Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A01281
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Englands sicknes, comparatively conferred with Israels Diuided into two sermons, by Tho: Adams.
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Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
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1615
(1615)
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STC 114; ESTC S100411
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68,934
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100
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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
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