waues tottered scaâ—tered them on the waters like chaffe on the face of the earth before the wind and tempest of his indignation All their intentions their contentions their presumption of conquest were disappointed dissolued discomfited These things though they haue not seene let our childrens children to the last generation that shall inhabite this land neuer forget that we and they may praise God who hath made fast the barres of our gates and hath setled peace in our borders 2. Famine is a sore outward sickenesse an affliction sent by the immediate hand of God For it is he that withholdeth the influence of heauen and the kindly heate of the Sunne and the nourishing sappe of the earth I haue giuen you cleannesse of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places saith the Lord. As it is his blessing that our valleies are couered ouer with corne so it is his plague that we haue sowen much and bring in little that the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaues his bosome When he is pleased he will heare the heauens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and wine and oyle and they shall heare vs. England hath felt the smart of this sickenes and she that out of her abundance hath been able to lend others hath also been glad to borrow of her neighbours The satte kinâ— of Bashan rich gormondizers haue not been acquainted indeed with this miserie and therefore haue not sorrowed for the affliction of Ioseph But the poore the poore haue greeued groned vnder this burden whiles cleannesse of teeth and swarthinesse of looke were perceiued in the common face Whiles these arrowes of famine wounded our sides and our staffe of bread whereon our very life leanes was broken we could then cry hic digitus dei here is the finger of God In our plenty saturity satietie of these earthly blessings we acknowledge not manum expansam his whole hand of bountie opened to vs though then we confessed digitum extensum his finger striking vs and bewailed the smart Famine is terrible ynough of it selfe more dire and tetricall in regard of the company she bringes along with her For Saua farmes semper magnorum prima malorum Est comes Raging famine is the prime companion of many fellowmischiefes Ex vno grano oritur aceruus of one graine of this staruing misery ariseth a whole heape of lamentable woes The attendants of famine are murthers robberies rapes killing of children that the same vessels become the wombes and toombs of little ones and innumerable stretchings of conscience to the reuoking of former and prouoking of future iudgements No maruell if hunger disregard the mounds and fences of Gods laws and mans when it breakes through stone walls The Poet somwhat morally describes Famine Quâ—esit am que famem lapidoso vidit in antro c. Behold hunger in her stony denne tearing vp the grasse with her long nayles and sharpe teeth her neglected haires growne rough and tangled her eyes hollow her cheekes pale her skinne rugged and swarthy left onely as a thinne scarse to hide her lanke entrals nothing cleane about her but her teeth her dry bones starting vp her breasts hangiâ—g ouer in the aire her ioynts swolne bigge and huge her sinewes shrunke as vnwilling to hold her limbes together This is that monster that turnes men into Canibals vnnaturally to deuoure one anothers flesh I haue read that at Turwyn in France the famine was so deadly that mans flesh was solde for food This sicknesse is worse then death Happy are we that Gods mercy hath banished this plague from our land Oh let not our iniquities reuoke it 3 The Pestilence wee better know as one that hath but a little while bin kept out of our dores and watcheth when our iniquities shall againe let him in Hee sculkes about and will not be rid away till repentance hath made our coast cleare This is Gods Purseuant that hath rode circuit in our land and to whomesoeuer God hath sent him he neuer returned with a non est muentus but alwaies brought Si non corpus taemen animam sum causa if not the body yet the soule with the cause before his iudgement seate This is he that rides on the pale horse Reu. 6. and catcheth men as with a snare perhaps when they haue most hasted from him How hath this plague left the verie streetes of our Cities emptie when they seemed to haue beene sowed with the seed of man how astonied the liuing frighted the dying disioyned the mutuall societie and succour of friend to friend and that in a time when comfort would haue been most seasonably welcome trembling hands pulling dead bodies into the graues with hookes or rolling them into pits Turne backe your eyes that now liue in the Appeniue height of peace and health and thinke you see the lamentable state of your Country as few years past discouered it Imagine you behold the hand-wringing widdowes beating their bosomes ouer their departing husbands the distracted mothers falling into swounes whiles they kisse the insensible colde lippes of their breathlesse Infants poore desolate Orphanes that now mourne the vntimely losse of their parentes as being made by yeares more sensible of their want then when deathes pestilentiall hand tooke them away the loude grones and strugling pangs of soules departing seruants crying out for Masters Wiues for Husbands parents for children children for mothers griefe in euery house striking vp alarums belles heauily tolling in one place ringing out in another Numbers of people that not many howres before had their seuerall Chambers delicatelie highted now confusedly thrust together into one close roome a little noysome hole not twelue foote square They haue marble bosomes that will not be shaken with these terrors and haue sucked Tygresses in the wildernesse that cannot compassionate these calamities How did they grieue a Church to feele them when they affect afflict and make vs Sicke to heare them I know you haue long looked for an end I neuer delighted in prolixity of speech What remaines but the more terrible wee conceiue these sicknesses of a Church the more wee blesse GOD for the present health of ours Let not our sinnes call backe these plagues let vs not prouoke our GOD least earth ayre heauen renew their strokes vpon vs. Warres and famines from the earth plagues from the ayre iudgementes from the Cloudes they are all restrayned at our repentance let loose at at our rebellions Oh serue wee the Lord our God with feare and obedidience that hee may delight to doe vs good and wee to prayse his name That wee our selues and our Children after vs and the generations yet vnborne may see the Peace of Ierusalem all their dayes That the golden Belles of Aaron may bee freely rung and the Trophees of Victory ouer all Antichristian enemies may still bee seene amongst vs. Euen till
they suffer is in them sinne the sinne they doe is from God a punishment There is nothing more wretched then a wretched man recking his owne wretchednesse Eyther they do not feele as blockes or they will not feele as Stoickes You know a seared conscience is not sensible and vsuall whipping makes some carelesse of the rodde except it bee a stroke that shall fetch bloud of the soule Indeed we are all of one mould but some are more cloddy and hard others more soft and relenting The best in their sorrowes may be more then Conquerors not more then men And let the Stoicke bragge his tetricall conclusions to the world that no paine can bring sorrow to a Wise man c.. Let him being put into that torturous engine of burning brasse called the Horse bite in his anguish smother his grones sigh inwardly and cry to the Spectators non sentio I feele not The wicked may laugh out lighter punishments and like the surde deafe and dead rockes of the sea not regarde the waues of easier iudgements beating on them letting fall no teares of repentance for so many blowes But when God sees that thou digestest his Physicke as dyet and with a strange kinde of indulgencie wilt neither grieue that thou hast offended nor that thou art offended God will strike home and sharpen at once both his blow thy sense Now thou shalt feele euen thy seared heart shall bleed In a word the wicked may be senseles Stoicks they cannot be insensible stones There is in all men an impossibility of impassibility But these remorseles wretches so spiritually sicke not of the stone in the raines but in the heart at least regarde not to offend God whiles God forbeares to offend them They speake softly they set their mouth against the heauens The reason is They are not in trouble nor plagued as other men At first they liberally sinne and spare not God lets them alone loe now they sinne and care not Impiety impunity impenitency thus swiftly follow one at the heeles of another There are some sicke of this disease but not so far gone of whose recouery there is a little but a little more hope These haue by the chidings of their accusing conscience a notion a rellish a ghesse of the number and nature of their own sins which because they suspect to be monstrous they would by no means admit a sight of Hence they flie the temple the society of the good the voice of exhortation whence soeuer it soundeth lest it should call the Soules eye home to glance at the own estate and so leaue it amazed Hence he hath animum inscium inscitum an ill sight an ill-sighted mind So timorous is this Patient that because he knows his wound deepe he will not suffer the Chirurgion to search it willing rather to kill his soule then to â—isquiet it Such is the folly of his partiall indulgence to his conscience that whiles hee would softer it he doth fester it They write of the Elephant that as if guilty of his owne deformity and therfore not abiding to view his snowt in a cleare spring he seekes about for troubled and muddy waters to drinke in This sicke wretch without question induced by the like reason refuseth to looke into the glasse of the Law or to come to the cleare springs of the Gospell or any perspectiue that may represent his euill conscience to his eyes but seekes to muddy and polluted channels Tauerns Theaters societies of sinne to drowne the thought of former iniquities with floudes of new And if he be enforced to any such reflection hee spurnes and tramples that admonition as Apes breake the glasse that represents their deformity He runs himselfe prodigally into so deepe arrerages and debts that hee cannot endure to heare of a reckoning Whiles he despaires of sufficiency to pay the old hâ—e reckes not into what new desperate courses and curses he precipitates himselfe And as it was in the Fable with the blind woman and the Physitian the Physitian comming often to her house euer carried away a portion of her best goods so that at last recouered by that time her sight was come againe her goods were gone So this wretch will not see the ransacking of his soule and spoile of his graces till his conscience be left empty and then hee sees and cries too late as Esau for his blessing 2 That other spirituall sicknesse for sinne befalling a reprobate soule is finall and totall desperation This is that fearefull consequent which treades vpon the heeles of the former sicknesse Presumption goes before Despaire followes after Cains fratricide Iudas treacherie presumptuous aspiring heauen-daring sinnes find this desperate catastrophe to cut themselues off from the mercy of God This is insanabilis plaga when the Physitian promising helpe of the disease the patient shall thrust â—is nayles into it and cry Nay it shall not be healed As if the goodnes of God and the value of Christs-all sufficient ransom were below his iniquity As if the pardon of his sinnes would empty Gods storehouse of compassion and leaue his stocke of mercy poore This is that agony whose throbs and throwes restles turbulent implacable cogitations cannot be quieted Let riuers of those waters of comfort which glad the City of God run with full streames vnto it they are resisted and driuen backe This is that sinne which not onely offers iniury and indignity to the Lord of heauen and earth but euen breakes that league of kindnes which wee owe to our owne flesh To commit sinne is the killing of the soule to refuse hope of mercy is to cast it downe into hell Therefore Saint Ierom affirms that Iudas sinned more in despairing of his masters pardon then in betraying him Since nothing can bee more derogatory to the goodnesse of God which he hath granted by promise and oath two immutable witnesses to penitent sinners then to credite the Father of lies before him Ianuas aeternae foelicitatis spes aperit desperatio claudit Hope opens the dore of heauen desperation shuts it As faith is heauen before heauen so despaire is damnation before the time Shall the bloud and death of Christ put sense into rockes and stones and shall man tread it vnder his desperate feet eneruate his crossâ— annihilate his ransome and die past hope did he raise three dead men to life one newly departed an other on the Beare a third swelling in the graue to manifest that no dgree of death is so desperate that it is past his recouery And shall these men as if twice dead and pulled vp by the routes deny to the grace and glory of God a possibility of their reuiuing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and the vnfained repentance of their owne hearts forbidde it 3 Thus we haue heard the malignancy of spirituall sicknesses whetherin sinne or for sinne Now let vs take a short consideration how farre spirituall sicknesses are more dangerous then
made themselues by Apostacie the children of Beliall The third is blessed and neuer to bee forfeited This is a happy aduancement that the daughter of Sion is made the daughter of God whom his equall and eternal sonne hath vouchsafed to marry It was no smal preferment in Dauids oÌ„pinion by wedding Saules daughter to bee made sonne in Law to a King how farre higher doth the Churches honour transcend that by marrying the sonne of God is made daughter in Law to the King of Kinges Specially when this bond is indissoluble by the hand of death vncancellable by the sentence of man vndiuorceable by any defect or default in the Spouse for hee that chose her to himselfe will preserue her from all cause why hee may not take pleasure in her beauty And as Christ now in heauen dwels with his Church on earth by grace so shee though partly now on earth dwels with him in heauen all her members being Burgesses of that celestiall Corporation Since animus est vbâ—amat non vbâ—animat Our conuersation is in heauen whence also wee looke for the Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ. Thus Augustine Et ille adhuc deorsum est noâ— iam sâ—â—sum His mercies are still descending to vs our affections ascending to him The desires of the faithfull Spouse are with her Beloued Such is the insolubility of that misticall vnion which no eloquence of man can expresse no violence of diuels shal suppresse Therefore ascendamus interim corde vt sequamur corpore let vs send vp our affections before that our persons may follow after As Christ hath sent thee downe his spirit as a pawne and pledge of this assurance so doe thou send him vp thy heart for a token of thy acceptance yea of thy hopefull expectation and desire to bee with him Minus anima promisit se Christo quae non praemisit se Christo that soule hath nothing lesse then vowed it selfe to Christ that houers and hankers about the world and is loath to come at him This is ineffable inestimable happines Hence the daughter of Israel vnderstand me not topically but typically not Israel in the flesh but the Israel of God children of that Ierusalem which is aboue or at least from aboue doth apportion all the riches of her Husband If it be vox amici Tuus sum totus the voyce of a friend I am wholy thine it is more liuingly more louingly vox mariti the speech of a husband The Bride among the heathen on the first day of her marriage challenged of the Bridegroome vbi tu Caius ego Câ—â—â— where you are Master I must be mistresse Mariage is a strong bond by Gods ordinance and knowes no other methode but composition God that increation made two of one by marriage made one of two Hence the Daughter of Israell is made one with the sonne of God by an vnion which the heart may feele but no art describe Those gracious and glorious riches which the master of all the world is proprietarie of are in some sort communicate toys His righteousnes holinesse obedience satisfaction expiation inheritance is made ours as our sinne sorrow suffrings death and damnation were made his not by transfusion but by imputation His sorrow paine passion for vs was so heauy so grieuous so pearcing such a Sic that all the world could not match it with a Sicâ—t Our ioy by him is so gracious shall be so glorious that pro qualitate pro aequalitate nihil in comparationem admâ—titur for quality for quantity it refuseth all comparison Oh blessed mutation blessed mutuation â— what wee had ill and what had wee but ill wee changed it away for his good what he hath good and what other nature can come from goodnesse it selfe we happily enioy vel in esse vel in posse either in possession or assurance Our Sauiour died our death that we might liue his life He suffered our hell to bring vs to his heauen It is somewhat not vnworthy the noting that Filia dicitur non filiae Israel is called by the name of daughter not of daughters Sion hath but one daughter The whole people is vnica quia vnita As she is one shee must be at one not â—arring not repugnant to her selfe Confusion belongs to Babel Let peace dwell in the Pallaces of Ierusalem They are refractary spirits vnworthy to dwell in the Daughter of Sions house that are euer in preparation for separation from her The Church consists of a Communion of Saints an vnited Flocke vnder one sheepheard not a company of stragling sheepe getting schisme forgetting their chrisme the vnity of the spirit that makes men bee of one mind in one house But as the spirits in man cease to quicken any member sundred from the body and the scattered bones in Ezechiels vision receiued no life till they were incorporate into a body So the spirit of God which is anima corporis the soule of his mysticall body forbeares the derivation of grace and comfort to those that cut off themselues from it Shee is one vna vnica that is mother of vs all Though there bee threescore Queenes and fourescore Concubines and virgines without number yet my doue my vndefiled is but one shee is the onely one of her mother the choice one of her that bare her There is one body many members 1. Cor. 12. The eye must not quarrell with the hand nor the head with the foot If we be one against another let vs beware least God be against all We haue one Lord whose Liuery is Loue Iohn 15. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if yee haue loue one to another whose doctrine is peace Ephes. 2. He preached peace to you that were farre off and to them that were nigh Let vs then serue him professing one truth with one heart It is wretched when sects vie number with Cities and there are so many creedes as heads Qui conaÌ„tur vel corrumpere fidem vel disrumpere charitatem who striue either to corrupt faith or dissolue charitie none performing his function without faction It is testified of those pure and primitiue times that the multitude of them that beleeued were of one heart and of one soule One mind in many bodies Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie sayth the Psalmist when inter multa corpora non multa corda as August-sweetly when among diuers men there are not diuers minds Sic viuentes in vnum vt vnum bominem faciant so louing and liuing together in one that they all make but as it were one man There is no knot of loue so sure as that which Religion ties It is able to draw together East and West sea and land and make one of two of ten of thousands of all This is that which gathereth the saints together not to a locall but misticall vnion whereby they are
nights lodging which onely truely can make the heart merry He striues to be merry but his mirth is madnesse Hee cannot dance vnlesse vanity be his mate and iniquity his Minstrell All his ioy is vel in vitys vel in diuitiâ—s eyther in his wealth or his wickednesse He cannot be merry if God bee in the company For the good onely keepe Christmas all the yeare in their conscience though not at their table Hee hath three inducements to perswade and three defects to disswade the soule from accepting his loue If the former induce any to him let the latter reduce them from him 1. His first allurement is a mellifluous language able to blanch mischiefe His words drop Nectar as if hee had beene brought vp at Court And by his Logicke hee can make quidlibit ex quolibet anything of euery thing so by his Rhetoricke hee can make stones hard hearted worldlings dance to his pipe as it is fabled of Orpheus Cusus ex ore non tam verâ—a quam mella fluunt as I haue read of Origem Euery syllable is like a drop of honey from his lips Magicis verborum viribus quasi transformat homines There lies a magicke in his temptâ—ng speech able to inchant and transforme mens hearts making a voluptuous man a hogge an oppressor a Wolfe the lustfull a Goate the Drunkard a Diuell His arguments are not empty but carry the weight of golden eloquence the musicall sound of profite and pleasure 2 Besides his captiuing elocution hee mends the ill fabricke of his person with rich acoutrements He weares all his cloathes as Saint Paul saith in the fashion Hee hath change of suites Hee puts on pride when he goes to the Court Bribery when hee goes to the Hall Ebriety when to a Tauerne Prodigality when he shufles in among Gallants Vsurie when hee would walke in the Exchange Oppression when hee would ride downe into the Country Onely Auarice is the girdle of his loines he is neuer without it It is fashion to be of any fashion to apply himselfe to thy humour whom he courts He hath a sute to speed of his suite to please thy affection 3 This is not all he tenders thee a faire and large iointure Giue him but marriage and he will giue thee maintenance Iura periura Defraude dissemble sweare for sweare bribe flatter temporize make vse of all men loue onely thy selfe and riches with preferment in his company shall seeke thee out Thou shalt hazard no Straights climbe no Alpes prison not thy selfe in a study nor apprentice thy life to the warres entertaine but the worlde for thy husband and thou art out of all hunger and cold wealth shal come trolling in eueÌ„ whiles thou sleepest But happy is hee that can bee rich with honesty or poore with content These are the glories whereof hee would enamour thee thus would hee possesse thee with his possessions But hee hath three deterringes heare them 1 He hath sore eyes bleare and raw with cares for hee is euer in expectation either of remedy to griefes or supply to wants What opulency can boast immunity from sorrow exemption from crosses And such is the secure worldlings impatience when once angred with afflictions that a little misery makes him greatly miserable He makes his yoke the more troublous to him because he hath not learned to draw quietly in it Though hee hath alreadie more then enough he keepes his eyes sore with seeking for addition In the quest of wealth hee denies himselfe rest Needes must his eyes be sore that sleepeth not This is one disease incident to the world 2 He hath swolne legges diseased with surfets For the world comprehends more then couetousnesse by the testimony of S. Iohn The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life is of the world Wee renounced in our Baptism with the world pompes and vanities Riot lust intemperance Epicurisme dissolutenes are members of the world as well as auarice Tam I say if not tantum And therfore our Sauiour by that terrible sentence against rich men intends not couetousnesse for a sole and singular obstacle yeelde it a principall but pride ambition lust vaine-glory luxurie the effects of an opulent state as well as couetice There are more burdens to loade the Cammell when he should passe through the smal posterne of Grace that needlesse eye then onely auarous affections What lesson of vice is not the rich man apt to learne Therefore this makes the world haue swolne legges as the other sore eyes Hee is blinde hee is lame both ill qualities in a Sutour 3 He hath a very weak tenur of al he possesseth he is Gods tenant at will hath leasse of nothing but durante Domini bene placito during the great Landlord of heauen earth his fauour At vtmost his hold is but for terme of life that a warish short and transient life scarce so long as the first line of an indenture Nay hee hath right to nothing for he holds not in Capite from the Lord of all Iesus Christ. Therefore euery wordling shall be accountant for each crumme of bread and droppe of water which they haue receiued For the right of the creatures lost in the first Adam cannot be recouered but by the second So that hee enters on them as an Intruder and possesseth them as an Vsurper his title being so bad his tenure is certaine in nothing but in being vncertaine Sic transit gloria mundi So the fashion of this world passeth away What soule soeuer marries him either he leaues his wife or his wife must leaue him without euer being satisfied You see then the fraudulent proffers of your personable wooer the world What is there in him that any daughter of Ierusalem should affect him Only be you simple as Doues in not louing him but wiâ—e as Serpents in liuing by him Loue not the world saith Saint Iohn yet make vse of it saith Saint Paule Vtere mundo fruero Deo Vse the world but enioy God for the world waxâ—th old as a garment and fadeth away but Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for euer The world like fire may be a good seruant will bee an ill Master Make it thy slaue it is not good ynough to be thy husband How base is it for a freewoman to marry her seruant 3 The third is the Flesh. This Sutour comes boldly in like a home-borne childe and hopes to speede for old acquaintance He can plead more then familiaritie euen inherence inheritance of what nature hath left vs. He is not only collaterall but connaturall to vs. One house hath held vs one breath serued vs one nutriment fed vs euer since one conception bred vs. Like Hippocrates twinnes we should haue inseparably liued togither and loued together if the prerogatiue Court of grace and mercie had not diuorced vs. And euen in the sanctified this impudent wooer cannot be quite
proper and fit to ingender these sicknesses as these sickenesses are to bring desolution It is our owne worke to make death better then a better life or continuall sicknesse that our meate giues no more sent nor sauour then an offering doth to an Idoll He that sinneth before his maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian 6 Spirituall sicknesse for sinne is yet farre more perilous and mortall nay well were it for some thus sicke if it were mortall If the disease would decease the soule might reuiue and liue It varies as some diseases doe in the body according to the constitution of the sicke thereafter as the soule is that hath it whether regenerate or reprobate The malignancie is great in both but with far lesse danger in the former 1 In the Elect this spirituall sicknes is an afflicted conscience when God wil suffer vs to take a deepe sense of our sinnes and bring vs to the life of grace through the valley â—f death as it were by hell gates vnto heauen There is no anguish to that in the conscience a wounded spirite who can beare They that haue been valiant in bearing wrongs in forbearing delights haue yet had womannish and cowherd spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience If our strength were as an army and our landes not limitted saue with East and west if our meat were manâ—a and our garments as the Ephod of Aaron yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheared with all these comforts When God shall raise vp our sinnes like dust and smoake in the eyes of our soules and the arrowes of his displeasure drinke vp our bloud and his terrors seeme to fight against vs when he buffets vs from his presence and eyther hides his countenance from vs or beholds vs with an angry looke loe then if any sicknes be like this sicknes any calamity like the fainting soule Many offences touch the body which extende not to the soule but if the soule be grieued the sympathizing flesh suffers deepely with it The bloud is dried vp the marrow wasted the flesh pined as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselues like so many windowes to discouer the passions of the distressed Prisoner within It was not the sense of outward sufferings for meere men haue borne the agonies of death vndaunted but the wrastling of Gods wrath with his spirite that drew from Christ that complaint able to make heauen and earth stand agast My soule is heauy vnto the death There is comfort euen in death when the clocke of our life runs vpon her last minutes but is there any disease during the torments of a racked conscience This wearisome guest doth God often lodge with his owne children suffring the eye of faith to be shut and the eyes of flesh and bloud open that sorrow is their bread and teares their drinke and the still perplexed mind knows not where to refuse it selfe Alwayes reseruing and and preseruing his Children but neuer dâ—ing grace of his Spirite in their hearts a substance of blâ—ssing 〈◊〉 the oke though it hath cast the leaues though the barrennes of the boughes drines of the barke giue it for dead and withered Faith being in a swoune may draw the breath inwardly not perceiued but destroy it not for there is a blâ—ssing in it Neyther is this sicknesse and trouble of conscience properly good in it selfe nor any grace of God but vsed by God as an instrument of good to his as when by the spirite of bondage he brings vs to adoption So the Needle that drawes the thread through the cloth is some meanes to ioyne it together This is the godly soules sicknesse for sin full of sharpe and bitter ingredients but neuer destitute of a glorious euent and victorious triumph I may say of it as Physitians speake of agues which make a man sicke for a while that hee may bee the sounder a long time after This sickenesse is physicke to procure better health 2 Spirituall sickenesse for sinne in the reprobate hath other effects To restraine their number they principall appeare in two diseases or disasters rather Impenitency and Despaire 1. Impenitencie the symptome of an obdurate and remorselesse heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnes to worke all vncleannesse with gredinesse Saint Paul cals it a reprobate minde a death rather then a sickenesse He that labours hereof is rather deceased then diseased This is a heart so hard and impenetrable that all the holy dewes of instructions cannot soften it all the blowes of Gods striking rod put no sense into it It is inuulnerable to any stroke saue that which makes a fatall and finall end with it Thou hast stricken them but they haue not grieued c. It is iust with God but fearefull on whom soeuer this iuâ—gement lights to plague sin with sinne that peccatum sit paena peccantis For there is euermore some precedent impietie in those vngratious persons procuring God to deale thus with them For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue a lie That they all might be damned that beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse First Pharaoh hardens his owne heart c. God all this while holds his peace giues him the hearing and looking on In the end he saith I will harden Pharaohs heart and then puts yron to yron adamant to adamant and there is perfected a relentlesse repentlesse obduracy This is that retaliation of sinne which God returnes into their bosomes that foster it that since they loued cursing it shall be vnto them So Dauid in the Psalme Though indeed it was not in him Precantis votum but Prophetantis vaticinium he did not desire it should be so but he knew it would be so Adde iniquitieto their iniquitie Neither doth God this by infusion of wickednesse but by substraction of his spirit He is causa deficiens not efficiens as the reuoking of the sunne from vs causeth darkenesse the priuation of grace the position of all vngodlines It is in him not peccatum sed iudicium not sinne but iudgement When he leaues vs to our selues it is no wonder if we fall into horrid and prodigious sinnes Peccatum est malum in se effectum prioris mali causa subsequentis est supplicium causa supplicij Sinne is euill in it selfe the effect of former euill the cause of future It is both punishment it selfe and the cause of punishment In all the store house of Gods plagues there is not a greater vengance With other punishments the body smarteth the soule groneth vnder this Hence sinnes multiply without limits that the plagues may be without end Euery affliction is sore that offends vs but that is direfull which withall offends God Such do at once act and suffer it is both an actiue and a passiue sinne The punishment
corporall The Soule is at all parts more precious then the Body It is that principall most diuine and excellent halfe of man Dum viuisicat anima dum vult animus dum scit mens dum recolit memoria dum iudicat ratio dum spirat spiritus dum sentit sensus It is called for quickning a soule for knowing mind for remembring memory for iudging reason for breathing spirit for feeling sense when the soule is sicke all these are sicke with it The soule is compared to heauen the body to earth The heauen is glorious with Sun Moon Starres so the soule with vnderstanding memory reason faith hope c. The body like the earth whereof it was made is squallid with lusts The earth hath no heate nor nourishment but from heauen nor the body comfort but from the soule How then oh how terrible is the soules sicknes or death How indulgently should wee tender the health thereof Wee keepe our chicken from the kite our lambe from the Wolfe our fawne from the hound our doues from the vermine and shall wee yeeld our darling to the Lyons our soule to those murdering spirits which endeuour to deuoure them The Soule may bee well when the body is full of griefes but ill goes it with the body when the soule is sicke Nay euen corporall diseases are ofen a means to procure spirituall soundnesse Therefore one cals it optabile malum cum mali remedium sit maioris a happy euill which is the remedy of a greater euill Wee may say of many healthfull bodies tutius aegrotassent they might with lesse danger haue beene sicke Nusquam peius quam in sano corpore ager animus habitat A sicke minde dwels not rightly in a sound body But to find a healthfull and sound soule in a weake sickly body is no wonder Since the Soule before smothered with the cloudes of health is now suffered to see that through the breaches of her prison which former ignorance suspected not Corporall sickenes is a perpetuall Monitor to the conscience euery pang a reproofe and euery stitch reades a lesson of mortality ready euer to checke for euill or to inuite to good which duty weighed a man hath lesse reason to be ouer feareful of sicknesse then ouer glad of health The Spirituall detriment that may ensue on health is more dangerous then the bodily paine that pursues sicknes If a man feare not death what power hath sicknes to make him miserable Tolerabilis est morbipraesentia si contempseris id quod extreâ—um minatur Sicknesse hath little terrour in it if thou shall contemne that which it threatneth Death If it teach thee by the sight of the first death instant to preuent the fury of the second behold it makes thee blessed Such good vse may the wise Soule make of the bodies enemie I haue read it said that singulus morbus paruula mors euery disease is a little death Therefore God sends vs many little deathes to instruct our preparation for the great death The oftner a man dies the better hee may know to die well I yeelde if in sicknes we contract and narrow vp the powers of our soule and direct them as our finger to the griefe of our bodies only forgetting either that God strikes vs or that we haue first stricken God eyther flying to ill meanes or affying to good meanes more then to God our sicknesse may be deadly to body and soule too Asa was sicke but of his feete his feet stood far from his hart yet because he relyed more on his Physitians then on his Maker he died Or if there shall bee no lesse confusion and hurly butly in the faculties of the Soule then there is distemperature in the partes of the body when Reason which should be the Queene and dwell in the highest and choisest roome is deposed from her gouernement When the Senses which are the Court-guardes and the Princesses attendants that giue all admission into the Presence are corrupted when the supreme faculties which are the Peeres are reuolted and the Affections which are the Commons peruerted and all this insurrection and disturbance dethroning the Queene corrupting the Guard drawing from fealty the Peeres and the Commons from alleageance wrought by those violent passions which are refractory and headstrong Rebels hauing once gotten head Alas how far is this miserable distemper and perturbation of these spirituall parts aboue the distresse or distraction of the corporall members neither is the future perill hereof onely more full of prodigious desolation but euen the present sense is also more tetricall piercing and amazing with horror We shall finde the perplexity of this spirituall sicknesse how far exceeding the corporall if wee either compare them generally or particularly instance in any speciall disease 1 Generally The excellency of health is measured according to the Life which holds it and the dignity of Life is considered by the cause that giues it 1. The Life of the Plant is basest because it consists but in the iuyce which is administred by the earth to the root thereof and thence deriued and spred to the parts 2. The Life of the brute creature excels because it is sensitiue and hath power of feeling 3. The Life of man is better then both because it is reasonable conceiuing iudging of things by vnderstanding 4. The Life of a spirituall man is better then all the former and it hath two degrees 1. The life of inchoate regeneration and it consists in grace 2. the perfect life of imputed righteousnes conferred and confirmed by Iesus Christ 5. The Life of Glory exceedes all whereof there are also two degrees 1. the fruition of glory in soule 2. the ful possession in the vnion of the body to it These two last sorts of Life transcend the former in two maine respects 1. Because the other may die must die these haue a patent of eternity sealed them 2. Because the other haue transient causes These haue the Grace and Glory of God Now as by all consent the Life of reasonable man is better then the vegetable of plants or sensitiue of beasts so the health of man must needes be more precious and as that vertue excels in goodnesse so doth the defect exceede in miserablenesse Respect man distinctiuly as hee is a Body onely and then to bee sicke and die are common to him with plants and beastes and what suffering is there in the one more then in the other saue that as the Beast is more sensible of paine then the tree so man is more apprehensiue then the beast the bodies of all returne to the earth But man hath a soule wherein his reason is placed which fainting or sickening through sinne or the punishment for sinne there is offered a passion and griefe whereof the other are not capable Death to the rest is not so terrible as this sickenesse The goodlier the building is the more lamentable the ruine 2