THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART Its Nature and Quality Original and Causes Signs and Symptoms Prevention and Cure WITH Directions for our behaviour under the present Judgement and Plague of the Almighty By JOHN EDWARDS Minister of Trinity Parish in Cambridge CAMBRIDGE Printed by Iohn Field for Edmund Beechinoe Bookseller in Cambridge 1665. To the Inhabitants of the Town of Cambridge especially to my loving Parishioners of Trinity GRACE PEACE AS you have the Plague of the Body wasting in your streets so you are to take notice of a worser even the Spiritual Plague of your Hearts To this purpose I hope this short Discourse may be somewhat serviceable which even when it shall please God to take away the Bodily Disease may still be usefull to you to guard you against the Spiritual but more poisonous Distemper It is recorded to the honour of Queen Eleanor that when her Royall Husband in the Holy War was wounded with a poisoned Knife by a desperate Saracen the Incomparable Lady sucked the poison out of his Wound A signal instance of her Love to him Sin Beloved is Poison I wish unfeignedly I could by any holy skill and method ease you of that more dangerous Venom at your Hearts O that this Paper might prove a Plaister to draw it It is true I must confess my self one of the meanest and unworthiest of all those Physitians and Guides of Souls that are in the Church I may not be able to treat so successfully of this Spiritual Disease as those worthy persons who are of greater practise and larger experience But I request you that when you make tryal of what is here you would call upon God for a blessing and if you find any good thank God for it not me I will not beg your excuse by telling you these are very slender Preparations for the Press for I chose rather to hasten this little Thing and give it you as it is then to loose the opportunity of doing good by making it better There is nothing in it can render it worthy of the publick view but its seasonableness and your kind acceptance of it Many of the Directions which you will meet with I gave you lately in some of my Sermons which I Preached since the Hand of God hath been heavy upon this Town I must tell you I designed not language but living well It is not required that the Physitians Bill be curiously Penned but that the Medicines be there faithfully prescribed Besides a gaudy and flaunting stile is no ways suitable to these Mournfull Times I have onely this to beg of you that you would be mindfull of me at the Throne of Grace beseeching the Lord that he would crown my Ministery with the conversion salvation of many souls and that he would make me feel the power and influence of those saving Truths upon my own heart which I deliver unto you And my earnest Prayer for you shall be that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God The Great and Good God multiply his Gifts and Graces â—pon you The God of all blessings bless you and yours and keep you from sin and sickness This is the earnest Prayer of Yours in all Christian service J. E. Cambridge Novemb. 11th 1665. THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART 1 KINGS 8. 38. Which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart THese words are part of King Solomons prayer which he made at the dedication of the Temple the drift of the whole is that God would be pleased whensoever any judgements and calamities befall the Israelites to hear their requests and answer their prayers put up in that place and to remove their crosses and forgive their sins This is the design of the Prayer and the Lord appeared to Solomon afterwards assuring him that he had heard this his supplication Here then is a refuge and an escape for penitent sinners against Distresses Plagues and Troubles But every Prayer will not prove effectuall observe therefore the severall Requisites fairly intimated in this Holy Addresse of Solomon namely confessing of Gods name confession of sins and turning from them and then lastly the prayer and supplication must be made by those Israelites which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart Which shall know 1. Take notice of 2. Lament and be sorry for 3. Avert and cure Every man Every one all persons of both sexes of all qualities The Plague 1. The stroke the blow that 's the Originall signification 2. Any great judgement sent by God for the punishing of sin the lashes of the Divine Nemesâ—s strokes on the estates or bodies of men 3. That signall stroke of God that Plaga Dei that infectious and fatall Disease which we call the Sickness with an Emphasis Thus the word imports but here it is applyed to the Heart 1. The soul and its faculties principally they received a blow a foul knock in Adam and since they are bruised daily by our venturing at the breach of Gods Laws 2. The life and practice consequently for out of the Heart are the issues of Life So that as we consider in the Heart in mans Body its passages apartments and ventricles so here we may well understand both the corrupt principles and evill dispositions of our natures and the vanities and follies of our lives which are but the emanations of the former His own Heart The man is to look into his own breast and see if he find any tokens there he must live at home he hath work to do within doors So that I might present you with an Observation from every word but my design at present is onely to take occasion from these words to treat of the Plague of the Heart for though as I have intimated already the word here used doth not properly and primarily signifie the Disease of the Pestilence yet in the Verse foregoing it is joyned with Sickness whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be and it plainly referrs to the Pestilence or Plague Emphatically so called If there be Pestilence in the Land One Plague suggested another to the good mans thoughts and indeed it is no unusuall thing with pious persons to make even the diseases of their bodies administer matter of devout meditation for the health of their souls there is nothing that they see but it brings God to their thoughts there is nothing in Nature nothing in Providence that they converse with but their sanctified minds can make some good use of a devout Fancy turneth earth into heaven and all secular occurrences into something Divine and Spirituall Did not our Saviour make use of Parabolicall speeches to slip in to the fancies
of War Famine and Scarcity The design of all this is to stirr thee up whosoever thou art to consider well the Plague of thy own Heart to understand how destructive it is to thee There will be great hopes of thy wellfare if thou once throughly knowest thy danger Dost thou then desire to be delivered from thy body of sin Is it a body of death unto thee Is it heavy uneasie and burthensome to thee 't is a sign it begins to mortifie Art thou so sensible of thy sin that thou hatest it with a perfect hatred and even loathest thy self for the commission of it Art thou willing to be ruled by the Spirituall Physitians and true Lovers of Souls who advise thee to beware of sin and call upon thee and beseech thee not to drink poyson for it will be thy death In a word Art thou sensible of thy sickness and malady and hast thou attained to this piece of knowledge namely to understand that thâ—u canst not cure thy self Let that of the Prophet or of God rather by his mouth perswade thee of the truth of this Aphorism Oh! Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help This also let me add That delays and demurrs are unspeakably dangerous in this affair Alas poor souls now is the time for you to see your Plague and understand your misery for if you stay till death then indeed will you see it with a witness Oh! then the guilty soul will know what it is to be void of grace and holiness but it will not know how to help and recover it self So it is that one minutes delay may cost thee thy life Look out then for a Physitian presently Naaman when he had the leprosie repaired to the Prophet Some there are that nominate a particular Saint as a proper Physitian for every distinct disease and St Sebastian hath the Plague for his charge belike Sure it is that there are Quacks and Empricks enough in the world who can palliate the disease and skin over the wound but know not how to cure either There are Doctors who prescribe Physick which leavs the Patient as sick as it found him he is sick at Heart still I there indeed lies the distemper at the Heart the cure must be wrought within the applications must be such as are able not onely to stint and silence the pain for a while to mitigate and asswage the grieved part but to remove even the very cause of the distemper Wine and merry company the pleasures and entertains of the world their jollities and catches may sing the mans sorrow asleep and flatter his disease for a time but haeret lateri lethalis arundo the poysoned Arrow sticks fast in him and the disease by such methods as this is not eradicated Thus there are Physitians of no value miserable comforters to the sick sinner who with the Woman in the Gospel may spend all he hath upon them and yet be never the better But there is balm in Gilead there is a Physitian there Whether should we go but unto Christ he hath the words of eternal life But be sure you be not defective in these following things 1. Have a good opinion of Him great hopes may be conceived of thy doing well if thou likest thy Physitian 2. Despise not the meanest advice if it be but wash and be clean hearken unto it The cheapest Medicine may be the best But 3. If it should be chargable and must cost thee pains refuse not the Physick upon that account Or 4. If it seem strong and bitter no ways pleasant and toothsome take it down thankfully as we take common Physick and are content to be sick that we may be well Thou being thus prepared before-hand and answering affirmatively to that question which our Saviour put to the diseased Wil t thou be made whole I commend unto thee these following Preservatives and Antidotes against the Plague of the Heart The first is a holy fear of the Spirituall Plague Be affraid to offend God Ioseph made use of this preservative when he was set upon and assaulted by his lascivious Mistress How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God So true is that of Solomon A wise wan feareth and departeth from evill That we may then avoid the infection of sin let us be working out our salvation with fear and trembling let us sanctifie the Lord of Hosts and let him be our fear and let him be our dread And let Christ his Advice to his Apostles prevail here Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell The second rule for preventing the Spirituall Plague is that we shun all Infected places and persons 1. All places and dwellings where sin takes up it's abode and keeps open house for the entertainment of all comers Such are those Schools of Vice Shops of Sin and Nurseries of Prophaness and Lewdness which generally are erected in every City and great Town We must be carefull that we Walk not in the counsel of the â—â—godly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornfull or in the chair of Pestilences as the Septuagint render it But the places are to be avoided 2. For the persons sake You are therefore to reckon notorious sinners as those that have the Plague-sores upon them by associating with them you partake of their sin your commerce with them draws the infection to your selves This is the reason of St Pauls counsel which he gave his Ephesians Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darkness And of Solomons dehortation Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not into the way of evill men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away And more particularly he guards us against the strange Woman as if she as well as others of her wicked profession were Infected Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house for as he adds Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent The Psalmists practice and resolution should be our pattern I have not sat with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked and it follows I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass â—â—ine Altar O Lord. The Good man washed his hands before he conversed with God but had he come just then out of wicked company he had had much more reason to have done so The Church Story reports that St Iohn and Polycarp his Scholar made all the haste they could out of the Bath when they espyed Câ—rinthus that Arch-hereâ—ick to be there as if they feared infection from the very water that mans limbs were washed in And concerning that Martyr and Disciple of St Iohn even now
and prevaile upon the affections of his Auditours and to represent to them heavenly matters more forcibly and lively to this purpose serve all those excellent Similitudes and choise Metaphors which the Holy Scripture is full of amongst the latter that which I have now pitched upon is no contemptible one Sin is the distemper and sickness of the soul which the good Psalmist knew well enough when he made that Petition Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Neither is Sin any light and inconsiderable distemper all the laws and rules concerning the Leprosie of old do but signifie to us more plainly the grievous nature of sin the very words and doctrines of vitious men and hereticks are compared by St Paul to a Canker or Gangreen nay the sinner is a most wretched Lazar and his soul a very Spittle of diseases sicknesses sores and bruises the whole head is sick the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores And then as the summ of all the sinner is an Infected person he hath the Plague the worst of Plagues the Plague of the Heart It will be worth our while to search into the nature of this deadly disease to shew the resemblance between the spirituall and bodily Plague and to know the nature of the one by the other They agree as to their generall Nature and may be fitly expressed in the same terms for the best masters of Physick acquaint us that the Pestilence is a dangerous Poison which corrupts and invenoms the bloud and taints the spirits and spoils the agreement and harmony of the parts of mans body And Sin is the Poison that seizes on our souls and spreads it self into our members and senses Of the wicked men which imagine mischief in their hearts the Psalmist says Adders poison is under their lips The venom soon makes way â—rom the Heart to the lip And if according to St Iames The tongue be an unruly evil full of deadly poison the Heart is much more so In short the least sin is rank poison it corrupts and debauches our minds perverts our faculties destroyes our good principles it forces even nature it self it is violent and disagreable to rectified reason it is improportionate to our souls it puts all out of order and due frame and brings in unspeakable confusion Poison cannot make greater havock on our bodys then Sin on our immortall souls But because the Essences and abstract natures of things are hard to find out we shall view it further in its Effects and products and in its Cure too as Physitians say that by these we shall certainly know what the disease is But before we come to those let us stay a while and consider the Original Causes of the Spirituall Plague or the way how it is propagated And in this too as well as in the other it will appear that the Bodily and Ghostly disease resemble one another For not to speak here of the primary cause of all diseases and of the Pestilence more signally which all but Atheists acknowledge to be the hand of God nor to reckon up all other causes which are assigned many of which are in the dark and can scarcely be explained without a piece of old Philosophy called Occult Qualities The two main Naturall and Secundary causes of the Pestilence may very well intimate unto us the rise of the Spirituall Plague viz. Inward corruption Outward infection 1. That originall corruption and pollution which we derived from the loyns of our first Parents which though indeed it may seem to be a cause of the second rank yet because we bring it into the world with us and it is rivetted so fast into the hearts of the best here on earth because it is something bred within and brought up with us therefore I call it the Inward corruption and that which answers to the putrefaction of the humours in the body which is the root of the Pestilence And thus there being something corrupted within 2. 'T is no wonder that there is an Outward infection Corruption the corruption of our ways that is that we communicate the corruption unto others and are again infected by the vitious world For as we experience that men by lying or â—itting with infected persons or by keeping something on which the contagion hath seized or by taking in unholsome vapours and exhalations with the common air have the Plague derived unto them just so is Sin propagated and increased Whilest we more nearly converse with our wicked neighbours we participate of that fatall poyson which will destroy both them and us But let us passe from the Causes to the Signs and Symptomes of this Spirituall Plague by which I mean all the sad attendants and consequences of the disease and here we will set down those severall Passions Tokens and Indications by which men commonly judge of the Bodily Plague I begin first with the excessive Heat and Inflammation which attends the disease the Sinner is one always in a feaver and therefore that expression of the Evangelicall Prophet is worth our notice who reproves the Jews for inflaming themselves with Idols and not onely the fond worshiping of Idols but every sinfull passion and pursuit of lust is furious and enraged fierce and fiery and which is a sad truth these flames are but a prologue to everlasting burnings But as a man in a violent feavour is sick and weak and yet so strong that he is able enough to beat his best friends and those that would hold him within his bed so fares it with every sick sinner Which leads me to the second Symptome which naturally follows from that excessive heat namely Inordinate motions restlessnesse and unrulinesse And here I might lead you to the sinners chamber draw aside the curtains and let you see how he tumbles and tosses you may think he sleeps soundly yet you cannot say he takes his rest The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot râ—st whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked It is Sin that overturns the course of nature and raises tumults both in the world and in the sinners conscience and at last these exorbitances these hot fits bring the man to distraction Which is the third Symptome of the disease for sin is a violent madness a strange distraction of the mind and reason and â—n alienating of a man from himself In this Phrentick state was St Paul once when he punished and persecuted many of the Saints you have the confession from his own mouth that he was exceedingly mad against them And idolatry which you heard before was an inflammation is in another Prophets account no less then madness Sin then is the worst delirium and phrensie for in this mad humour men abuse and barbarously wound their own souls
which the Wise man knew well when he said of sinners they lay wait for their own bloud they lurk privily for their own lives And this madness is long and lasting as the same Preacher delivers it the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live I might add another Symptome near of kin to this which sometimes attends the Bodily Plague but always the Spirituall I mean a strange vertigo and meagrim which every wicked man is troubled with else he would not stagger so shamefully as he doth and decline his duty and giddily rush into evil company and suffer himself to be shaken from the truth and as the Apostle phrases it be carried about with every wind of doctrine Again look as when the Poyson hath seized on the whole mass of bloud and got possession of the heart the usuall and equall mixture of the bloud is spoiled and thence followeth a coagulation and stagnation of the spirits so is it in the Spirituall Plague which makes the sinner cold and dull benummed and indisposed to every vertuous action his heart like Naballs dyes within him and he becomes as a stone The Holy Spirit is stifled then it is no wonder that the man grows stupid that his pulse is so low and languide swoonings and faintings are no unusuall things in the Plague But then in the next place the bloud being putrified and invenomed and it's motion retarded we see that boiles and swellings spots and the like tokens discover themselves in the outward parts And are there not as sad breakings out of sin are there not fouler blemishes and spots upon every wicked man else what mean those palpable risings of lust and uncleanness What are those swellings and tumours of pride What are those dismall characters and worser sort of Carbuncles in the intemperate person and common drunkard What are those lamentable and apparent marks those blows and bruises which oppression and cruelty are the cause of What are those curses and oaths which I hear from the swearers mouth such breaking out at the lips is no good sign in the spirituall patient Alass how many ways doth a naughty heart discover it self How many Plague-sores doth the sinner carry about with him Upon this must follow another effect and consequent namely Filthiness pollution and noisomness but of this loathsome attendant on the Spirituall Plague I shall speak some what when I come to consider the cure of it The next sad companions of the Plague as of most sicknesses are anguish and aches pain and disease Sure I am they are the inseparable associates of the Plague of sin out of the corruption of mans heart is soon bred the worm of conscience Horrour and a certain looking for of judgement a sting and tortures these are things that flagitious sinners know at the first naming and as wounds and sores do usually prick and pain most towards night so when death approaches the guilty conscience finds it's torments doubled and redoubled upon it I might add another Indication and Symptome which is common to the Plague with all other sicknesses and that is a certain nauseating and refusing of food as it must needs be when the pallate is out of taste and cannot relish and the corrupt matter hath infected the stomach Thus is it with a sick sinner he hath lost his spirituall taste and cannot savour the things of God but in the mean time the sweets and delights of the wicked world strike briskly upon his vitiated pallate and are taken down with a huge complacency But to leave these more common Signs I pass to another direct and proper Symtome which is the Pestilentiall malignity and Contagion which ever waits upon the Plague it is of that ill nature that it propagates and derives it self from one to another Adam was the first that had the Spirituall Plague and he got it by eating the forbidden fruit and since it hath sadly spread and descended from one to another All sin to this day is Epidemicall and catching we are corrupted our selves and we corrupt others How many are there that take a course to damne themselves but that is not all they must damne their friends and neighbours too This this is the nature of sin it diffuses it self in a large circle it runs as in a train and doth mischief on all sides it over-runs the whole man soul and body Our Inward man that is first depraved and infected Alas the brain is faulty the understanding blind and dark it is dull to conceive what is good and vertuous but it pursues vain unprofitable and fruitless notions it is stuffed with carnall reasonings fleshly wisdome fond disputes pride and false principles there is errour folly rashness and unbelief raigning in the judgement We are vain in our imaginations and our foolish heart is darkned We are wise to do evil but to do good we have no knowledge In the affections too there is inordinacy coldness and inpotency a loving of what we should hate and a hating of what we should love The infection seizes also on our memories as Thucydides tells us of some persons who were infected in that great plague at Athens that by reason of that sad distemper they forgot themselves their friends and all their concernments Most certain it is that by the Spirituall infection men forget God and their duty and their memories are onely tenacious in holding what is evil especially vanities and injuries The will likewise receives no litle damage by the contagion it being made weak and feeble and wholly indisposed to good it draws back at the proposall of vertue but is resolute obstinate and stubborn in the ways of unrighteousness The conscience is dull and dead and as the Apostle well expresses it is seared with a hot iron it discharges not it is office aright either in acquitting or condemning but is sadly insensible presumptuous and desperate I might proceed to shew you how all the parts and members of the body are tainted and infected and are in the Apostles words instruments of unrighteousness unto sin But I will say something of the adherency and pertinacy of this Spirituall disease the infection sticks close and cleavs to our nature it is like the fretting leprosie in the wall the wall must be pulled down before it can be extirpated We must be striving every day against our lusts but they will not be quite rooted out the leprosie of the soul will not wholly be removed till the wall be thrown down till the house be dissolved even our house of clay And as we see the Pestilâ—nce lyes still and dormant for a long time and then breaks forth more furiously being rouzed as it were from sleep it gets up and spreads it arms wider to take in greater numbers into it's fatall embraces so is it oftentimes with this Spirituall distemper it seems to be quelled and conquered but soon after it regains it's
named we are told that it was his usuall custome to stop his ears at the wicked speeches of some that lived in his time You know who it was that made a Covenant of Chastity with his eyes and he was a Wise man that wisheth us to make a vow of temperance with the same sense that is that we look not on the wine when it sparkles in the Glass This mans Father fell fouly by a lascivious glance upon Bathsheba and therefore it is likely he guarded that sense better for the future and he desires God to Set a watch over his mouth and keep the door of his lips that he might shut out Infection there We shall do well to stop up all the avenues and ways by which sin usually enters we must not approach so much as the confines of Satans Kiâ—gdom we must abstain from all appearance of evill shunning the occasions of sin and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh The third effectuall Preservative against the infection of sin is a holy confidence undauntedness and trusting in God For as we see that a fearfull fancy and imagination melancholly and a dejected spirit have brought diseases upon mens bodies so is it as true that fearfullness and a desponding spirit have betrayed men to the commission of sin Then therefore we consult our own welfare and the health of our souls when we confide and rely upon God But this must be done in the way of duty and Prayer In the next place then get the Fire of devotion to air your houses to warm your hearts to inflame your souls Observe therefore the Connexion of the words prefixed to this Discourse Which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house While our hands are lifted up in devout Prayer our spirituall enemies cannot prevail Be sure then daily to use this perfume this incense of Prayer this is an excellent remedy against the Spiritual Plague To this belongs Confession and an humble acknowledgment of our sinfull ways by this we may disgorge our selves when our consciences gripe us and sin makes us sick by this we cleanse and ease our souls When I kept silence saith that good King my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long my moisture was turned into the drought of summer These were the sad effects of his sinfull silence and hiding of his sin but the remedy follows I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Uncover therefore thy folly and make thy breast bare before God as I have seen diseased Cripples lying in the midst of the streets opening their bodies and shewing their grievous wounds and sores and then by hideous lamentations extorting charity and pitty from beholders We read that Hâ—zâ—kiah took a lump of figgs and laid it on the boyl which he had and so recovered Alass How many are there that with our first Parents use figg leaves for their Spiritual sores and Plagues concealing their faults and hiding them if it were possible from the eyes of God But He that covereth his sin shall not prosper as we see many have perished of the Plague because they would not make it known Confession must be accompanied with grief and sorrow and hatred of sin such a sorrow as pricks the very heart this will break the boyl and take down the swelling Beg then a broken and a contrite heart and the cure is half done Now for to perfect the Work the Blood of Iesus applyed by a lively faith is a soveraign râ—mâ—dy Christ crucified is more effectuall for the cure of our spirituall Maladies then that brazen Sâ—rpâ—nt was of old to the Israelites for the healing of those that were bitten and stung with fiery Serpents Believe then in this Iesus stedfastly look up unto him for with his stripes we are healed The Physitians Blood is the onely Medicine for the Spirituall Patient this alone can wash out the spots of sin this is that fountain opened for sin and for uncleanâ—ss Let us here cleanse our polluted and corrupted natures let that sun of righteousness arise upon us with healing in his wings hiding our sins with his mâ—rits healing our natures by his Sacred Spirit And this must be effected by Evangelicall Faith which purifies the heart By this then we are to apply the gracious Promises of the Gospel which are made and prepared on purpose to cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit Nay these are not onely Purgatives to remove the corrupt humours and infectious mass but they are Cordials to refresh the weak and fainting spirits Here is generous wine indeed when thou goest abroad into the world drink full draughts of this next thy heart and it will keep thee from the infection of sin And not onely the Promises but the whole Word of God must be made use of as the food and Physick of the soul all the Pages of that holy Volumne are like the leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing of the Nations Take this Book often into thy hand carry it along with thee read it over study and meditate upon it Bind it continually upon thy heart and tye it about thy neck When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee Here is an excellent Amulet to bear about with thee it will be both a grace and a guard an ornament and safety hang it always therefore at thy hâ—art and thou shalt never do amiss This will discover thy secret sins and in-most maladies unto thee For the Word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart This this will search and lanch thy conscience no less then three thousand persons were pricked to the heart at one thrust of this spiritual sword at one single Sermon My next advice in order to the cure of this fatall Plague of the Soul is that we do our endeavour to improve afflictions for these are mâ—dicines against sin bitter but wholesome medicines Gods judgements on a Land may prove good Sudorificks and make the sinner sweat and the peccant humours waste away and drive out the venom from the heart Folly is bound up in our hearts and these Rods of Correction must or may fetch it out Most successfull did this severer medicine prove to the Church He hath filled me with bitterness saith she he hath made me drunken with wormwood And it follows Remembring my affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me this I recall to minde therefore have I hope Oh! Smell to this wormwood and it will prove an excellent preservative against
the Plague of Sin Afflictions are designed by God for our amendment Let that designe take effect upon us let those terrible Thunder-claps clear and purifie the air As Naturalists observe that one poison is an Antidote against another So let this grievous Pâ—stilence which is now upon the Land and upon this Town drive out the Plague of the Heart Ringing of Bells they say is some ways serviceable to remove the Infection Oh! let every sad toll for our deceased Brethren put us in minde of our Mortality and promote the death of sin in us Lastly Keep a diet in order to the preserving of thy self from the Souls Plague Too high and plentifull a feeding increaseth any disease in us see that thou be moderate in the use of the creatures Take heed to thy self least at any time thy heart bâ— overcharged with surfetting and drunkeness and cares of this life Indulge not an intemperate course of living for death is in the pot which is set on by luxury and wantoness If thou callest thy self a Christian be content to be diâ—ted kept in and confined by the stricter rules of the Gospel And now what ever effect those usuall Medicines and Receipts may have for the curing of the Bodily Plague I am sure these that I have named are approved by Christ and his Apostles that great Colledge of Physitians you may take them safely and with confidence of success and I pray God give a blessing unto them And thus having insisted on the Metaphor in the Text I shall now treat more at large and descend to some plain Dirâ—ctions for our better behaviour in these sad times both in reference to the present visitation of the Plague and the sad concomitants of it poverty and necessity And the first Direction is this Be sensible of Gods Judgments now upon you and tremble at them Know therefore and see that it is an evill thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God This was the use which that Holy man made of Gods dismall providences My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am affraid of thy judgments And again Thou even thou art to be feared Who knows but that these present calamities are prologues and presages of far worser Certain it is that this is the duty incumbent on us at present to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear seeing our God is a consuming fire Here then you are to be called upon to acknowledge that it is Gods Hand that is now heavy upon you Shâ—ll there be any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it No surely there is no evill in the great City of this Nation no evill or Plague in the Countrey but God must be acknowledged the author and disposer of it This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divine superintendency in all our calamities which Hippocrates speaks of and frankly acknowledgeth in all diseases And Christians should much more allow of it looking beyond second causes to the first and chief of all Say not then that the influence of the starrs and heavenly bodies or the late glaring Comets which appeared were the causes of the burning feavers and malignant distempers and even of this fatall Pestilence which sweeps so many into their graves blame not this or that Indeed as Philosophers and Naturalists you are permitted to search into the secondary and physicall causes of this dreadfull distemper but as Christians and those that live by higher principles you are first to look up unto God and then down into your selves and there behold the Hand of the Lord stretched out against you God is the great Soveraign of the world the wise disposer of the Universe who doth what seemeth good unto him both in heaven and in earth If he shall please to correct and chastise us all naturall causes shall give way to his providence which can find us out though we labour to run never so far from it The Plague can climbe over walls never so high and strongly built it can come in at the windows though they are made never so fast it can make it's passage through the doors of the house though they are never so closely lockt and bolted Labour then to be convinced of this that there is a God that judgeth in the earth that you are in his hands and that whatever you suffer is by his disposall I even I am he and there is no God besides I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up And it is clear from Davids Choice that the Pestilence is more remarkably the Hand of God Let me fall now into the Hand of the Lord saith he and by Davids Seer it is stiled the sword of the Lord. The present Arrows of the Almighty are not like that with which Ahab was wounded which the Story tells us one shot at a venture No chance and fortune have nothing to do here Apollo was fitly feigned by the Poet to have sent the Pestilence into the Graecian Army no less then a God in their Divinity could do it But I pass to The second Direction Be more sensible of your sins then of the punishments that are upon you be more fearfull of the Plague of the Heart then of the present contagion that raigns in your streets be much more troubled in your souls to have committed a sin against God then to have it punished by him and for the future choose rather to undergo any suffering from men then to dishonour God Avoid that which grieves the Holy Spirit rather then what troubles and afflicts thy outward man How timorous are we and dejected at the thoughts of the Plagues approaching near us We have much more reason to be fearfull of sin which is the sting of all judgments We are apt to sit down and bemoan our selves after this manner Alas our condition is very sad the place we live in is Infected we see whole Families drop away here Parents are bereaved of their Children there the Children survive their Parents but alas are left shiftless to the wide world Many houses are shut up and onely sickness and death are Tenants there Neighbours are affraid of one another and it is not Trading but poverty and want which bring them to the sight of one another How many are buried as it were while they live and when they are dead they can hardly finde any one to befriend â—â—em with a Grave What cryings and complainings are there in our streets and if Gods Hand should continue on us longer it will be hard to tell whether scarcity or the Sickness be the worst Plagues After this sort do we bemoan our selves under Gods judgments but where is the man among us that cryes out of his sins his sins Where is the spiritual mourner that lays
iniquity to his heart and feels a thorow remorse upon his minde for his rebellion against God for his bidding defiance to Heaven and for his abuse of Gods mercies Where is the man that beginning to be sensible of the hardness of his heart strikes upon it as if he would break it and drops down penitentiall tears that he might soften it Such a man is not easily found such severity on our selves is not usuall But know this that nothing is worth a tear a sigh a groan but Sin Turn therefore your grief this way and your sorrow for affliction will not be so loud and clamorous As Physitians stop the blood by revulsion stenching iâ—'s bleeding in one place by opening vein in another so do you change and divert your sorrow turn it quite into another channel Humble your selves in the sight of God lye low before him being cast down by the burden of sin Be sensible of the Hand of God which is heavy upon you but chiefly eye the finger that points at thy Sin God is just in all that is brought upon you for he hath done right but you have done wickedly Gods wrath is but a due punishment for your abuse of his mercy the overflowing of his anger is but a just recompence for your repeated provocations Justifie God but judg and condemn your selves Your destruction is of your selves your Plagues are the fruit of your own ways Had you not been stubborn and obstinate and sinned against mercy you had not felt such heavy strokes but because you would not be drawn with cords of love it was but just the cords should be twisted into a whip to lash you into your duty Common sicknesses would not amend you you went on and minded not the ordinary summons of Mortality those it seems were not terrible enough No wonder then that God takes another course changeth the rod into a Scorpion and instead of the usuall diseases sends a more fatall and astonishing distemper which carrys poyson along with it You may thank your selves for all this for sin was the procuring cause of it Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee And again Our iniquities have separated betwixt us and our God and our sins have hid his face from us that he will not hear Ierusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed To which let me add that of the Apostle For this cause namely for your sins especially your unchristian divisions and your prophanation of the Lords Supper many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Sin is the root of suffering strike therefore at the root first evidence that you are more sensible of sin then sickness or any other affliction by your asking the pardon of sin chiefly It may be somewhat remarkable that the Psalmist calls up his soul to praise God after this manner Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities who healeth all thy diseases God first forgives and then heals and the Holy man is well pleased with this sacred order and method nay he would have been contented with the pardon of sin though the infirmities of his body had still remained The light of Gods countenance is far better then the removall of our sicknesses his favour to our souls transcends all worldly ease and refreshment to our outward man Affliction will never hurt us so long as we can pray and believe so long as God speaks peace unto our consciences And therefore in all our distresses this should be our most ardent request that God would pardon our sins subdue our wicked natures and sanctifie us with his Spirit and then though the Cross lies heavy on our bodies and makes our outward man decay yet our inward man shall feel joy and comfort and our light afflictions which are but for a moment shall work for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of Glory And let me commend unto you these three ways whereby you are further to discover that you are truely sensible of your Sins The first is a humble confession hearty bewailing and mourning for your manifold provocations That Good King used this remedy when the Plague was broken out and the destroying Angel gone forth to smite Loe I have sinned and done wickedly You are all to mourn for the crying and raigning sins of this Land you are to mourn for the sins and enormities of those men who have not hearts to mourn for themselves Thus Mosâ—s was grieved sadly for the peoples â—dolatry and most passionately did he interpose in their behalf Ezra and Nehemiah most deeply resented the sins of their Nation You know what Lamentations the Weeping Prophet made you read how righteous Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked And Rivers of water saith the Psalmist run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law This was the practice of the Man after Gods own heart and that great Apostle could not write to his Philippiâ—ns without weeping when he made mention of the enemies of the Cross of Christ. The ways of the wicked grieve God and his Holy Spirit and shall they not grieve every good man Mourn then in secret for that great pride and haughtiness that extortion cruelty and oppression that want of brotherly love and Christian communion that perjury couzenage and deceit that wantoness and uncleaness that disobedience and murmuring at our betters that coldness and formality in our religious addresâ—es that neglect of the Ordinances and Institutions of Christ that scoffing at Piety and true Devotion for these and many other abominations which this Land is highly guilty of you are to mourn and weep even desiring in a holy passion to weep your eyes out as being loath to see such wickedness committed And yet I have not named a brace of horrid vices which this Land is to answer for no less then for the former I mean those common sins of drunkeness and swearing As for the latter how prodigiously doth it increase in our days And whereas St Iames his charge is Above all things my brethren swear not and our Saviour hath given us the same in his excellent Sermon Swear not at all yet are blasphemous Oaths so common and usuall as if both those Texts had run thus do dothing but swear every sentence with too many men is set off with an oath Gods great and glorious Name is used and usurped in the most trifling and ridiculous matters nay it is brought into the obscenest nay into the most prophane and irreligious speeches Gods Name is seldom used by such wretches in prayer and supplication at the throne of Grace but in bitter curses and execrations against their brethren it is daily abused And is it not just with God to visit those mens houses with the most
horrid disease who have so often wished the Plague to their Children their nearest relations and companions It must needs grieve every good soul to hear men belch out such hellish Rhetorick Is it not sad that Christians should like those cruell Souldiers open Christs side and delight in nothing but Blood and Wounds Sit down awhile and weigh these things well and besides what I have said consider also the generall decay of the practice of Religion which should be our chiefest Trade but is now dead Consider the ingratitude and unfruitfulness and which is saddest of all the generall security inconsiderateness and insenâ—ibleness of the people of the Land and you will have matter enough for mourning But then too if you search and try your own ways and lives and examine your own iniquities your proper and particular sins you will have yet much more occasion of mourning and this must be your task likewise You must know every man the Plague of his own heart Every party of men I perceive are ready to lay the fault at anothers door they clear themselves and would not be thought to be the procurers of this sad judgment that is now upon us but let me advise thee as thou desirest pardon of God and peace in thy own conscience to look into thy own soul and grieve for those sins which thou espiest there and humbly confess that thy iniquities have procured this judgment and heartily endeavour that the affliction may be sanctified Which brings me to the second way whereby you are to discover that you are throughly sensible of sin namely by Your care and desire to have the affliction sanctified rather then removed Oh then let all the calamities that befall us quicken and enliven our graces let the rod make us take out our lesson the better let the weights make the clock go the faster let the high and blustering winds speed our course and send us sooner to our haven let the Rack which we are upon make us confess our faults and even extort from us a godly remorse the greater the judgment is the greater influence let it have upon our hearts and lives A greater temporal judgment then the devouring Plague cannot enter into our quarters this therefore if God shall please to sanctifie to us may more effectually shew us our sins and teach us righteousness Other diseases were but like single shot this is chain-shot and sweeps away whole Families or rather other sicknesses were like smaller Guns of a lesser bore but this is one of Heavens Murthering-pieces which carâ—yeth a great way and batters down whole houses the thickest and strongest Walls cannot stand out against it the healthfullest constitution is no bulwark against it the art and skill of the Physitian is not able to grapple with it this devours by whole-sale other diseases but by pieceâ—meal and smaller parcels This this is a rod made on purpose to scourge a wicked Nation this is more eminently the hand and stroke of an angry God and do we not see how many by these blows are made black and blew And yet all this may be for our good for our eternall welfare the greater the judgment is the more carefull it may and should make us to discharge our duty the more fearfull of sinning against God and the more humble under the due consideration of Gods wrath and displeasure Let us learn obedience as our Blessed Master did by the things which we suffer We are planted by the rivers of water even of the water of affliction let this make us bring forth our fruit in due season Let every one strive to say with the Psalmist It is good for me that I have been afflicted O good rod that fetched out the folly which was bound up in my heart O good poverty that drove me to God with a Petition in my hand begging the riches of his grace O good reproach and affronts that humbled me in the dust and caused me to reflect upon my wicked courses and made me esteem Gods favour above all things O good sickness and disease that shewed me how vile poor and weak a creature I am how inconsiderable mean and empty this world is and how full and satisfying God is O good distemper of body that promoted the Welfare of my soul In a word O good afflictions and distresses that make me good This severe coursâ— that God took was the best way to mend me the storms beat me to shore had I had a gentler gale and so failed along evenly and smoothly perhaps I had split upon some fatall Rock I had sunk and never seen good day again I had gone to hell if I had had Heaven here upon earth It is well therefore for me that I had so many Crosses laid on me O! it is well that affliction arrested me else I had gone on still in offending God and my Neighbours I see now that I gain by my losses now I perceive that every blow was but a kinde stroking of me every Wound was a balsome every judgment was a mercy and every affliction was a blessing Less sorrow would not serve my turn else I had not felt so much Therefore welcome affliction thrice welcome the rod I will learn for the future how to get all crosses sanctified unto me and to grow better by the Worst condition I will hear the rod and who hath appointed it I will listen to it's voice and learn what is my duty by it for it calls and cryes aloud to me to prepare for another world to leave my â—ins to repent and really reform Which leads me to The third way whereby we ought to evidence that we are truly sâ—nsible of the burthâ—n of our sins namely by a thorow reformation of our lives For alas all our mournings and lamentations all our prayers and fastings all our sacrifices and services all our seeking unto God and calling upon him all our promises and resolutions signifie nothing as to the removall of judgments without holiness of life and the destroying of the accursed thing from amongst us For you must know this that Praying and Fasting and bewailing of our sins are not the things ultimatly designed in Religion they are in order to something higher and that is Reformation of our lives Fasting is made a duty because it may be subservient and instrumental to holy meditations to our nearer converse with God and abandoning of our lusts It was one of Pythagor as his Symbols and advises to his disciples To abstain from beans the old Philosopher it is thought did not intend by it a refraining from that sort of food but it was mysticall as much of the Pythagorean Philosophy is and signified that they should be retired and keep out of publick offices for by beans the Magistrates were chosen in some parts of Greecâ— or perhapson another account as some learned men have conjectured Continence and Chastity were aimed at in that Law of Abstinence Sure I am that
in the Christian Pâ—â—losophy Fasting is subordinate to a higher thing and as it should put us in minde to abstain from â—leshly lusts so it is very apt in some bodies to promote piety and devotion and therefore it is to be used to such an end as that So likewise for Prayer and Confessing of our sins they are intended to render us more holy and religious to compose our thoughts to elevate our souls to God and that we may breath out the very secrets of our hearts before him 'T is pity therefore that these duties should be separated from their great end and design Nay praying and fasting and seeking of God without Reformation are but a taking of Gods name in vain and a very mocking of him so that when we seem to debase our selves and appear before God in all postures of humiliation when we confess sin and pray against it and yet live in the love and practice of it we do instead of averting Gods judgments pull them down upon us and continue them longer amongst us Be perswaded therefore to reform your lives and turn unto God in good earnest do not onely pray but practice as those Mariners who cryed every man to his God and withall cast Ionah over-board Cast out sin punish sinners and then the storm will cease Let every one reform himself and endeavour to reform those that are his charge following the example of that Holy man who thus resolved As for me I and my house will serve the Lord. Like unto which was the resolution of that vertuous Woman I and my maidens will fast and pray So let every Master and Mistress of a Family say I will by Gods help see to my charge I will reform at home This will be the most proper and compendious way to work a thorow amendment in the whole Nation thus the good work will go on apace and come to perfection And to promote this reformation let me suggest these ensuing truths unto you 1. Deliverance and mercy is promised to a Nation upon this condition and upon no other Thus runs that answer of the Lord to Solomon If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seâ—k my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land Thus likewise you finde it in that word of the Lord to Ierâ—miah At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them But 2. Put the case that the Plague be removed and your sins still remain then I must tell you that such a removal is not a mercy for God never takes away his anger till you reform He often times indeed leaves a Nation and persons to themselves and to their own sinfull wills and ways But alas there is no greater punishment then this and no plainer sign of Gods displeasure It is sad when God speaks unto a Land as he did of old to Iudah Ah sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evill doâ—rs children that arâ— corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy One of Israel unto anger they are gone away backward And then it follows Why should you be stricken any moreâ— you will revolt more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint c. When the heaviest strokes and Plagues when the greatest judgments and calamities will not amend a people then God gives them over as Physitians when their patients are past recovery permit them any thing 3. Punishments removed and your sins still remaining do sadly portend a heavyer judgment for the future either upon your bodies or your souls either in this or the other world When God took away the Plagues from Pharaoh he sent hardness of heart Nay God may remove the Plague and reserve you for Hell and then you cannot say your case is mended Thus every ways it is your interest to reform and break off your sins by repentance Every person is ingaged in his place and capacity to appear against Vice and to endeavour the extirpation of it but here the Magistrate in a speciall manner is concerned who is to see that all Infected persons be shut up The Leper under the Law was to dâ—ell alone without the camp that he might not converse with those that were whole now I have told you that Sin is the worst of Plagues and Leprosies You therefore that are in publick places and Offices are to set a Watch over notorious sinners that they go not abroad to infâ—ct others if they break out you may shoot at them if sinners will be bold and daring you are bound to unsheath the Sword of Iustice and strike at them as indeed there are a sort of hardned sinners that starâ— Iustice in the face and say she is blinde and laugh at her Sword and make their brag that they never felt the edge of it Here you will do well to make them experience how sharp it is that others too beholding the punishment inflicted on them may not presume to glory in their shame They commonly say that those who are infected long to infect others it is certainly true of the contagion of sin wicked men cannot be content to dishonour God themsâ—lves but they invite and inveigle others to do so too Look well to these pestilent fellows that they may not spread the contagion and corrupt others though they would And these are the ways and methods whereby we are to discover how sensible we are of the great sins and provocations of a Nation The third Direction for our behaviour in these sad and calamitous times is that by Faith and Patience we compose our minds and submit our wills unto Gods in whatsoever he shall be pleased to inflict upon us We must bear the indignation of the Lord and resign our selves to his disposall not murmuring at his choice for us but contentedly tarrying his time and leisure We are hâ—dged in so the Scripture expresses affliction we must not impatiently leap ovâ—r this hedg nor make a gap in it There was a certain offender doubted that he should be poysoned by Caligula and so drunk off a Counter-poyson to preserve and fortifie himself but the Emperour took the man up very smartly in these words Aâ—tidotum adversus Caesarem What! does he think to take any Antidote against the fatall Dose which Caesars hand shall give him Methinks God speaks to us in some such language What shall poor mortalls think to controll me can they prevâ—nt that affliction which I have allotted them