The Cause of the Disease Sin implyed in these words and turn from their wicked ways Thirdly The Medicine to be used which is Compounded of three Ingredients 1. Humility 2. Prayer 3. Repentance Fourthly The Physician prescribing this Medicine God I will hear from heaven c. I begin with the Disease of which I need say but little since it speaks so much for it self But something I must say lest I seem to pass that over that passeth by few in a house or City where it comes The word is sometimes rendred Pestilence and sometimes Plague from the Latine word Plaga which signifies a Stroke but by reason of the Streightness of our English Tongue they are promiscuously taken The Plague in other Languages extends further and notes any extraordinary Stroke that comes from God the Prophets under that Word contain these four Famine Pestilence Wild Beasts and the Sword which per eminentiam are called the four plagues of God 'T is true God creates every thing both light and darkness Isa 45.7 good and evil as the Prophet speaks but because Strokes if they be private particular or ordinary have no great operation on us we observe their second and not their first causes and so we neither reverence God's Justice nor discern his hand nor fear his power Upon this Score when mens sins cry aloud and peircing the Heavens mount to the very throne of God it is fit likewise that God's loud Justice should peirce the heavens Heb. 1.21 descend upon man and like the voice of Sinai make poor mortals quake and fear The plague is a Stroke able to extort from any man the confession of Pharaoh's Enchanters Ex. 8.19 This is the Finger of God It 's an Arrow of his own shooting 2 Sam. 24.15 and may better be called Morbus Sacer then the Falling Sickness And therefore in our Language we style the Pestilence the Visitation of God and the Tokens thereof God's Marks and upon our Dores write LORD HAVE MERCY VPON VS By which we clearly confess whilest the Angel executeth divine wrath we all stand at God's Mercy And thus I come from the Disease it self to the Cause of it which is God's anger enflamed by Sin I know there are some that following the Sentiments of Physicians will needs ascribe it to the Infection of the Aire to gross and unwholsome Diet or to the predominancy of corrupt humours But Physicians may be excused if they say something when they see an Angel As I will not deny but in all Diseases there may be something of natural so I may likewise affirm there is in this something divine and above nature 1. For the natural part First The Infected Aire may contribute very much and therefore we read that by casting the Ashes of the Furnace towards heaven Ex. 9.8 the Aire became Infected and the plague of Botches and Blains spread it self over Aegypt Secondly Corrupt humours may do the like for to them doth King David ascribe the cause of his Malady when he complains that his Moisture in him was corrupt Psal 32.4 dryed up and turned into the drought of Summer Thirdly The contagion comeing from the Sick Thus we see by the Jewish Law the Leprous person for fear of Infecting others was commanded to cry aloud Vnclean Lev. 13.45 46 52. Vnclean by which he gave the Sound warning they should not approch nigh for fear of Contagion He was besides to have his dwelling alone and the garments he wore were to be washed and if the plague was spread in them the Priest was to burn them Yea the very house walls in which the Leper dwelt were to be scraped and in some cases the house it self to be pulled down The Learned Fernelius more judiciously confesses this Disease hath a hidden beginning some secret principle that occultly wounds and we may assure our selves that though things ab extrâ contribute to its progression yet the real cause is the latent Corruption within us Sir Tho. More Epigr. Nugamur mortemque procul procul esse putamus At mediis latet haec abdita visceribus But let us come to the supernatural Cause of this Disease and that will not require a Physician so much as a Divine And I suppose many of them think it a difficult point that they go into the Country to study it and by their absence expound S. Paul's words thus We preach not our selves i. e. our Curates or who else will preach for us But to the supernatural Cause the Scripture observes it as a crime in King Asa that in the time of his Sickness he look'd more after the Physician than after God He did not consider the Infirmity of his Soul was to be healed as well as that of his body and therefore look'd for natural remedies only But if we would avoid his fault we must acknowledge the hand of God in this Sickness and something above nature For if we observe the way of inflicting it we shall find it oftentimes done by Spirits Thus we see an Angel a destroying Angel in the plague of Aegypt Exod. 12.13 Another in the plague that destroyed the host of the Assyrians under Senacherib We find a third in the plague at Jerusalem under King David and St. John in the Revelations brings in a fourth pouring his Vial upon Earth Rev. 16.2 and there fell a noisome plague upon Man and Beast So that God is the great Agent in this Calamity But how Not willingly his anger must first be enkindled by our Sin for as the Psalmist saith Psal 106. They provoked him to anger with their Inventions and then the plague brake in amongst them Thus Deut. 28.21 God says Because of the wickedness of thy doing whereby thou hast forsaken me the Lord shall make the Pestilence cleave unto thee And Hosea cries Hos 14.6 O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine Iniquity The perdidit te in the Prophet doth not proceed from neighbours become Enemies or from the Locust Caterpiller Mildews and such other things as cause Famine and Pestilence but from the corruption and Sin hatch'd in these Israelites and therefore in the second verse he counsels them as the only way to recover their former happiness to Take with them words and turn to the Lord and say unto him take away all Iniquity and receive us graciously So that sin which is the plague of the Soul begets the Plague of the Body This viperous Mother brings forth a child so like it self that it 's hard to know the one for the other I shall shew you in a few particulars their Similitude and Agreement First They are alike in Nature The Corporeal Pestilence aims not at the more ignoble parts of the body but at the very Source of Life the vital Spirits and by its contagious quality oppresses them The like doth Sin by its secret Malignancy to the Soul It blinds the understanding
corrupts the Will and so poisons all our Intellectual faculties that we cannot see the light of Faith or ardently love God or do any other Act that may speak us living Christians and in a State of Grace Secondly They are alike in their Infection The reason why we shut people up that are Infected and avoid their Company is because they easily communicate their Disease to those that are in health it is so with sin it insensibly creeps upon us The often seeing wicked men repeat their crimes first takes from us the hatred we should bear them and afterward by undiscerned progressions so far work on us that we begin to love and commit the same The Historian observes That Augustus soon perceived the Inclination of his two Daughters by the Company they kept The one affected none but the grave Senators and worthy personages of Rome and the Other none but the loose and debauch'd Gallants We cannot touch pitch but we must be defiled and we cannot converse with wicked men but we shall be tainted with their Impurities Thirdly They are alike diffusive Thucidides in his Description of the Plague of Athens tells us it began in Africa march'd from Aethiopia into Aegypt and so took its course for Athens which was a vast progress And hath not Sin done the like Hath not the Sin of Adam in Paradice spread it self over the whole World and so seized upon the mass of Mankind that we must all confess we are Vnclean and there is none of us righteous no not one Fourthly They are both terrible What a dismal sight is it to see an Army enter by force into a pleasant City and there in a moment by the licentious fury of the Soldiers view those streets floating with the blood of the Inhabitants which in time of Peace used to be strewed with flowers Yet when heat of blood is over some mercy is usually hoped for and many times obtained But the Plague like another Attila the Scourge of God sweeps all before it and seldom gives Quarter Sin does the like yea in a more terrible manner for it erects its Trophies upon the ruine of Souls The destruction of the body is but a momentary pain but that of the Soul is commensurate to the duration of it which is to all Eternity How much reason have we therefore to pray to be delivered from this Executioner that like another Nero loves to perpetuate misery and strikes a wretch ut sentiat se mori Fifthly They are alike in their Symptomes When a man begins to feel some distemper in his head stomach belly or other parts though we apprehend some danger yet we think him not past the benefit of Physick and a possibility of Recovery but if once his body begin to be purpled and the plague spots discover their dismal hue we then quit all hopes and think nothing less than a miracle can recover him Sin also hath her spots and they are as ill boading to the Soul as the other to the body V. 23. and therefore St. Jude in his General Epistle styles wicked men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spots in their feasts of Charity Lastly They are both of a quick dispatch Other Diseases seem to give us some warning that we may set our house in order and by repentance blot out the Score of our sins prodigality but the pestilential sword like the Italian Stilletto carries death upon the point and at its first entrance summons the wounded to his Funeral so that we may now sing in a mournful Dirge Our pleasures cease our joys are flying Death is alive but Life is dying Hence it is that Galen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its Mortal quality and Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its spreading nature This deadly disease we see lays heaps upon heaps and if the Almighty power puts not a stop to its violent proceedings it will in a short time scarce leave living enough to bury the dead Where God gives it a Commission it runs like fire in a Corn field That passage in Samuel is very remarkable 2 Sam. 24.15 where it is said So the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the Morning even to the time appointed Some think this appointed time was six hours and of this opinion is St. * Super Psal 37. Ambrose * quaest 37 Theodoret and the Jewish Historian Josephus Others think this appointed time was until night and that at the beginning of the Evening Sacrifice it ceased which St. Hierome followes V. Casp Sanctium inâ—l Others with Tostatus Abulensis think it lasted three dayes However all agree that it was but a short space in which this Tragedy was acted although the quamdiù is not certain Upon this account the Septuagint reads the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I send Death amongst my people to signifie other diseases by Medical herbs and the skill of Physicians may be Cured but this is an infallible Executioner as sure as death it self And doth not Sin do the same with the Soul Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye not a year after but in the very day thou breakest my Commandement thy sin will prove deadly So Annanias and Sapphyra no sooner lyed to the holy Ghost but at St. Peter's Examination their Consciences became their condemning Jury and their Sentence a sudden Death We have now seen their agreement I shall only say there is this happy dissimilitude that whereas the Cure of the Bodily plague is uncertain that of the Soul plague is infallible if we fly to Christ with a due sense of our misery and seek from his Merits that Alexipharmacon that is an Antidote against the greatest Crimes But I shall desist from speaking any longer indefinitely of Sin and come to those particular ones that in so high a degree have drawn this plague upon us First then The sin that leads the van is our Sabbath-breaking How loud doth this cry in the Ears of God! A sin more frequent impudent and unpunish'd than in those late black days when the greatest were justified by a Law This blessed day is now as much mangled and broken as once the Lord of it was And as the Poet deriding the immoderate dress of a wanton Girl told her that she was minima pars sui so is this day so divided that it is now become the least part of it self and you may seek for a Sabbath in a Sabbath and not find it And whereas it ought to be the greatest Festival and holy Rest now other days are more innocent then this Those we spend upon our Callings and this the more is our shame on our sins In the Primitive times sanctifying the Lords Day was an eminent Character that Christians lived in the purity of their profession When the Question was asked Servasti Dominicam The Answer returned was Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and may not
Angels veil their faces by whose only Fiat the Chaos was un-masked and to whose bounty all the several species of creatures owe their Beeing I will hear from heaven forgive and heal your Land Other Physicians either out of hope of gain or to buoy up their credits and repute in the World promise those cures which they can never perform But here is one whose Word is his Deed that Archetypal verity who having the Issues of Life and Death in his hand when he promises Life cannot be guilty of a Lye and when he threatens death upon impenitency will surely inflict it So then here is a Conjunction of the whole Trinity in the Cure promised the perfection of which will appear in three particulars 1. God will cure us corporally When he sent his beloved Son to preach the Gospel of Eternal Life many heard him but were little moved with the Excellency of his Embassie but when he came to those sensitive and ocular demonstrations of his power the healing of the Sick and feeding the Multitude by miracle many then were induced to believe in him S. Matthew tells us that he healed all that were Sick At his word the Blind found eyes the lame flung away their Crutches the Paralytick and such as were troubled with an effusion of Blood found that virtue proceeding from him which effected their cure If the touch of his garment were so balsamical that of his voice had a greater power for Lazarus though rotting four days in his grave at Christ's first call quitted his cold Mansion and conquered Death surrendred his Prisoner at the Command of this great Prince The Platonist say Lumen est Vmbra Dei Light is but the shadow of God and I may very well affirm that the Learned'st Physicians are but shadows of this Sun of righteousness when he appears with healing in his wings Have we the plague spots upon us If God will be our Physician their very redness shall serve for a blush to confess their impotency when he bids them vanish Does a Feaver burn us or a Dropsie drown us One word of his mouth will prove a Julip to cool our veins and a Sluce to let out that Lake of humours which would engulph us If we be once penitentially quallified He will hear us He will heal us Let us therefore look upon this Visitation with a Spiritual eye Let us that God yet spares learn to be better lest those Princes of Peru in America meer Heathens at the day of Judgment rise up against us who accounted Sickness Nuncios coeli quibus se ad Deos acciri dicebant God's Messengers by which he would draw them to himself as Nierembergius reports He brings us into the School of Affliction Hist Nat. that we might learn Wisdome And as he will heal us so he will the diseases in the creatures that contribute to the maintenance of our Lives Is the Air infected He will purge it Is the fruit blasted He will stop Mildews and what ever hinders a plentiful Vegitation Doth the Murrain consume Cattle That shall likewise cease In a word whatever impleads our temporal enjoyments upon our Repentance like Dust shall be driven away before the Wind. 2. God will cure us Spiritully The wounds of the Soul are infinitely more considerable than those of the Body and therefore David who as St. Chrysostom speaks was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that lived as strictly in his Kingly Pallace as in a Cloyster cries out Ps 41.4 Heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee And indeed he had great reason to do so for he that had victoriously encountred the Lyon the Bear Goliah and an host of Men was now broken by a feminine temptation and become guilty of those Soul-wounding Sins Adultery and Murther Now as David made his Address to God the only Soul-Physician so let us for he can certainly restore and heal This Soul-cure he will perform First By healing our irregular affections which can by no less powerful means be effected than the communication of his Grace For if Adam in Paradice richly furnished with supernatural gifts continued but a poor while in that purity and excellent condition how much less can nature wounded with Sin without the assistance of supernatural endowments recover her former purity I shall not deny but a vigorous reason may help a man to acquire those virtuous habits which may cause a promptitude in the affections to virtuous actions yet those Acts of virtue will be so poor and imperfect that they can never bring him to eternal felicity Actions that spring from Grace do as far excel those that are the Issue of Nature though never so morallized as fruits that are ripened in the woods and fields by the beams of the Sun do those that are brought forth by artificial fires Grace changes the affections powerfully and renders them as it were new affections according to St. Paul If a Man be in Christ he is a new creature Not that our affections in this life are totally healed by grace there will be lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit in the most gracious persons but those Insurrections and Tumults are rather suffered by God as a Tryal than a destruction to his children Inordinate affections shall be so healed in this life that they shall lose their Empire though not their Beeing when they begin to rebel Grace will be able to subdue and triumph over them Secondly By healing our Vnderstanding At first when man enjoyed his Integrity the Vnderstanding did naturally apprehend truth with the greatest facility and as when our eye looks upon some curious piece of Painting Sculpture or any other beautiful object it is highly pleased so the Vnderstanding when it look'd upon Truth received great Satisfaction and the more sublime and excellent the Truths were the nobler caresses she found in the contemplation of them But novv alas a dismal chaos hath invelop'd the Vnderstanding yea that Science that vvas so brisk and sparkling in our first Parents and should have been the inheritance of all their posterity is utterly lost Our ignorance is such that vve are not able to judge of supernatural Truths and therefore God vvill cure this defect in us by Divine Illumination He vvill set up in our Souls the bright Tapers of his grace vvhereby the fogs and mists of Infidelity shall be dispell'd and such a certainty vvrought in us as is essential to true Faith Thirdly By healing our Wills The Phylosopher's Maxim is here true Corruptio Optimi est pessima The Will being the supreme faculty of the Soul had once a natural power to love God but being novv wounded by Sin the wounds in it are of a deadlier nature than those of the other faculties Thus Sins of Malice are deeper wounds than those of Infirmity or Ignorance and therefore one excellently said That nothing fri'd so much in Hell as the perverse wills of Men. God will heal this wounded part also by his
his holy Spirit to guide your Souls in the Path of Holiness here and bring you to the Palace of Happiness hereafter So prayeth The earnest desirer of your Souls welfare Rich. Kingston From my Study at St. James Clerkenwell Octob. the 18. 1665. PILLULAE PESTILENTIALES 2 Chron. cap. 7. v. 13 14. If I send Pestilence among my people If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land GOD that from all Eternity was happy in himself created the World and Man the most glorious part of it not out of necessity but a diffusive Goodness by which he would have some Beeings represent his Supremacy and receive the Style of the Sons of the most High Other Artificers either out of Ambition or Profit transmit to the World their Skill and Knowledge only He induced by a charity proportionable to his own Nature resolved to bring light out of darkness and constitute a Lieutenant upon Earth that should largely speak the grandeur of his Maker Thus Adam sprung bright and glorious out of the Chaos imbued with those perfections which We his posterity since his transgression can never hope for His Patrimony was large and he might have left it to his Heirs who now by sad experience find that he not only became bankrupt himself but entayled his misery upon them He came into the World its Lord and Master and left his children Peasants and Vassals and the truth is with so much unhappy fertility they have improved his Crime that being but one at first the Eating the forbidden Fruit it 's now become infinite and able to puzzle the Arithmetick of Angels Upon this score one might justly wonder that God should say IF I send the Pestilence amongst my People If is a Word of Uncertainty and argues an irresolution One would rather have expected the Lord should have sworn by himself that since this Darling this Peâ—â—â—ker of his divine Excellencies will ever be abasing them and choose rather the Livery of the Devil than that beautiful Vest of Innocence with which he came clothed into Paradice that therefore he would send his Plenipotentiary the Plague and without compassion cut off his Favourite But by this doubtful way of Expression we are taught how unwilling he is to give his justice a full draught which he will and must do where Impenitency stops the Progress of his Mercy The Heathen could say Val. Max. Lento gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira tarditatemque supplicii gravitate compensat We shall find this Truth cleer if we consider the Series of his proceedings against Sin Adam no sooner sins but is whipp'd out of Eden Cain kills his brother and becoms a Fugitive Sodom grows luxurious and burns with un-natural Lusts and fire descends from heaven to extinguish those hellish flames Jerusalem a City grac'd with more privileges than any in the World as being the place in which God would have his name in a more particular manner called upon the Seat of the Temple and the Metropolis of that Nation which he owned above all others Jerusalem I say that heard the Prophets yea Christ himself preach and saw his Miracles is now for her Sins nothing but a heap of Rubbish and as Adrichomius observes One may seek Jerusalem in Jerusalem and not find her The Eastern Church whose couragrous Martyrs whose General Councels whose Prelates those burning and shining lights are so highly celebrated is now for her Arrian Heresie and other Sins with which she abounded enslaved under the Turkish Yoke and hourly tormented with the Impieties of the Impostor Mahomet Neither can We of the Latin-Church here in Europe say our Sins have been hid and Divine Justice as it were asleep during their Committing In what a field of Miseries hath the whole German Empire been this last Century Nay if we have a mind to look nigher home what a calamitous Scene can Great Britain and Ireland show you for twenty years where fulness of Bread and a long Peace begot stiff Necks and obdurate hearts and these pull'd down the former and this present destruction so that We may well conclude that there is no Nation or Countrey so graced with privileges so crowned with blessings and so beloved by God but Sin will beget a deadly quarrel between them and cause the Subversion of the most flourishing States and Empires Let the Epicure ascribe the alterations unto Fortune the Stoick to Fate Plato and Pythagoras with the learned Statesman Bodin to Number Aristotle to a Symmetry or Disproportion Copernicus to the Motion of the Centre and Cardane with the Generality of Astrologers to the Malignant Influence of the Errattick Stars We that have bin otherwise built up in the most Holy Faith are taught by the Divine Oracles that Sin only causes this Controversie between God and Man and therefore whilest they like Ixion in the Fable embrace only a Cloud of palbable darkness instead of the Juno of bright and clear Truth let us since we know the True cause of Gods wrath endevour to avoid it by newness of life which is holyness in the Inward Man And indeed it is but fit if we will offend that God should right himself Nec enim Lex aequior ulla est Quam necis Artifices Arte perire sua We have Sinned and God justly strikes our heads with giddiness drawes paleness on our faces and dyes our Skins with purple The Prophet Amos saith C. 4. v. 10. God sent the Pestilence among the Israelites after the manner of Aegypt and he hath now sent the Plague amongst the English after the manner of Israel Israel's Calamity in the time of King David is England's Case in the Reign of King Charles Facta est narratio de te Anglia mutato nomine cum numero Change but the Names of the Countrey with the Circuit together with the time that Plague lasted and the number of peo it consumed in that space and we are parallel Repentance was their only Balsam and it must be ours for as the great Bishop of Hippo sayes St. August Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam We must by resolution of better obedience blunt the Edge of that Sword that causes so great a Mortality amongst us And thus I come to the words of my Text If I send the Pestilence amongst my people In which Words we have a Gracious promise of God unto his Church or a direct Answer to Solomon's Prayer which he made at the finishing of the Temple assuring Penitent Souls that if they turn from the Evil of their ways he will turn from the Evil of his wrath and free them from destruction I will hear from heaven and forgive their Sins Where we may observe four particulars First a Disease the Pestilence si miserò Pestilentiam in Populum meum Secondly
with all those Obloquies and Reproaches which St. Paul would not have flung even at Nero himself And what I pray was the Issue of this These discontented murmurings begot a Rebellion and that Rebellion though it occasioned the Ruin of the most blessed Prince yet by God's just judgment disgorged its Venom upon our own heads from being free Subjects to a King of a Glorious Race it made us vassals to one of low degree and took from us the felicity they enjoy whose King is the Son of Nobles The same we may affirm of the Church of England When was it so flourishing as in the aforenamed Prince's Time Yet either our discontentedness at his Fatherly Indulgence to it or our Avaritious designs to engross its Patrimony brought us to that Insolence that we must needs make her the Young Whore of Babylon and under pretence of correcting her Errors not only commit the greatest Sacriledges and Rapes upon her but fling down all her Fences that the Wild Bore of Schisme and Heresie might root her up And God knows at this very day the dismal Effects of murmuring are too too visible although our now Gratious Prince endevours to his utmost the extinguishing these unhappy differences that like so many Phaetons if not stopp'd in their Motion will burn both Church and State An hour is too short a time to discourse of the Sins that swarm in this Land What Mercy do we shew to our Poor doth not the Extortioner take damnable Interest and the Oppressor use violence Do they not eat like a canker into the Reversions of the Poor The Italians proverbially say of the Viceroyes of Naples and Milan that the one fleeces and the other fleas the Subject I am afraid we have too many amongst us that put this in practice and make it their only study to be Ingenious in oppressing and ruining their poor neighbours What temperance do we practice in the use of the creatures How many are there that study to be nothing more then accurate Gluttons They cannot dine or sup except they rob the Aire of its rarest fowle and the Rivers and Seas of its most exquisite Fish and yet will scarce afford the Poor those living Temples of the Holy Ghost a Morsell of Bread to keep them from Starving they can swallow down whole flaggons of the richest Wines and yet have scarce a thimble full of cold water for their thirsty neighbour And indeed if ever drunkenness had an impunity it is in these days although it be a most detestable Sin and so prolifical that it begets a thousand others yet it is now so much in vogue that I am afraid reeling in the Streets will be al'a mode and this Vice which metamorphoseth a Man into a Beast rather be the Subject of Mirth then detestation But let these bon-companions know there was a curse long ago pronounced against those that are strong to drink and that God is now putting it in Execution Since with their Teeth they will be digging their own graves and pour down into their Throats like sluces floods of Liquor to drown their Souls it is but Just the Pestilence should save them a labour and give them a quick dispatch And as with Excess in Eating and Drinking we have provoked God so likewise in our Apparel and Cloaths The Garments which God made our first Parents were to hide their shame but ours are so fantastically shap'd that instead of covering they discover it In a word There is nothing We have endevoured so much as the advancement of the Kingdome of Satan Our Eyes have wholly been employed upon lustful Objects and lewd Women Infelicissimae publicarum libidinum victimae those unhappy Sacrifices of common Lust as Tertullian speaks more grateful to us than virtuous Company The debauchery of Vnclean Songs and vilanous discourse have been more acceptable to our Ears than a good Sermon or wholsome admonitions Our Smell hath been caress'd with effeminate perfumes Our Tast with luxurious Viands and Sauces made to heighten an Appetite beyond the Necessity of Nature And lastly Our Touch hath been tainted with Lasciviousness With so little care have we guarded these Cinque-ports of our Soul yea rather left them as so many open avenues free for Sin to enter That it is no wonder if death tread upon the Heels of Sin and snatches us away in the flagrant fact Object But you will say Since God is all goodness and cannot be the Author of Evill how comes it to pass that he so severely punisheth Sin and sends such plagues amongst men for it Answ To this I answer with the Learned Bishop of Marseilles Salvianus in his 8 Book de Providentia where he saith A Deo quippe punimus sed ipsi facimus Cui dubium est quin ipsi nos nostris criminibus puniamus vim Deo facimus iniquitatibus nostris ipsi in nos Iram Dei armamus God indeed punisheth us but we cause and after a sort force him to do it God inflicteth stripes but we deserve them God striketh but we provoke God poureth out the Vials of his wrath but we fill them up to the brim by our overflowing Iniquities If we have any thing that is good in us it is from God but in a true sense we make him just even by our Injustice for if we were not unjust in Sinning he could not be just in punishing neither would he desire any way to exalt his glory by the ruine of his Creature Mic. 7.18 Mercy is his delight and goodness is his Nature He therefore never sendeth Evil upon us before we have it in us he never fills a Cup of Red wine before the measure of our Crimson sin is full Let us therefore lay the blame upon our selves and with mournful Jerusalem say The Lord is righteous but we have rebelled against him Let us in flying to his Mercy yet still adore his justice and let the consideration of his unwillingness to punish us so work upon us that hereafter we may not force him to it For he is slow to anger and of great Compassion And thus from the Disease we pass to the Remedy which consists of three Ingredients 1. Humility 2. Prayer 3. Repentance If my People that are called by my name do humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear c. 1. If my People humble themselves It seems God will have humility be the first Ingredient in this Plague-Antidote Lofty Spirits are like wheels St. Basil in Ascet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. in St. Basil's phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They move not to any Spiritual height but run a vain Circle and endless round They are so far from attaining any good end that they embar all the passages to it The old Marquiss of Worcester being asked in Queen Elizabeths Time how he continued Favourite to three Princes of such different humours Answered He was made of a Willow not of
be thus wounded if we consider that the Jews did but once crucifie him but We by the committal of fresh sins and Impieties crucifie him every day and grieve his holy Spirit It is therefore infinitly necessary we should have this due sense this holy wounding of heart if we expect God should repent of the evil done unto us and heal our Land 2. The second branch of Repentance is Confession As we must be sorrowful for sin so we must make a true confession of sin Now in confession we must observe these Rules First Our confession must be humble and self-accusing Non vis ut ille damnet Tu damna Vis ut ille ignoscat Tu agnosce Wouldst thou not that God should Condemn thee condemn thy self Say with the Publican Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Wouldst thou have God pardon Do thou crye guilty We must not imitate our Grandfather Adam that cryed The Woman thou gavest me presented me the fruit and I did eat We must take the sins we have committed upon our selves it being altogether unjust we should file that Evil on anothers score of which we have been the Authors How many are there in these days that when they are accused of any Vncleanness lay the fault upon Nature as St. Austin complains many in his time did and consequently accuse God himself We ought rather with the Prophet David to cry out Lord it is I that have done this Great Wickedness and with Jeremiah confess our ways and our Evil doings have brought all these miseries upon us Secondly We must not put our sins to the Devil's Account He may tempt us but he cannot force us to sin The Devil might have offered Eve a thousand of those beautiful Apples without prevailing had she not been as willing to tast that forbidden fruit as he ready to perswade her it was good If he could force us to sin we might justly lay the fault at his dore and make the very necessity of sinning our Apology But the Apostle St. James bids us resist the Devil and he will fly from us to teach us we have a power to combat and through Grace baffle his pernicious temptations Thirdly Neither must we make God the Author of our sins He is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and what blasphemy would it be in us when we have committed sins that even some natural men would abhor to father them upon God the source of all purity and goodness The Psalmist steers another course when he says I will confess my sins unto the Lord Psal 32. He doth not say he will accuse God as the author of his Lust to the Wife of Vriah or of his Pride in numbering the people no but I will confess to him against my self he is righteous and I have done wickedly God cannot be tempted to evil neither tempts he any man it is a principle of corruption within us that brings forth this viperous brood and we must wholly acknowledge God righteous when he punisheth for Sin Fourthly Our Confession must be Integra perfecta There are many that will be ready to acknowledge those Sins which they see the best of Men are obnoxious to but their Dallilah's their darling Sins like the true name of Rome they keep concealed But this is not the Confession that will do our work a lame half-confession is no more acceptable to God than if we should offer him half our heart when he requires the whole Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart which he can never truly be said to do that leaves some Sins unconfess'd and as it were hid in the inward recesses of his Soul because God being a profess'd enemy to every Sin such a concealment is a taking part with that which he most hates Thirdly The third part of Repentance is Conversion Now there is a two-fold Conversion 1. A Turning and total Conversion of a Sinner from Sin to God and in this Signification is comprehended the whole work of Grace Psal 51.14 And Sinners shall be converted unto thee this is passive Conversion wherein God is the Chief Agent but our selves by our natural power work nothing unless it be to hinder the work of Grace 2. There is a turning from some particular Sin or Sins whereby we have offended God or Man Luke 22.32 When thou art converted and Jer. 31.18 Convert thou me and I shall be converted This is an active Conversion performed by men who being already renewed by Grace do work together with this Grace Now this conversion is a turning of the heart unto God whereby we contract a perfect aversion to those things which we formerly delighted in and have such an alteration in our will and affections that we desire nothing and affect nothing but what we find agreeable to his blessed will It is not a turning of the Brain an alteration of this or that opinion that is Vertigo Capitis not Conversio Cordis but it is a meer alteration and turning of 〈…〉 of our hearts So that the perfection of this conversion consists in the turning of the whole heart This true turning is a thing no way pleasing to the Devil If he could he would not have us turn at all he sowes pillows under our Elbows and perswades us we are in a blessed condition but if we will needs turn he will persuade us to Turn any whether rather than unto God If he cannot effect this yet his Artifice and cunning is to make us leave our hearts behind Now if that will not do but we will Turn with our heart in Corde yet he labours all he can it may not be in toto he would have us have some private ends some Lusts to gratifie he would have our affections broken and not entirely subservient to the Divine Will But Beloved if we would remove these judgments that lye heavy upon us we must not divide our hearts between God and the Devil but must turn to God with our whole hearts for he is the great Physician that only can heal our diseased Souls And thus I come to the fourth and last Branch of the Text the Physician prescribing the Medicine GOD in these words I will hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land St. Chrysostome tells us that Christ the second person of the Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his death became Physician of the Dead in his very humility and state of Exinanition he baffled Sin and Death and the Balsam of his Blood shed upon the Cross closed up the Serpentine wound received in Paradice If this be true of Christ as without doubt it is whilest he was in the form of a Servant we ought not to question the performance of the promise made us in my Text by the whole Trinity I will hear from heaven c. I God the Father I God the Son I God the Holy Ghost I one yet three at whose presence the