like God and forgive them all the debt Else if nothing will serve your turns but their bodies to make Dice of their bones then read that Parable in St. Mathew the 18. and you shall finde the mercilesse Creditor hath little hope of mercy with God Nor is this any way advantagious to you who are Debtors to find out shifts and breake and conveigh your wares into your neighbours Store-houses thereby to make your Creditor beleeve you have nothing to pay and therefore to forgive you no you that are debtors must pay all that you owe if you have wherewith if not all yet so farre as you have to pay withall This you must doe you must doe this as you hope to be saved and find the mercy of God Luk. 19.8.9 Zacheus never heard of salvation till he had first made restitution nor may you hope for it if you have wherewith to restore But if you have nothing to pay nothing indeed why then your Creditors must be like God and forgive you all the debt His mercy endures for ever and so must ours Yet one more for one more worke of mercy And this to you all all in generall and together rich and poore if you would have Gods mercy endure for ever to you your mercy must endure for ever to God But can a man be mercifull to God Yes he may and no Popery in it upon my life God complaines and complaines of you and complaines to you That you presse him with sins Am. 2.13 as a Cart 〈◊〉 pressed with sheaves And this pressing him is a meere oppressing of him and therefore you must bee more mercifull unto him and lay no more load upon him thou 〈…〉 the single eares 〈◊〉 Infirmities yet you must take head of the double sheaves of Impreâ—â—es 〈◊〉 presse 〈◊〉 and God forbid that man should presse his God These your Impieties have pressed and squeezed a Plague out of the Cup of his Wrath and it hath beene drunke amongst us If you would not drinke the dregges of it your selves bee more mercifull to God presse him no more with sinnes if you would have this Plague quite and cleane removed and then you shall live and live to give Thankes to the God of Heaven because his mercy endures for ever Else if you presse him still His Judgements will endure for ever And David you see makes choyse of mercy rather than Judgement to perswade our thankfulnesse Oh give thankes unto the God of Heaven because not his Iudgement but his mercy endureth for ever For ever and Everlasting are the mercies of God indeed Everlasting and for ever in number so many that no Arithmetician can number them Divide them if you will you may into Temporall Spirituall Eternall Temporall to our bodies Spirituall to our soules Eternall to both soules and bodies but number them you cannot for they are a multitude an infinite multitude Psa 51.1 Doe away mine offences according to the multitude of thy mercies saith David A multitude they are not onely in the Genus but the Species and in the particular of the Species too A multitude of Temporall Bread to feede us Cloth to cover us Fire to warme us Wine to refresh us Oyle to cheare us the whole World is not able to recount them all A multitude of Spirituall his word to teach us to beleeve to worke to pray his Spirit to helpe us to pray His sonne to pray for us His Sacraments to preserve our soules and bodies unto Everlasting life and who can name them all A multitude of Eternals Beauty to the Body Joy to the Soule Glory to both Everlastingnesse in all Everlasting thus in the number and Everlasting in the extension too they compasse us round before us in his preventing mercy behind us in his forbearing mercy over us in his forgiving mercy under us in his supporting mercy on our right hand is his embracing mercy As the Hills stand round about Hierusalem Psa 125.2 even so stand the mercies of God round about them that feare him your selves I trust in God His everlasting mercies are about you Everlasting thus in the Number and extention and Everlasting thus in the Succession too His iealousie visites the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children Ex. 20.5.6 unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him but he shewes mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keepe his Commandoments To us ô God we beseech thee to our children and to our childrens children so long as the Sunne and Moone endures and for ever and for ever Everlasting thus in number in extension in succession and everlasting thus too in duration Si dixerit totâ die dixerit nihil sed in saecula saeculorum non dixisset amplius Had he sayd his Mercy endures for a Day hee had sayd as much as nothing but saying for ever his Mercy endures for ever what could hee say more And that is a sufficient Reason to resolve my fourth Enquiry why David repeats it so often Twenty sixe times in this Psalme his mercy endures for ever So sweet a Theame it was that the good man was ravished with it he thought hee could never speake enough of it And indeed who can There are onely two men that think they speake too much of it the Papist and the Schismaticke If the Papist did not thinke hee spake too much of it hee would never come in with his merit would Andradius the Jesuite stand up with his Debitum ut donum and tell us that eternall life is not so much of Gods mercy as of mans merit would Bellarmine lay downe his Paradisum ex merito and tell us We may purchase Paradise by merit would Vega more desperately say Gratis non accipiam I will none of Heaven unlesse I may merit some part of it if they did not thinke too much were spoke of mercy You shall amongst them finde Merit twenty sixe times in one Chapter and Mercy not above once whereas in one of Davids Psalmes you shall finde Mercy twenty sixe times together and Merit not so much as once David and the Iesuites surely were not of one opinion in this point And so the Schismaticke too if hee did not thinke hee spake too much of Mercy would hee ever come in with his absolute Reprobation that God made some men purposely to damne them A likely thing that God should be more cruel then man Did ever any of you nay did ever any man get or beget a child purposely to breake his necke when hee was borne Why if there could be a man so cruell to his Childe that came from his owne loynes why yet God would be more cruell if he should make any man on purpose for to damne him for Damnation is a thing farre and infinite worse than Death for by Death a Child is delivered from the miseries of this World but by Damnation a man is taken from the pleasures of this world and hurled into unspeakeable torments Good God that any man should thinke that God who exhorts all men to give him thankes because his mercy endures for ever should make any man amongst them all on purpose for to Damne him Reprobation is a word that came from Fury not from Mercy let him beleeve it that never meanes to give God thanks and despaire I will beleeve that I the greatest of all sinners that thou that any man may bee saved if thou or I or any man doe beleeve that Gods mercy does endure for ever so that thou and I and any man doe live answerable to that Mercy and repent and beleeve and pray and give thankes unto the God of Heaven because his mercy endures for ever His Mercy This this is the onely thing we live by this is the onely thing wee hope to be saved by such a thing This his Mercy so sweete as in the Contemplation thereof I could even Live and Die or rather could live and not Die for whosoever lives and beleives in Gods mercies and in Iesus Christ shall not die eternally The Mercy of God it is Davids Amabaeum and the burthen of this Song Praise the Lord for his Mercy endures for ever And so twenty sixe times in this Psalme Praise the Lord for his Mercy endures for ever His Majesty may astonish us his Glory may beate us downe his Greatnesse may strike us dead his Omnipotencie wee adore his Wisedome we admire his Iustice wee stand in awe of his Uengeance wee flie from but his Mercy his Mercy this is that strong out of which came this sweete and the full unfolding of Sampsons Riddle this is that Lyon out of which came this Hony-combe I will not feare what Man or Divell what Plague or Pestilence can doe unto me so long as I can give thankes unto the God of Heaven because His Mercy endures for ever Amen That was my beginning and it is my ending it was the beginning of us all for of his mercy wee all are and are what we are and I pray God it may be the ending of us all and all of us Die in the Mercy of God while we live God give us grace to make such use of his Mercy his Mercy temporall and his Mercy spiritual that then when we die we may enioy his Mercy which is Eternall Eternally through the merits of his eternall Sonne Iesus Christ To whom with the holy Ghost three persons and one God bee given everlasting thanksgiving for his mercy which endures for ever Amen FINIS
face of God It is my fourth and last part but the time parts this and that for that I must rest your Debtor till we meete againe In the meane time God give us grace so the turne from our wicked wayes that he may forgive us our sinnes through Jesus Christ To whom with the Holy Ghost three persons one God be ascribed all honour and glory now and forever Amen The third Sermon 2. Chron. 7.14 And seeke my face and I will heale their Land THis is the fourth 4 a 2 ae and last Ingredient that cures the Plague I call'd it the healing Pill and so it is and so it had need to be For the purging Pill left some Excoriasions we did not so turne from our picked wayes but there were many infirmities left even enough to deâ—troy us many bleeding sores for all that even enough to drive us to despaire if God enter into Judgement with us But there is mercy with God mercy with him to heale us and to obtaine it we must seeke his face And here I shall shew with Gods leave and your patience first what it is to seeke and secondly what is the Face of God In the first of these wee must observe first a Quando secondly a Quomodo thirdly an Vbi and them from all which may bee a third generall part what all this doth it heales our Land or rather intreatâ— God to doe what here he sayes 〈◊〉 will heale their Land and first of the first what is it to seeke Quaerere est actus diligentiae 1 a 4 ae 2 ae What it is to seeke Rom. 3.23 to seeke proposes diligence and supposes 〈◊〉 losse so wee are all at a bay anâ— losse Having sinned in Adam wâ—â— are all deprived of the glory of God and so it came to passe with Adam as with a griping Vsurer who extorting more than was due lost all both Principall and Interest For Adam by striving to know more than was allowed him lost that knowledge which before was granted him and so became ignorant of God and ignorant of himselfe and what befell him befell us For as a man that is in the darke cannot see any thing no not himselfe so Adams brats being borne in sinne which is the thickest darknesse are ignorant and cannot see either God their Creator or themselves his Creatures And hence it is that there is a conâ—inuall seeking up and downe in the world so that if a question were asked what all men in the World â—oe it might bee answered in a word Quaerunt They seeke somewhat we want somewhat we would have though when we have it wee are not contented with it Multa peteâ—tibus desunt multa untill we find that which is able to satisfie us and that is God himselfe So St. August Ate Domine sumus irrequietum est cor nostrum Lib. Confess donec revertamur ad te From thee oh Lord wee are and we are not at quiet till wee are with thee againe The wanton seekes to please his Flesh the worldling seekes to fill his Purse the profuse seekes to corrupt his manners the Divell too he seeks to damne our Soules all these and many more runne about the street and seeke and are never satisfied Onely God seeks our Conversion and is well pleased in it As I live saith the Lord Ezek. 33.11 I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that the sinner turnâ— from his wicked way and live And the godly man seekes the face of God and delights in it Oh when shall come appeare before the face of God sayes David So all men seeke and therefore all men are lost lost all in themselves because they have all lost God Tua perditio ex to ô Israel Thy perdition is of thy selfe oh Israel They are all gone out of the way they are altogether become abhominable Rom. 3.12 there is also none that doth good no not one We are all God helpe us like the Woman in the Gospell that lost her Groat God give us the grace that she had To light a Candle and seeke to light the Candle of Nature and seeke the face of God in the booke of the Creatures the Workes of his hands To light the Candle of the Law and seeâ—e the face of God in the Words of his Mouth the Bookes of Moses and the Prophets and to light the Candle of Grace and to seeke the face of God in the expresse Image of his person the Sonne of God incarnated Iesus Christ You see what it is to seeke it is to use diligence for the recovery of what we have lost and that is the face of God It is my second Consideration 2 a. 4 ae 2 ae The Face of God what wherein I am to tell you what is meant by the Face of God and I conceive it necessary I should unfold this phrase unto you for wee cannot behold the face of GOD and live and how then are wee heere commanded to seeke the face of God that wee may live that our Land may be healed Why that we shall know when we know what is meant by the Face of God and what is here then meant by the Face of God 1. Some by the face of God doe understand Facies majestatis The face of his majestie and glorie but this in this life wee cannot enjoy and whether wee shall throughly and perfectly enjoy it in the next it is a question For the Cherubims as glorious and unspotted creatures as they are cannot behold it for glorie Isai 6.2 and therefore they doe veile their faces with their wings In this life it is onely desireable and wee may say with David O when shall I come and appeare before the presence of God Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will still seeke after ever that I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the faire beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple In the next life it is admirable and full of glorie 2. Others understand Facies Iustitiae The face of his justice and judgement But this is formidable and full of feare wee dare not behold it we dare not For King David a man after Gods owne heart did not dare and therefore did hee so de precate it Psa 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified So fearfull it was to him how much more fearfull to us For we feare and tremble now wee see but the backe parts of it the plague The plague and all other judgements in this world are but the backe parts of the Face of Gods judgement His judgements in Hell are intollerable Here we deprecate From plague and pestilence deliver us O Lord if not from these for these tall alike upon good and bad yet from Hell for Iesus Christ his sake For Hell is onely for the bad and not for the good
so We have erred and strayed from thy wayes like lost sheepe and therefore all of us must participate in Repentance and say There is no health in us but thou oh Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders For the Church is Corpus Homogeneum and therefore Eadem est ratio partis totius All men are one Body and every man is a member of that one body and therefore the same remedy serveth both what every man must doe in particular all men must doe in generall All men are but one Body and thus the Members are placed The King is the Head the Divine is the Heart the Physitian is the Liver the Lawyer is the Tongue the Souldier is the Armes the Merchant is the Lungs the Commons are the Feete The King rules the Priest prayes the Physitian feeds the Lawyer pleads the Souldier fights the Merchant breaths the Commons travaile None of these can be spared for then the Body will be imperfect and therefore all of these all Gods people must Turne The King though a King and therefore the best of men yet he is but a man and therefore a sinner and a Carbuncle may come upon the Head but I pray God preserve our Head King Charles from plague and pestilence The Priest though a Bishop and the holiest of then yet hee is but a man and therefore a sinner and the poyson of the plague may possesse the Religion of the Heart but I pray God preserve the Heart of our Religion and Devotion the Clergy from plague and pestilence The Physitian though the liveliest of men yet he is but a man and therefore a sinner and the plague may by his venome stop the Fountaine of Blood but I pray God preserve the Liver of our Body the Physitian from plague and pestilence The Lawyer though the nimblest of men yet he is but a man and therefore a sinner and the Sore may rise in the throat close by the Tongue but I pray God preserve the Tongue of our State the Lawyer from plague and pestilence The Souldier though the strongest of men yet hee is but a man and therefore a sinner and the Plague stronger than himselfe may breake the Armes but I pray God preserve the Armes of our Kingdome the Souldier from plague and pestilence The Merchant though the richest of men yet he is but a man and therefore a sinner and the plague may suffocate the Lungs but I pray God preserve the Lungs of oâ—â— Kingdome the Merchant from the plague The Common people is a man and but a man and therefore a sinner and the plague may weaken the Feet a Sore may rise in the Groine but I pray God preserve the Feete of this Kingdome the Common people from the plague No way to perswade God to this but for the Head and the Heart and the Liver and the Tongue and the Armes and the Lungs and the Feet and all all Gods people to turne from their wicked wayes Some there be that think themselves too good to humble themselves and turne and some that thinke themselves too unworthy to pray and turne but here is a checke for the one and a comfort for the other all my people must turne The good man hath need and the bad man hath leave Bee thou as good as King David a man after Gods owne heart yet K. David may fall into an adulterie and a selfe confidence and therefore not hee so good but hee must turne And indeed how often did hee turne Sometimes himselfe to God and sometimes God to him God to him by prayer Turne not away thy face from thine annointed And sometimes himselfe to God by repentance Turne me O God and I shal be turned And this is to teach good men that when God is turned from them or they from God then that they by prayer should turne God to them and they by repentance turne themselves to God by turning from their wicked wayes Nor none so bad neither but hee may turne not the Publican and therefore Saint Matthew was called and Zacheus saved Not the Thiefe and therefore the Thiefe from the Crosse went into Paradise Not the Harlot and therefore Mary Magdalene had many sins forgiven her Not the Persecutor and therefore Saint Paul was converted Not the Denyer and therefore Saint Peter wept bitterly And I pray God give us all grace to weepe so bitterly and to turne so truely that God may remove the plague speedily and send health into our houses perpetually and grace into our soules eternally through Jesus Christ Amen This is not onely our Ministerie perswading for you may thinke and too many of you doe too often think too lightly of that but it is also Gods Majestie commanding and which of you dares thinke but highly of that God commands all men every where to repent Acts 17.30 viz. To turne All men deepe Polititians rich Citizens great Sinners holy Saints all his people to turne But what is it to turne 2ª 3 ae 2 ae To turne what That 's my second consideration must tell you and I must tell it you from the examples of Turners And for these examples I looke upon Nehemiah he met with an uneven peece of Timber and he turned it round I looke upon King David hee met with a knotty peece of Timber and hee turned it smooth I looke upon King Nebuchadnezzar he met with a loftie peece of Timber and hee turned it thin and low I look upon Israel she met with a rotten peece of Timber and shee turned it into the fire I look upon S. Peter he met with a foule peece of Timber and he turned it cleane and faire 1. Nehemiah at his returne from the Captivity Nehem. 13.3.23 found in Ierusalem an uneven peece of Timber a mixed multitude Jewes that had married wives of Ashdod Ammon and Moab people that spake halfe the language of the Jewes and halfe of Ashdod and hee rounded them he put away all their strange wives Sie vos so doe you If you have in your house a mixed multitude goods gotten honestly by your labour and goods gotten dishonestly by Rapine or Theft or Vsurie or Lying away with them returne them to the true owners that Ierusalem may be repaired that the plague may be stayed that your bodies may bee healed that your soules may he saved If the affections of your soules have married strange wives the World or the Flesh if you come to Church and speake halfe the language of Canaan and yet serve the World or lust after the flesh take out a divorce that you may serve God onely that God who onely can may repaire the breach of the people King David met with a knottie peece of Timber 2 Sam. 11.4 â— 8.13 he commits adulterie with Bathsheba when Ioab is besieging Rabbah and sends for Vriah her husband to cover it and when he would not goe home neither drunk nor sober he dispatches him with letters to dispaeth him of his life
And when his subtelty was found out by Nathan hee smoothes it 2 Sam. 12.13.30.31 and sayes plainly and sorrowfully Peccavi I have sinned Et transtulit Dominus And the Lord tooke away his sinne Sic vos so doe you If any of you while your tongue hath been besieging Hell by prayers as Ioab Rabbah by weapons and in the meane time your heart hath committed adulterie by roaving and wandring imaginations upon your gold at home your businesse abroad or your neighbour in the Church either by lust or talke as David with Bathsheba and you have sent for your eye the husband of your heart to cover this wickednesse by lifting up the white of it to Heaven why then dispatch it pull it out and now that Nathan your Minister hath told you on 't be sorry for it and confesse it and say I have sinned that God may forgive your sins that your tongue may conquer Hell that the Crown of the King thereof Lucifer that Crowne which hee ware when hee was in Heaven may bee put upon your head and all his people his tentations and sinnes and plagues may goe under the Harrowes and Axes and Sawes of your repentance and so shall the plague bee stayed and you saved 3. Dan. 4.30.31.32.37 King Nebuchadnezzar met with a loftie and proud peece of Timber Is not this great Babel that I have built for the house of the kingdome by the might of my power and for the honour of my majestie And by and by his kingdome was taken from him and hee was driven from men to eate grasse as Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his haires were growne like Eagles feathers and his nailes like birds clawes and he confessed that Gods workes are truth and those that walke in pride he is able to debase Sic vos so doe you If any of you rich Citizens that came hither with a staffe like Iacob over Iordan and are now become great and have built you faire houses Citie houses for profite and Countrey houses for pleasure yet walke not in the pride of your heart say not you have got this by the policie of your brain or the strength of your hand or if you have said so as too many of you have sayd so why then goe eate grasse with the Oxen feed hardly wet your body with the dew of heaven with thowres of neâ—venly grace with teares of true repentance let your haires grow like Eagles like Estridge feathers to break off the Iron chaines oâ— your sinnes and your nailes like birds clawes to picke out the eyes of these proud tentations Breake off your sinnes by righteousnesse and your iniquitie by shewing mercie to the poore that there may bee an healing of your errour and a lengthning of your dayes and a staying of the plague through Iesus Christ Amen 4. Israel met with a rotten peece of Timber coverings of graven Images and ornaments of molten Images and shee cast them away as a menstruous cloath Sic vos so do you Isai 30.22.23.26 If you have pâ—â— your crust in the graven Images of silver or mâ—lâ—ea Images or gold If you have worshipped your wealth before you have your God if you have taken more delight and paines in getting this trash then the favour of God why then throw away these be angry with these selfe-confidences that God may send you seasonable weather and give you bread and binde up the breach of the people and heale the stroake of your wound Fiftly and lastly Saint Peter met with a foule piece of Timber a Damosell meets him and charges him to be Christs servant and hee denies him Another charges him and hee denies him againe and so the third time Then Iesus lookes backe the Cocke crowes and hee goes out and weeps bitterly Sic vos so doe you If when you have met with a Maide with a Woman you have denyed Christ and defiled your selfe his members If a second time you have polluted his Temple and lay with your neighbours wife if a third time you have defacced his Image and denyed him and belyed him by selling his Wares at high rates and put them off by Oaths and lyes Why see Iesus lookes backe lookes backe with pitty and anger both The Cocke crowes his Ministers call to you doe you goe out and turne from such wicked company and weepe bitterly that your Faith may not saile that your bodies may not dye that your Soules may not be damned that you may live to praise God here joyfully and in Heaven eternally For by turning here God meanes a motion opposite to going on you are in a way of sinne that hath made away for the plague if you goe on you goe a wrong way still and still the plague continues If you would have the plague away why then turne from that way turne from it with indignation and hate your sinnes as the Israelites did turne from it by contrition as Nebuchadnezzar did and be sorry for your sinnes Turne from it by confession as King David did and acknowledge your sinnes Turne from it by Resolution as Nehemiah did and divorce your sins Turne from it by compunction as St. Peter did and weepe for your sinnes send up St. Peters teares to Heaven that God may send some showers from Heaven send up King Davids groanes to Heaven that God may send health upon the Earth Turne you from that God may turne you to They that will not turne shall be turned The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the people that forget God If you would have a turne to Heaven when you goe from hence Then while you are here turne from your wicked wayes That 's the A quo and my third consideration 3 a 3 ae 2 ae FroÌ„ what wee must turne From what must wee turne From our wicked wayes And And here by the way I looke upon the Metaphor Wayes and by wayes here is meant Manners Courses Conversations 1. FroÌ„ our wicked wayes and the meaning is Turn from your wicked manners your wicked courses your wicked conversations And againe by Way is meant not onely a course but a setled course not a starting or a fit but a constancie Good men may start aside as David into an adulterie Peter into a denyall but Non est via eorum It is not their way This and so the wicked may sometimes try the right way Cain may stumble upon a sacrifice and Saul upon an offering and Caiaphas upon a prophesie but it is not via eorum they quickly take their former roade againe and so the whole meaning is You that are good turn you from your wicked startings you that are bad turn you from your wicked courses 2. From al our wicked waies from all your wicked wayes For not a sin but must be repented of Israel was guilty of other sinnes yet Israel could not get the victory till Achans sinne was done away Other sinnes there were but