put away his sinnes And so doe you smite your breasts breake your hearts bruise your spirits and write upon the posts of your soules with the earnestnesse of your desires Miserere that God may have mercy upon you and open your doores and bring you into the open gates of Sion to sing praises to the Lord. Goe with the Leper and say Domine si vis Matth. 8. potes Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane and ten to one if hee doe not make thee cleane Goe thou that art out-lawed and take out a writ of Reversation and unfile the outlawrie Goe thou that art excommunicated and appeale appeale from God to God from Gods wrath to Gods mercie from God offended to God appeased â—nd say with them We have sinned Iudg. 10.15 we know not what to doe deliver us his day we beseech thee and he will or if not restore you yet he will do â—hat which is better for you if you â—ave faith and present you to himâ—elfe a glorious body through Iesus â—hrist But Quomodo 2. How may wee â—e preserved How may wee that â—re not yet infected bee kept still from infection How why thus â—y Abstinence and Patience and Charitie and Zeale the Abstinence of David the Patience of Iob the Charitie of Cornelius and the Zeale of S. Peter If sinnes that you have long'd for your neighbours wife your neighbours house or what else soever be brought home to your doore as the water that David long'd for was brought to his cave yet doe as he did and what did hee Marrie hee powred the water upon the ground when hee had weighed his folly 2 Sam. 23.17 and sayd God forbid that I should drinke this water Is not this the blood of these men So doe you though you have playd the fooles and long'd for a cup of Drunkennesse to please your palate or a kisse of Vncleannesse to please your flesh yet now before you drinke that cup or touch this woman consider your folly and powre them upon the ground and say God forbid I should commit these sinnes will they not damne my soule Did not Iesus Christ suffer death for them If goods that you have gotten honestly bee lost by theeves if children that you have brought up carefully and prayd for fervently bee destroyed by fire if the body that you have kept temperately be blained with plague sores yet as Iob did so do you rent your hearts and say Deus dedit abstulit Deus Iob. 1. â—1 benedictum nomen Dei God hath given and God hath taken blessed bee the name of God If the poore bee about you your neighbours or under your charge the pensioners let them not languish at home nor starve in your streets but give almes as the Centurion did Act. 10.4 that God may respect you It is no Poperie I assure you to say That God respects men for their charitie If any Magus shall offer you money for Res sanctas or Res sacras for the holy things of God or the holy things of the Church answer him with zeale and indignation as Saint Peter did Acts. 8.20 Pereat tecum pecuniatua Thy money perish with thee When you have done all keepe a constant fire of Devotion to purifie your hearts that no corruption may come in by the windows oâ— your eyes and perfume your apparrell with the righteousnesse oâ— Imputation that the infection mistake you not and pray pray with the Church From plague and pestilence good Lord deliver us and pray with the Church againe O Almighty God which in thy wrath in the time of King David didst slay with the Plague c. For who else can 3ª 1 ae Vnde The Author who can remove the Plague but he that sends the Plague and who is that but God If you looke upon it as praemium or meritum a wages or a merit so my sinne so your sinne is the cause of it Causa deficiens but if you looke upon it as it is Paena or Correctio a punishment or a chastisement so God is the cause of it Causa efficiens So the Prophet Micah points to God Mica 6.13 I will make thee sicke I and so does the Prophet Moses too Num. 16.46 Wrath is gone out from the Lord and the plague is begun And so does the Prophet Amos too Is there any evill in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 that is any evill of punishment not of sinne for God is not the Author of any sinne though he be the Author of all punishment Not any punishment not any mercy but wee may discerne in it Digitum Dei The hand of God and so sayes David Storme haile tempest they are all his Ministers to fulfill his Will and so sayes God himselfe of this particular If I send a pestilence If I. And the very word it selfe speaks no lesse Plague it is Verbum asperum A killing word the plague is but it is the Lord that kills sayes Moses and it is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To kill to kill as 〈◊〉 were with the sword but it is thâ—â— Sword of the Lord no hand caâ—â— weild this Sword but the hand oâ—â— the Lord 2 Sam. 24.14 And therefore it is called sometimes the hand of the Lord because in this punishment the Lord shews his power after a wonderfulâ— and fearefull manner somtimes it is called an Arrow Psal 91.6 The Arrow that flies by day But no Bow can shoote this Arrow but Gods An Arrow it is for the suddainnesse of it and an Arrow it is for the swiftnesse of it it brings a suddaine destruction for it creeps not as doe other Diseases by little and little but it pierces suddainly and it flyes with speed too thorow a whole City over a whole Countrey even from Dan to Beersheba and who can shoote so suddainly or so swiftly but God And therefore take you heed of that fearefull curse and imprecation which is too rife in your mouths 〈◊〉 your servant doe but anger you â—our servant did I say if your Childe that comes out of your â—ines nay if your Wife doe but displease you by and by you say what doe you say that which I â—m afraid to thinke of but you say 〈◊〉 The plague the plague of God light upon you You see how God hath heard not your prayers but your sins and now you pray with all your soules Good Lord deliver us from plague and pestilence But In quos 4a 1ae In quos Amongst whom Amongst whom is the plague for the plague being a thing so fearefull and God a God so gracious surely he sends it not but In hostes Amongst his enemies if any Does he man indeed would doe so He will love his friends and plague his enemies but Gods waies are not like Mans Hee loves his enemies and punisheth his friends 〈◊〉 for his enemies hee will not love them so well as to
did God command it saying by his Prophet 〈◊〉 2.15 Proclaime a fast This Fast is either corporall in abstaining from meat or spirituall in restraining the affections from sinne The corporall is not alwayes commanded by the State nor doe I meddle with it the spiritnall is evermore commanded by God especially in time of Plague and Famine and Warre And this from God I beseech you to observe Let your wanton eyes fast this time of weeping from the sight of vanity Let your curious eares fast this time of mourning from idle rumours and unsavourie talk Let your glibbe tongues fast this time of feare from evil speaking But what need I presse you to this The time presses you enough for let but your eyes imagine they see their eyes who are shut up by the plague watering and washing their bed bedewing their cheekes and then your eyes will have little list to roave upon forbidden flesh Againe by as strong a phansie let your eares imagine they heare their dolefull complaints O Lord thou hast justly restrained me of my liberty for I have abused my liberty I am worthily deprived of health These soares are deservedly upon my body for I have infected my soule more than once and often And then your cares will have little desire after newes and vanitie And with your tongues speake what they speake How long Lord how long shall thy iealousie burne like fire for ever O when shall I come into thy house O forgive my sinnes that brought this plague O remove this plague the iust scourge of my sinnes and I believe your tongues will not easily lye and sweare or talke idly In a word let your polluted soules fast and deny their owne wills to doe Gods so diet your bodies that you may fat your soules so feed your bodies so fat your soules that your Humility may have her perfect worke and that brings me to my second consideration Quid efficit What it doth what doth humility Exaltat it exalts 2a1 ae 2 ae what doez Humility Humilitas est Schola scala coeli He that desires to build high and seeke those things which are above must lay his foundation low for humblenesse of mind is the Schoole teaching and the Scale reaching Heaven so he and so the Poet Quo minor est quisquis maximus c. He that is least in his owne conceit Prov. 18.12 is highest in Gods so the Prophet Before honour is humility and so the Apostle Iam. 46. God giveth grace to the humble Pride is the beginning of sinne and Humility is the A B C of our Christian Ethicks and therefore sayes the Apostle againe Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God that he may lift you up Iam. 4.10 Humility mounts the soule that uses it to Heaven Pride keeps us downe for it is a plague The plague is Tumor in corpore and so pride is Tumor in mente That a swelling in the body this in the soule 〈◊〉 the plague be exalted and become Macula in corpore Tokens in the body then the body dyes so if prid◠be exalted and become Macula in anima Spots in the soule then the soule dyes And yet it is observed by some that though the Tokens doe appeare yet lying upon the earth and breathing into the earth may possibly cure it And so humility the lowest and lowlyest of all Gods graces will cure the plague of the soule pride O quantum crimen superbiae sayes St. Ambrose ut ei etiam adulteria praeferantur Oh how great a sinne is the sinne of Pride that even Adulteries are preferred and saved before it Noverca virtutum mater vitiorum The stepmother of vertue and the mother of vice The stepmother of Vertue because it hates them as many women doe those children their husbands had by former wives and the mother of Vice because there is not one vice in the world but therein is found the contempt of God and that is Pride Humilitati autem nihil aequale Tom. 5. p. 171. De Humilit sayes St. Chrysostome haec est bonorum mater radix altrix occasio simul vinculum What is comparable to humility Humility is the mother of all Graces the root the nurse the occasion and the bond of all Graces The mother of all Graces shee is for she conceives them God had respect unto the lowlinesse of his Hand-maiden Luke 1. The lowlinesse conceived a respect in God towards her The roote shee is for they grow upon her if they be not upon the stocke of humility they turne into vices Nothing more wicked than to cleanse the Leper than to heale the lame than to raise the dead sayes St. Chrysostome How nothing more wicked why these are good workes how then are they wicked Why the Father tells you Ibid. Si sit cum insolentia If it be done in arrogance and selfe-conceite if it be done without humility No fire of Charity if it be not raked up in the cindars of humility and the Nurse she is for the Graces of God if they suck not upon the Breasts of humility they waxe leane and starve He hath filled the hungry Humble with good things but the rich he hath sent empty away And the occasion of other Graces she is when Saul sought his Fathers Asses humbly hee found a Kingdome gloriously when hee sought himselfe vainely hee lost himselfe and his Kingdome foolishly And the Bond shee is for when the other Graces of God sever themselves from humility they become sinnes Luk. 1.51 God puts downe the mighty from their seate but exalts the humble and meeke You see what Humility does It exalts I could tell you much more that it doth for all that I could and would tell you I tell you it secures Socrates secured himselfe from death when the Tyrant threatned him with death saying volo mortem I would dye Nay but then sayes the Tyrant thou shalt live why saies he volo sive mortem sive vitam I will either dye or live as you please and so was safe And so is the Humble man as the Reed answered the Oake The Oake wonders why the strongest of all Trees should bee sometimes Eradicated rooted up by the Roots and sometimes blowne downe by the winde when the Reede the weakest of all things should never be hurt by the wind Why saies the Reede thou need est not wonder at this for thou art a proud and inflexible piece of wood and will not yeeld and therefore the winde that is stronger than thy selfe breakes thee whereas I yeeld to every winde and so no winde hurts mee but I am secure so saies the Humble man Now God hath sent a Plague I am willing to dye and if it please him to take it away againe I am willing to live If I live saies he I will live to thy glory in newnesse of life and ascribe it to thy mercy if this destroying Angel passe over my house
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