many are there in the World that pass from month to month yea from year to year that scarce ever pray as if there were neither a God to reward nor a Devil to be his Executioner and yet if you tell them they are not Christians they will esteem you the most injurious persons in the world But we must not be content with the bare name of Christianity and think it is enough that our Parents brought us to the Font and that there we received our Christian Livery We must come up to the life of christianity which is Prayer it is that in the Soul which Springs are in Clocks and Watches if they be broke the motion of all the Wheels ceases and if we devote not our selves to prayer all our Theological virtues are idle and as it were pinnion'd in us and therefore St. Chrysostome says excellently Tom. 1. de fide as when a Queen enters a city not only a great Retinue but an amass of Wealth comes along with her so likewise when the Soul is enflamed with a love of prayer all other virtues croud and throng in upon her Of Men it makes us the Temples of Christ Now as gold and precious stones and the richest Marbles constitute the Palaces of Princes so Prayer builds up these Temples of the Son of God that he may dwell in our hearts as in a Sanctum Sanctorum the noblest Seat of his Residence That we may therefore pray aright and like good christians that God may cease the plague and heal our wounds I shall show you what qualifications are necessary First then Our Prayer must be an earnest fervent Prayer it is St. James his character The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much indeed it peirceth heaven and is Clavis Coeli as St. Bernard speaks the Key that unlocks the Treasuries of heaven that it may showre down its blessings upon us We may learn the Nature of this effectual Prayer from the Royal Prophet when he says Ps 141.2 Dirigatur Oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense in which words he briefly comprehends all the requisites of a fervent prayer by comparing it to Incense First In the Incense was Frankincense Onyx Galbanum Oyle of Cinnamond or Myrrh and Mastich so our Prayer if it be effectually fervent must be mingled with Faith Humility Charity Confidence in God and Patience these as lesser Stars must wait upon this Queen and Mother of virtues this Breviary of the Gospel Secondly This Incense was appropriated to the Temples and lodged in the Holy of Holies so likewise the Soul of Man is the Temple and House of God as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost we therefore must burn this Incense of Prayer in the inward'st and purest part of this Temple Thirdly This Incense was to be offered by none but the High Priest so likewise all our prayers must be offered up by our High Priest Christ Jesus if we hope they shall prevail for upon this account the Church teaches us to conclude all our prayers with this clause Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly This Incense was to be fir'd before its grateful perfume could be sented If the High Priest flung never so many handfuls of it on dead coals there came forth no odour so our Prayers are altogether frigid and no way pleasing until kindled by the flames of the Spirit where heat and fervour is wanting in him that prays the very Soul of prayer is absent Fifthly says David Dirigatur Oratio mea c. let it mount let it tend towards thee he that will pray fervently and effectually must have a good end a sincere intention and a constant attention he must not pray like Pharisees to be seen of men that he may purchase the Repute of Religious and holy he must make God and his interest his ultimate end and therefore our Lord the Great Master of Prayer says When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy dore pray to thy Father which is in Secret By which he would teach us rather to acquit our selves to God than Man God only being able to reward our Integrity with better blessings than vulgar applause can afford Secondly But in the second place as our Prayer must be earnest and fervent so it must be without ceasing If we would have a Truce with God's judgments it is an argument of an evil heart to proportion our Prayers to the increase or decrease of Judgments for though the rule in Philosophy be That Oratio is quantitas discreta yet in Divinity it is most certain That Oratio ought to be quantitas continua according to the Apostle's Maxime Pray continually and indeed now 1 Eph. 5.17 if ever we had need to be constant in Prayer when thousands dye in a week and every parish yea every street is the fatal Theatre of so many sad Tragedies Is not this a time of trouble when the rich and abler sort are fled citè longè tardè and the poorer through necessity are oblieged to tarry notwithstanding infinite dangers surround them their Servants and their poor children Is it not a time of trouble when Tradesmen become poor and poverty enforces beggary and that unhappy profession cannot keep them from Starving Is it not a time of trouble when trade in general is so Dead that the Sexton and the Grave-maker have the most Employment in the parish Surely this is a time of trouble and this time is our time O therefore let us take up holy David's Resolution and give neither sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our Eyelids till the Lintells of our dore-posts are annointed with the blood of sprinkling that the destroying Angel may pass over our habitations Ask and give not over till you find seek and leave not till you find knock and cease not till a dore of Salvation be opened unto you 3. But thirdly We must lift up pure hearts and holy hands unto God in Prayer It is the work of the Seraphims to be continually crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth to express the ardent affection in them and the ready adoration of the Holyness so repeated by them it being that noble attribute that indeed is only proper to God Now if we would take a part in this Seraphick Consort we must endevour to have holiness and purity in our hearts and hands and then our addresses will be musical in God's Ears To this purpose the Schoolman Victorinus observes That a reasonable Soul is the chief and principal glass wherein to see God Ric. Victor lib. de Patriar This the Israel of God must continually hold wipe look on hold lest falling down it sink to the Earth in love wipe lest it be sullied with the dust of vain thoughts look on that it divert not the eye and intention to vain
studies Can we hope that that Man's prayer should be acceptable to God whose heart in stead of being lifted up to the throne of Grace is sunk into the Earth by the love of Terrene pleasures No we must have hearts purified with the fire of Divine love and hands wash'd in innocency before we can be acceptable Under the Law the burnt offerings were to be flea'd and cut in peices and their Legs and Inwards were to be wash'd Upon which Saint Cyril of Alexandria says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fleaing off the Skin was a riddle of naked discovery Hom. Pasc 22. p. 240. for nothing at all in us is hid or veiled from the Divine and pure eyes of God We must not be content with the superficies and out-side of a good life but we must flea our Sacrifices and look to the Integrity of our inwards we must as it were cut our selves in peices by a strict examination of the particular actions of our whole life whatever belongs to us our desires our thoughts all must be purified if we would have our Sacrifice Grateful How many are there in the World that make long prayers yet devour Widows houses How many that have nothing in their mouths but Gospel light and the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ yet do but flea them and you shall find them full of Avarice Pride Faction and the greatest uncharitableness Godfrey of Bulloine being asked by the Ambassador of a Sarazen Prince how he had his hands tam doctas ad praeliandum so able to fight returned this answer Quia manus semper habui puras ab impuris contractibus peccati Because I never defiled my hands with any notorious Sin Our Prayers will never be prevalent with God until we first combat and foyle our own Sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato defines Purity a Separation of the worse from the better We must in a good sense be Separatists and come out of Babylon before we can be fit company for the Lamb and when we have once done this we may confidently hope a relaxation of our miseries and that God will hear from heaven forgive our Sins and heal our Land And so I come to the third Ingredient in the Text Repentance If my people humble themselves and pray and turn from their evil ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land In the Pythian and Olympick Games the Contenders for honour and renown had their way chalk'd out with two white Lists out of which they were not to salley so it was with Adam in Paradice his via morum was rayled in with Innocence aswell as his via pedum adorned with Flowers and other delightful Objects but he having leap'd over the pale by eating the forbidden fruit took upon him the Trade of wandring into by-paths and his children like so many Gypsies have ever since exercised the same Profession I have heard of some that they have been so much in love with the wandring humour that though they have been heirs to good fortunes yet they have consorted themselves with the begging Crew only to have the Liberty of roving up and down And thus it is with man generally as to his Spiritual condition though God hath elevated us to the dignity of Sons-ship and Christ accepted the Title of our elder Brother yet we have strayed away from his blessed Company and that heavenly inheritance he purchased for us with his blood We have taken more delight in the meanders of Sin and folly that can afford us nothing of sollid worth than in those durable and eternal riches of Grace and Holyness Upon this score it is that the Text saith If my people turn from their evil ways which implyes they were out of the way of God and altogether journying the Mazes of Idolatry and Sin that God would heal and redress the miseries that for such deviations were come upon them But because I will speak more distinctly of Repentance I shall consider it in its three parts 1. Compunction or Contrition for Sin 2. Confession of Sin 3. Conversion from Sin to God First Compunction or Contrition And now how happy should I be if my discourse to you at this time could have the same operation on your hearts that St. Peter's Sermon had upon his Auditors as St. Luke describes it in the second of the Acts and the 37. vers where it is said Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do A true and holy Sorrow like so many Needles peirced them thorough as Eupolis recounts of Pericles's Oration to the People of Athens Cicero de Clar. Orat. In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit it left stings in his Auditors minds Now that we may a little consider the phrase we must make a difference between spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit of Compunction which St. Paul complains of in the unbelieving Rom. 11.8 believing Jews and Compunction of Spirit or of the heart mentioned in this place of the Acts St. Paul says God hath given them a Spirit of Slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day as if he would say they are possest with a Spirit of stupidity and obstinacy in Sin that slash and wound them never so yet they will not be sensible but this compunction or pricking of the heart which St. Peter's Auditors endured was a godly Sorrow for their Sins and sight of their miserable Condition Now Lorinus affords us a ternary of reasons why godly Sorrow for Sin is called compunction of the heart Act. C. 2. 1. Quia vel aperitur Cordis apostema 2. Vel quia vulneratur Cor amore Dei 3. Vel quia daemon dolore invidia sauciatur Either because the corruption of the heart is discovered as an Aposteme or Vlcer is opened by the prick of a Launce Or because the heart is wounded with the love of God as the Spouse in the Canticles cries out I am sick of Love Or because thereby the Devil is wounded with Indignation and Envy as knowing the ruine of his Interest and Kingdome must needs be caused when Sinners return to God the Centre of their happiness from which they recoyled But if any one ask me the reason why they were thus pricked thus wounded at the heart the 23. 24. Verses of the second of the Acts will tell us him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God Ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain It was high time for the Jews to be touched to the quick that had put to death the Lord of Life their Messiah and Saviour of the World And truly if we reflect aright upon our selves we shall find it high time for us to
Vmbra viri facies haec est Surgentis in altum Effigiem melius pagina culta dabit Ingentes animae superant virtutibus Artem Vostermanne tuam vel Titiane tuam PILLVLAE PESTILENTIALES OR A SPIRITUAL RECEIPT for Cure of The Plague Delivered in a Sermon Preach'd in St. Paul's Church LONDON in the mid'st of our late Sore VISITATION By Rich. Kingston M. A. and Preacher at St. James Clerken-well Numb 16.46 There is wrath gone out from the Lord and the Plague is begun Numb 16.48 And Aaron stood between the Living and the Dead and the Plague was stayed LONDON Printed by W. G. for Edw. Brewster at the Crane in St. Pauls Church-yard 1665. To the Right Honourable Sir JOHN KEELING Knight and Baronet Lord Chief Justice of ENGLAND Right Honourable WHen I lift mine Eyes from the low and humble valley of my obscure fortunes to that bright shining and Eminent hill of Honour on which the Favour of His Majesty the Nobleness of Birth and your many Excellent Virtues have seated you I cannot but lay a sharp and rigorous Censure upon my own Presumption that I so much a stranger to your Lordship should thus boldly adventure to press into your presence and to crave your Honourable Patronage of so mean a Work but when your Honour is pleas'd to consider that Divine Truth 's are Subjects worthy of acceptation though presented in an Earthen Vessel and David's comfort in rescuing his Wives and recovering the spoils from the Amalekites was no whit the smaller although a young man of Egypt made way for the discovery I hope to obtain what I humbly beg your Honours Pardon My Lord this Sermon was Compos'd and Preach'd in the very height of our late dreadful Visitation when Thousands dy'd on our right hand and Ten Thousand on our left at which time my imployment by day was visiting the Sick and by night burying the Dead having no time allowed for study but what I extracted from my natural rest which may make this Tract more guilty of failings than at another time my humble request therefore to your Lordship is that you would be pleased to lay the finger of a charitable construction upon the Scar of my imperfection and favourably accept this first fruit of my labours So in all humility imploring the God of Majesty and Mercy to Sanctifie your Heart Rectifie your Hand Justifie your Soul and lastly Crown your Head with eternal Glory I take the honour to Subscribe my self Your Lordships daily Oratour Rich. Kingston To the Right Worshipful Joseph Ayloff and George Walsh Esquires two of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex And to the Worshipful Henry Dacres and William Cole Esquires as also to his much respected friend Mr. Henry Knight R. K. wisheth the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Right Worshipful TUtelar Angels are a controverted Theme amongst Schoolmen but the favourable influence of a just defence from your Worships hath been an unquestionable matter of my experience which transcendent favours if buried in Oblivion would be an high impeachment of veracity and not to acknowledge them having this occasion could plead for no distance from down-right sordidness and plain Ingratitude The Work is too small and the Author too mean to equalize your worth or merit your Patronage only 't is the height of my Ambition to let the world know that your favours which as far excel my deserts as my power to retaliate have not been bestowed on an ungrateful Servant I am not ignorant that cunning Bezaliahs and Aholiahs may carve and pollish the Temple yet I am glad that I can but lay one little stone though men of brighter Souls bring their Gold and Jewels to it yet I hope God will accept of my young Pigeons and Turtle Doves I may say with St. Peter Silver and Gold have I none but what I have I give you in all humility beseeching you to consider my years which are but few and the time I had which was but short and my many other sad occasions wherewith in the mean time I was interrupted and then accept of this for tryal as if it were the extract of some purer and better wit The Lord prosper your days direct your hearts and bless all your undertakings to the glory of his Name and your own eternal felicitie So ever Prayeth Your Worships in all Duty and Service Rich. Kingston To the Church-Wardens of the Parish of St. James Clerken-Well for the time being and to the rest of the Officers and Inhabitants of the same Parish R. K. Wisheth health and happiness in this life and Eternal blessedness in that to come Loving Friends IT pleased the wise Disposer of all things to cast my lot among you in one of the most dreadful Visitations that ever England knew when the black Horse of the Pestilence with Pale Death on his back pranc'd our Streets at Noon day and Midnight at which dreadful and never to be forgotten time our sense of Seeing was well-nigh glutted with beholding the sight of our Diseased and Deceased Friends enough to have extinguish'd the optick faculty No Papers then over our Dores were set With Chambers ready furnish'd to be Let But a sad Lord have mercy upon us and A Bloody Cross as fatal marks did stand Presaging th' noisome Pestilence within Was come to take revenge of us for Sin And as our Eyes might well be dim'd so might our Ears be deaf'd with the doleful cryes of the Poor for Food to keep them from Starving of the Sick for Physick to keep them from Dying and of them that were Marked for Spiritual helps to preserve them from Perishing We well might hear of Death there was such plenty One Bell at once was fain to Ring for twenty No Clocks were heard to strike upon their Bells Cause nothing Rung but Death-lamenting knells Which dreadful noises so terrified some and affrighted all that men knew not what course to steer to preserve themselves from this wounding shaft Some by their fear to go to Church deburr'd Anon are carri'd Dead into the Yard And Churches new with too much Burial fed Fear'd they should have no meeting but of Dead This Poyson'd Arrow of the Pestilence especially when it was first foot among us wounded so suddenly and sharply that we could scarce be resolved whether 't was Sickness or Death it self that assaulted us for many lying down to repose in the Evening made their sleep true kin to Death by dying before the Morning Ah who would then defer A preparation for this messenger But not to detain you longer with a large Epistle to a little Book be pleas'd to accept thereof as a Testimony of my sincere love to you which shall always be accompanied with my hearty Prayers for you that our merciful God would be pleas'd to withdraw his Sin-revenging Scourge which is still amongst us and charge his Angels to guard your persons from future dangers and give you
hooded Hawkes if she could flye yet she would want an eye to pursue her game Let us therefore if we would be taught by this great Schoolmaster approach him with all humility and he will not only teach us those things which are of Eternal Import but cure the Wounds which Sin hath made in our Souls in our Bodies in the Church in the State And so I come to the second Ingredient which is Prayer If my People pray and seek my face c. First then Being to speak of Prayer it will not be amiss to enquire in the first place what Prayer is L. 3. de Fide c. 4. St. John Damascen answers the Question and says It is the Elevation of the mind to God And St. Austin In Ps 85. Your Prayer is a speaking to God When you read God speaks to you when you pray you speak to God therefore Prayer is the Souls Colloquy and conversation with God So that when we pray we Elevate our spirit to God and familiarly yet with all reverence communicate our Condition unto him with a greater confidence than any Child can do to his Mother To him we unbowel our selves and lay before him what is most dear unto us and what most oppresses us in our Spiritual combats our failings and our desires the temporal blessings we would have and the Evils we would eschew as one friend doth to another in whom he most confides And this is that which the Divine Writ terms a pouring forth the heart like water before the Lord the Text doth not say like Oyle some of which will ever be sticking to the vessel that contained it but like Water to signifie That all our thoughts our whole heart must go out of it self and ascend to God And truly if ever now we have need to make this self-examination for when our Souls have as it were quitted their Mansion and travelled to the throne of Grace to beg Mercy and a ceasing of Judgments we may be confident Plagues will be crippled and not suffered to infect our clayie tenements in our spiritual absence For the truth of this we have our Lord and Saviours own Word If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So powerful is fervent prayer with God that it binds his hands and to speak with reverence as it were fetters the Omnipotent one We see it likewise in the case of the Israelites Moses was gone up to the Mount to receive the Law and his stay being longer than the peoples expectation they gather themselves together and will needs have Aaron make them new Gods He out of their golden Earings to gratifie their importunity made them a Calf This accursed peice of Idolatry God resolving to punish says unto Moses Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them c. whilest thou prayest thou bindest me do not thus manacle me let my hands be at liberty that I may cut off this stiff necked generation Suitably to this Salvianus commenting upon Psal 33.18 Oculi Domini super justos Aures ejus in preces eorum says when the Scripture affirms the Ears of the Lord to be always on the prayers of the just not only his readiness to hear but a kind of Obedience in God is pointed at as if God were so ready to hear the prayers of his faithful ones that he seems willing not only to hear but to Obey not only to grant what they desire but ready to perform what they command Thus though the Sun comes forth like a Giant and rejoyces to run his race yet He and his fellow Luminary the Moon the bright Mistress of the night by the force of Prayer are arrested and made to stand still till Joshuah and the Israelites had avenged themselves upon their Enemies Josh 10.12 Yea at the prayer of Hezekiah attended with the Divine Rhethorick of Tears the same Sun must recoyle back It might have been enough for Hezekiah's faith to believe the words of Isaiah without any Sign But God to let us see how much he was pleased with the King 's earnest Address stops the very course of Nature and by no less than a miracle declares That he had heard and accepted the voice of those Royal Tears for behold I will bring again the Shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the Sun-Dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward Isa 38.8 And as Prayer hath a power to invert the Course of Nature so likewise can it make Nature act contrary to its own self For fire which naturally towers upward at the Prayer of Elijah descended downward and consumed a Captain and fifty men 2 Kings 1.12 Neither is Prayer the weapon with which we only wound our Enemies but it is to speak with St. Ambrose telum quo vulneramus Cor Dei a weapon with which God himself is wounded as the Spouse in the Canticles speaks Charitate vulneror no other Artillery but this can batter the Cittadel of the great King This is a Truth so evident that the dim light of Nature taught the very Heathens it and therefore as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us they called their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Protr from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one should say a God who delighteth in the humble Prayers of hearty Petitioners So that we may well say with Luther Oratio hominis res est potentissima It overth ows Armies turns the course of Nature obtains the greatest blessings averts the greatest Evils and even conquers God himself Let us therefore offer this incense offering this Spirituale thymiama In Matth. Carthusian to its honour observes That the Style of Incense is attributed to no other Theological virtue so truly as to Prayer Nulla justitia thymiamati comparatur nisi sola Oratio for as Incense fired in the Censor mounts in perfumed Curls and casts a grateful odour about the Altar so our Prayers proceeding from hearts fired with holy Zeal ascend to the throne of God and make a sweet smell in his nosthrils But to speak more particularly since prayer is of such a power First Let us pray that we may show our selves Christians Tertullian calls Christians the Candidates of the Celestial Kingdom He alludes to the custome of those Roman Senators that stood for the Consulship who ever visited such as had any votes in their Election and by fair entreaties endevoured to win them to their Side The same we do by Prayer we acknowledge the Supremacy that Christ hath over us and that all our felicity depends upon his only Vote Now as among the Gentiles some were called Platonists others Aristotelians and from the Masters they acknowledged their Instructors so by practising this excellentest of virtues we justly wear the name of him that taught it us Secondly Let us pray That we may not only show our selves Christians but good and pious Christians How