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
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
pleading of it But in vain doth the beggars sonne boast himselfe of the bloud royall or the wicked soule of partaking the diuine nature when hee cannot demonstrate his adoption by his sanctification So that as we giue comfort to them that except themselues so terror to them that accept themselues when God doth not make sure to thy soule that thou art once Gods and my life for thine thou shalt euer be his Lastly from this titular phrase obserue that the daughter of Ierusalem is our mother Ierusalem which is aboue is free which is the mother of vs all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Church is our mother if the most holy God be our Father She feedes vs with sincere milke from her two breastes the scriptures of both the Testaments those Oracles which God hath committed to her keeping God doth beget vs of unmortallseed by the word which liueth and abideth for euer but not without the wombe of the Church Non enim nascimur â—edrenascimur Christianâ— wee are not Christians by our first but by our second birth Neither is she the mother of all but vs all whom God hath chosen before all time and called in time to himselfe Qui sic sunt in domâ— Dei vt ipsi sint domâ—s Dei who are so in the House of God that themselues are the house of God He that ouercommeth I will write vpon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is now Ierusalem that commeth out of heauen from my God So that à quo dominatio ab â—o denominatio our name is giuen vs according to her name that cherisheth and is Mother vnto vs. Hence euery beleeuing soule is a daughter of Ierusalem and a spouse of Christ. Anima credentis est sponsaredimentis The soule of him that beleeues is the spouse of him that saues As a multitude is but a heape of vnites so the Church is a congregation of Saints And as that which belongs to the body belongs to euery member so the priuiledges of our mother Ierusalem are the prerogatiues of all her children not onely the daughter of Sion her selfe but euery daughter of hers euery faithfull soule ' is a pure virgin and so to be presented to Iesus Christ. As Paul to his particular Church of Corinth I am iealous ouer you with a godly iealousie for I haue espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ. Mans soule is of an excellent nature and like a beautious damsel hath many Sutours 1. First the Deuill who comes like an old dotard neatly tricked and licked vp his wrinckled hide smoothed and sleeked with tentations he comes euer masqu'd and dares not shew his face Take away his vizour and the soule is worse then a witch that can affect him And as when hee temptes wretched Sorceresses to some reall couenant with him hee assumes the forme of familiar and vnfeared creatures left in a horrid and strange shape they should not endure him So in his spirituall circumuentions for the more facile flie and suspectâ—esse insinuation into mortall hearts Hee transformes himselfe into an Angell of light The promises of this Sutour are large and faire hee offers the soule if it will bee his spouse a greater Ioynture Iudas shall haue money Esau pleasures Naball plenty Christ himselfe shall bee ioyntuâ—'d in many kingdoms but euer hee indents that wee must loue him and ioyne with him in marriage Doeg shall haue a place in the court so he will maligne Gods Priests Pilate shall be Iudge so he will ply his vsury hard The Proctor shall bee made an Eccleâ—asticall Iudge if he will promise more conuiuence then conscience and suffer Master bribery to giue the censure Euery Balâ—am shall be promoted that is readier to curse then blesse the people These things to the wicked doth Sathan forme in speculation though not performe in action Hee is an ill wooer that wanteth wordes Heare his voyce and see not his face belieue his promises and consider him not as a lyer as a murderer and he will goe neere to carry thy hart from all But he that hath two infirmities nay enormities that betray him a stinking breath and a halting foot 1 For his breath though it smell of sulphure and the hote steame of sinne and hell yet hee hath art to sweeten it So hee can rellish couetice with thriftâ—nes voluptuousnes with good diet idlenes with good quiet drunkennes because it is very sowre fulsome and odious â—uâ—n to nature and reason shall be season'd sweeten'd with good fellowship Malice is the argument of a noble Spirit and murder the maintenance of reputation Lust is the direction of nature and swearing a gracefull testimony to the truth of our speeches With such luscious confections he labours to conserue his lungs from stinking If it were not for those mists and shadowes sinne would want both fautors and factors 2 But his lame foot cannot bee hidden as they once foolishly fabled among the vulgar that his clouen foote could not bee changed for his disobedience is manifest If hee saith Steale and God saieth Thou shalt not steale Sweare when God saith Sweare not dissemble when hee cries Woe against hypocrites bee an vsurer when God sayeth thou shalt not then dwell in my glory what pretences soeuer glosse his Text his lamenesse cannot bee hidden All his pollicy cannot deuise a boot to keepe him from this halting This is the first worst Sutour 2 The World comes in like a blustering Captaine with more nations on his backe then crownes in his purse or at least vertues in his conscience This wooer is handsomely breasted but ill backed better to meete then to follow for hee is all vanity before all vexation behind by the witnesse of him that tried and knew him Sometimes trouble followes him but surely followes him The desire of money is the roote of all euill which while sons coueted after they haue erred from the faith and pierced themselues through with many sorrowes Hee is like a Bee or an Epigram all his sting is in his tayle Hee is troubled with a thousand diseases and is attended on with more plagues then euer was Galens study He is now growne exceeding olde and hath but a few minutes to liue Hee is decayed both in stature and nature especially hee is troubled with a stooping and a stopping a stooping in his ioynts a stopping in his lungs He neither hath an vpright face nor a light heart 1 For the former hee is euer poring on the earth as if he had no other heauen or were set to digge there for Paradise His eye neuer lookes vp to heauen but to obserue what weather it will be This is his curuitie hee is a warped aged and decrepite Sutour There is no straightnes in him 2 For the other hee cannot be lightsome because hee neuer did giue good conscience one
Father here the Father is content to bee called after the name of his children The God of Abraham the God of Isaacke c. So Darius proclaimes in his decree The God of Daniel Esa. 44 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himselfe by the name of Iacob and another shall subscribe with his hand vnto the Lord and surname himselfe by the name of Israel Thus sayth the King of Israel c. And Esa. 45. For Iacob my seruants sake and Israel mine Elect I haue euen called thee by thy name I haue surnamed thee though thou hast not known me Here might be inferred the inutterable compassion of God to Israel It is my people that is thus sicke But I haue not scanted this obseruation before That which I would now direct my speech and your attention to is the strangenesse of this complaint agrota t Israel Others to haue been sicke not so rare It had beene no wonder in Aegypt Ammon Edom Babilon Israel hath the best meanes for health therfore the more inexcusable her sicknes They should haue beene so maner'd as they were manur'd and brought forth grapes according to their dressing Sidon shall iudge Chorazin Niniuch Ierusalem In Sidon where was no Prophet was lesse wickednesse in Niniueh where lesse prophesying greater repentance This conuiction was demonstrated in many particulars The prayse of the Centurion is the shame of Israel The mercy of the Samaritan the Priests and Leuits condemnation The very dogges licking Lazarus fores confute the stony bowels of Diues The returning of the strange Leper with a song of thanksgiuing in his mouth was an exprobration to all the nine when Christ had the tythe of a person he least expected God reproacheth this daughter of Sion Ezek. 16 that Samaria and Sodoâ—â—e were of her Sisterhood yea as if their abominations were a very little thing thou wast corrupted more then they in all thy wayes Nay thou hast iustified thy sisters in that their abominations came short of thine by the one half The people of thy holines as the Prophet Esay cals them are become by the same Prophets testimony a sinfull nation a people laden with iniquity They that were not called by thy name are not so rebellious Eâ— sunt deteriores quo meliores Deus reddere conatus est It is grieuous that Gods goodnes should make men worse and the more kinde God hath beene to them the more vnkind they should be to themselues the more vnthankefull to him Christ for the Iewes turned their water into wine the Iewes for Christ turned their wine into vineger offered it him to drinke They that were the richest of Gods own making became the most bankroute sin religion They changed CathedraÌ„ magistery wherin God placed their Doctors in sodem pestilentiae into the scorners chayre contemning his benefits they had a Vineyard at an easie rate yet payed no fruites of obedience It is hard to say whether God was more gracious to them or they more greeuous to him This boldly neuer was more piery required with lesse piety God sowed mercy and reaped a crop of iniquity God can brooke this in none but as hee forsooke his Temple in Sion when it became a denne of theeues so he will take out his ornaments where with he graced the temple of the soule when we set vp the Dagon of this world in it and withdraw his riches as from a diuorced Spouse running after other louers Whiles Adam serued God God serued him he prouides for him a 〈◊〉 a companion and sustentation We read of nothing that God did sixe dayes together and his works were not small nor few but work for Adam as if hee had beene hired to labour for him Is it not strange that such a childe should rebell to such a father Let none thinke his fault was small in eating an apple or that his punishment waighed heauier then his trespasse His sinne was so much the greater because against a God and so good vnto him The more gloriously the Sunne and Summer haue apparrelled a tree the more wee admire the blazing when God hath planted a soule in his owne holy ground watered it with those sacred purifying dewes of his graces shone on it with the radiant beames of his soule reuiuing mercies spent much opera olei both of care and cost vpon it and hath his expectation required abused with a meere flourish of seaues with eyther anequam ornequic quam fructus none or euill fruites there goes out a curse Neuer fruit grow on thee more When God hath put his grace into our vnworthy vessels how abusiue is it to empty our selues of that precious liquor and swell our spirites with the poyson of hell How iust is it with him to take away what hee gaue Luke 8. and to put a consumption into our vitall parts Hence without wonder our iudgement rusts like a neuer drawne sword our knowledge looseth the rellish like the Iewes putrified Manna Our faith dissolues as a cloud our zeale trembles as if held with a palsie our loue freezeth the harder as water that once was warme Our repentance turns to yce our hope to snow which the heat of affliction melts to water not to be gathered vp the image of death is vpon all our religion Was this strange in Israel and is it nothing in England Looke vpon the inhabitants of the earth somwhat remote from vs to whose face the Sunne of the Gospell hath not yet sent his rayes people blinded with ignorance blended with lusts What were our desires or deserts former mater or latter merite congruity before conuersion or condignity after more then they might shew that God should put vs into the Horizon of his Grace whiles they sit in darkenesse and shade of death Want they nature or the strength of flesh are they not temperd of the same morter are not their heads vpward toward heauen haue they not reasonable soules able for comprehension apt for impression if God would set his Seale on them as well as we Are they not as likely for flesh and bloude prouident to forecast ingenuous to inuent actiue to execute if not more then we Why haue wee that starre of the gospell to light vs to Christ Iesus standing ouer our Country whiles they neither see it nor seeke it It is clearely meerly Gods mercy Now why are our liues worse our knowledge is better Why deuoure wee their venome refusing our owne healthfull foode whiles they would feed on our crums and haue it not Woe vnto vs if we scant God of our fruites that hath not scanted vs of his blessings Bring presents to the King of glory yee childrn of his holinesse and worship before him Indanger not your selues to the greater misery by abusing his great mercy Hee hath loued vs much and long in our election when we could not loue him in our redemption
Particularly This will best appeare if wee single out some speciall disease and conferre the perplexity it can offer to the body with the sickenesse of the soule Take for instance the plague of the Leprosie It was a fearefull and vnsupportable sicknesse euery way miserable as you may finde it described Leuit. 13. c. ver 45.46 His cloathes shall bee rent and his head bare and hee shall put a couering vpon his vpper lippe and shall cry Vncleane vncleane Hee shall dwell alone without the Campe shall his habitation be The Leprosie infected their very garments and houses sticking contagion in the very wooll and wals But our Leprosie of sinne hath with a more vast extention infected the Elements Ayre Earth beasts plants c. sticking scarres on the brow of nature and making the whole Creature groane vnder the burthen of corruption 2 The Leaprosie was violent in spreading running eftsoones ouer all the body as in Gehizi and making it all as one vlcer yet could it not penetrate and enter the soule the minde might be cleane in this generall defiling of the carcase Behold the Laeprosie of sinne hath not content it seâ—fe to insult pollute and tyrannize ouer the body but it defiles the Soule also and turnes that purer parte of Man into a Lazar. Our righteousnesse is become filthy ragges our heart is poisoned our Consciences defiled 3 The Leaprosie was an accidentall disease casuall to some whiles other escaped it It was Gods Pursuiuant to single out and arrest some for their sinnes his mercy spaâ—ing the rest But the Leaprosie of sinne is haereáitarius morbus an hereditary sicknesse Wee deriue it from our great Sire Adam with more infallible conueyance then euer sonne inherited his fathers lands It is originall to vs borne with vs borne before vs. So that natalis would bee fatalis the birth day would bee the death day if the bloud of that immaculate Lambe should not clense vs. 4 The Leaprosie was a dangerous disease yet curable by naturall meanes but ours is by so much the worse as it admits not man as Physitian nor nature it seâ—fe as Physicke sufficient to cure it The medicine is supernaturall the Bloud and Water of that man who is God Faith must lay hold on mercy Mercy alone can heale vs. 5 The Leaprosie is a sore disease so entring and eating that it is euen incorporate to the flesh yet still cum carne exuitur it is put off with the flesh Death is a Phisitian able to cure it Mors vna interâ—â—t leprosum Lepram Death the best Empericke kilâ— at once the Leaper and his Leprosie But the Leprosie of sinne cleanes so fast not onely to the flesh but to the Soule that if spirituall death to sinne doe not slay it Corporall death shall neither mende it nor end it It shall not flie the Soule when the soule doth flie the body but as it accompanies the one to the iudgement feare of God so it shall meet the other in hell if they both cannot be rid of it through Christ on earth 6 The Leaprosie makes man loathsome to man that seorsim habitaturus sit hee must dwell alone So was the Law Hee is vncleane hee shall dwell alone without the Campe shall his habitation bee Yea though hee were a King he must content himselfe with an vnvisited and remoued lodging yet what is it to be secluded from mans and not to bee destitute of the Lords company God forsakes not the cleane heart though man abhorres the leaprous flesh God alone is a thousand companions God alone is a world of friends He neuer knew what it was to be familiar with heauen that complains the lacke of friends whiles God is with him Were thy Chamber a prison thy prison a Dungeon yet what Walles can keepe out that infinite Spirite Euen there the good soule findes the Sunne of heauen to enlighten his darkenesse in comparison of whom all the starres in the skie are the snuffe of a dimme candle Euery cloude darkens our Sunne nothing can ecclipse that But the Leprosie of sin separates a soule from Gods fellowship from the company of Angels We lie if we say wee haue fellowship with him and walke in darkenesse Your sinnes haue separated betwixt mee and you saith the Lord of hostes They vnhouse our hearts of Gods spirite and expell him from the temple of our soules who will no longer stay there when the Dagon of sinne is aduanced adored It is customable with men to eschew the society of their poore maimed afflicted diseased Brethren and to shew some disdainâ— by their auersenes but to keepe company with drunkardes adulterers swearers vsurers c. of whom alone wee haue a charge de non tangendo they recke not Eâ—te not with them Turne away from them saith the Apostle from those so diseased in Soule not in body But now d melior est conditio vitij quam morbi the estate of sinne is better then of sickenesse But God looks vnto and is with Lazarus liuing and takes him into his bosome dying though he was full of sores and lets healthy wealthy flourishing Diues go by vnnamed vnaccepted 7. The Leaprosie kept men but from the fading citie terrestriall Ierusalem This Leaprosie vnpurged by repentance restraines men from that Ierusalem which is aboue a city built vpon Iaspers and Saphyres and pretious stones flowing in stead of milke and hony with blisse and glory For into f it shall enter nothing that defileth nor whatsoeuer worketh abhomination or lies Now as the pleasures and treasures of this City are more so much worse is the cause hindring our entrance You may iudge by this taste how farre spirituall sickenesse is more bitter then corporall Euerie circumstance before hath reflected on this but nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis addiscitur it is neuer taught enough that is not enough learned 4 I should now lastly inquire who are the sicke wherein as the Philosopher said of men Non vhi sunt sed vhi non sunt faoilè demonstratur I can easily shew you where they are not not where they are It is a small matter to finde out the sicke the difficulty is to finde any sound I know g there are a few names in our Sardis that haue not desiled their garments but they are so few that it is harde to find them Runne to and fro through the streetes and seeke in the broad places of our Cities if you can finde a man if there bee any that executes iudgement and seeketh the truth The whole World is very old and sicke giuen ouer as man in his dotage to couetousnesse Huius aedest aet as extremae ferre a mundi Alget amor dandi praeceps amor ardet habendi Needs must the world be sicke and old When lust growes hote and charity cold Wonder you at this â—nder is the daughter of ignorance ignorance of nature God hath