make the ioy of the righteous full let it further be considered that the good Angels are stronger to saue then the euill are to destroy for are the euill great in power the good are greater then they the good hauing the fauour of God which the euill haue not are they old and subtle to inuent hurt the good are as old and more wise to preuent it can they cause Pestilence by venemous exhalations and dearth by some tempests the good can purge the aire that they haue poisoned and make a calme where they made a storme are they strong and full of might as they are full of might so they are fuller of feare and feare abateth strength also the good are stronger then they and voide of feare because without siune that causeth feare doe both worke from God yet they worke with great difference the good as voluntaries the euill as slâ—ues