A SERMON PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL Church of Worcester upon Sunday Morning, Novemb. 27. 1636.  
IN The time of PESTILENCE in other places of this Land, and now published in the time of the Visitation of that City, with that grievous Sickness; and by reason of it.  
By GEO. STINTON,  PSAL. 1●2. 8. For my Brethren and Companions sake I will wish th●e Prosperity. 
OXFORD, Printed by L. Lichfield, for H.C. Printer to the University. Anno Dom. 1637.   

TO THE FAMOUS, ALTHOUGH NOW DEJECTED CITY OF WORCESTER,  
THE PLACE OF MY BIRTH and first breeding; and the dwelling place of many my good friends & alliance, is this plain Sermon, since the Preaching revised and amplified, in humble manner dedicated; Health and all Blessings wished from the heart of the Author.   
1. KING. 8. v. 37.38.39 If there be in the land Famine, if there be Pestilence, Blasting, Mil-dew, Locust, or if there be Caterpillars; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoever Plague, whatsoever sickness there be, What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house; Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive!  

COme forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon (said King Solomon in his song chap: 3.11.) The daughters of Zion are the children and people of the Church: and unto you (Beloved) who are such, give me leave to say, Come and behold King Solomon. I might bespeak you as one of our Saviour's disciples did him Mark, 13.1. to behold the goodly buildings of the Temple which King Solomon founded: that, if you please you may behold in the chap. next but one before this; but let me bespeak you to behold and look over the excellent prayer which he made at the Dedication of that Temple, set down at large in this chap. and of which this my Text is part. King Solomon was a Preacher, so he saith himself: I the Preacher was King over Israel in Jerusalem. Eccles. 1.12. That King over Israel in jerusalem was a Preacher. We have reason to love and like Preaching the better for his sake. But I must tell you that the house which he built in jerusalem, was not to be called the house of Preaching, but the house of prayer. 
Math. 12.41.  It is written my house shall be called the house of prayer (said a greater than Solomon of it. Math. 21.13.) and so Solomon made it; He as it were seasoned it with prayer: and we may observe in this his prayer, how often he speaketh of prayer and supplication to be made in that house. 
V 30.33. etc.  They were the words of S. Paul. 1. Tim. 2.1. I exhort that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions be made for all men. First of all, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, before any thing else, in the very first place; which Solomon did in this place; and that for all men, as there should be occasion, and when they should be in any adversity and affliction. When there should be in the land Famine, occasioned by Blasting, Mil-dew, Locust, and Caterpillar, spoiling and devouring the grain and grass, and fruits of the ground; or by Enemies besieging the people in the land of their cities. When (I say) there should be Famine, and War in the land, and that which is now in this land, Pestilence, Plague, and sickness. Now, blessed be God for it, we may make an If of it, and say, If there be in the land famine, if there be blasting, mil-dew etc. and if there be Enemies besieging etc. for this our land is pestered with none of these. But we cannot fitly say, If there be Pestilence, Plague, and sickness: for we know and hear how it is in diverse places of the land. And in this place, this city, we know what 
* The spotted fever, the forerunner of a fare greater mortality this year.  sickness hath been this year, and is still, and taketh many of our good friends away. God Almighty who hath sent these, send them away again in his good time!  
And therefore now let me wave those o●●er, viz. Famine, Blasting &c. there being no occasion of complaining of them; whereupon I may forbear speaking of them. Only we have reason to pray, that there may be no occasion of complaining of any of them hereafter, as there is now of that other, the Pestilence: by reason of which this text of mine is very seasonable; I pray God make my sermon upon it as profitable!  
Which Text, you see, is very large, and of which you perceive, that much might being made: and therefore you must give me leave with that Abbreviator of the Roman History, 
Rufus ●e●●us.  morem sequi calculonum, qui ingentes summas aeris brevioribus exprimunt: to do as accountants use to do, who make a few counters stand for great sums of coin. In my present handling this Text, I shall pick out only a few things to pitch upon. And they are these.  
First, I shall speak of that which occasioned the choice of it; Pestilence in the land.  
Secondly, of that which hath occasioned the Pestilence to be in the land: which I gather from the words, the Plague of a man's own heart. The Plague of the hearts of men, I shall show to be the cause of the Plague in the land.  
Thirdly, I shall show what course is to be taken, when there is in the land Pestilence, Plague etc. and that is twofold.  
First, that every man ought to study to know the Plague of his own heart. And next, that God's people are to make prayer and supplication unto him in his house, and there to spread forth their hands.  
This is all that I shall do. And this while I shall do briefly, and very plainly, I humbly crave Gods gracious assistance etc.  
It was the prediction of our blessed Saviour Mat. 24.7. there shall be Pestilence in diverse places. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many times and fits of Pestilence, many visitations by it. And that prediction we know and see to be fulfilled. And here my observation is this, that when there are Pestilences in diverse places, the Lord is angry with those places. In the Revelation of S. john chap. 16.1.2. we read of the vials of the wrath of God, one of which being by an Angel poured upon the earth, there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon men, and the noisome Pestilence. 
Vers. 3.  (As it is called Ps. 91.) This plague and grievous sickness (as we call it in our prayer) I may say is poured out of one of the vials of the wrath of God, by that destroying Angel of whom we read 2. Sam. 24. 
Vers. 16.  This the Lord himself calleth one of his four sore judgements Ezek. 14.21. a sore one indeed it may well be called, a noisome and grievous sore falling by it upon men (according to those words in the Revelation.) But to make what I said, and that my observation more manifest. The words of my text are, If there be in the land Pestilence. And the words of the Lord in the afore mentioned chapped. of Ezek. vers. 19 are, If I send a Pestilence into a land, and pour out my fury upon it. So that when the Lord sendeth a Pestilence into a land, he than poureth out his fury upon it. The wrath of the Lord & the Pestilence, his anger & fury, & that disease going and being put together in the same Prophet chap. 7.14.15. and jerem. 21.5.6. But you shall have further proof from examples. In the 11. of Nu. 33. it is said, that the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And chap. 16. 46. the words of Moses are, there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the Plague is begun. Again the Psalmist speaking of those Israelites, saith thus, They provoked the Lord to anger with their own inventions, & the Plague was great among them. Ps. 106.29. Once more: 2. Sam. 14.1. it is said, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and then, vers. 15. that the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Jsrael. Hence you see that still the Lord was angry when the Pestilence was sent abroad; and that this sickness hath been a heavy consequent of his heavy wrath and anger. And withal from the last cited place that it is of his sending, The Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel. Even as before I told you the words of the Lord in Ezekiel, If I send a pestilence into a land, and I have sent among you the Pestilence (saith he, Amos 4.10.) In Psal. 105.16. it is said, that he called for a Dearth upon the land: and in like manner I may say, that he calleth for 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in septuag. for the Lord sent a pestilence 2. Sam. 24.15. Vers. 9  a Death upon a land, and sendeth it, biddeth it go, and it goeth, come and it cometh, do this, and it doth it (as the Centurion said of himself and his soldiers, Math. 8.) The stormy wind fulfilleth his word, Ps. 148.8. and so doth the stormy wind (as I may call it) of sickness and death; which as it were bloweth us away, it fulfilleth his word, his will and pleasure. Before him went the Pestilence (said the Prophet Habakuk. chapped 3.5.) it was ready at hand, when he would be pleased to call for it. And as it went before him, so it never went abroad but from him: making use of Laban's words Gen. 24.50. I may say, that this thing proceedeth from the Lord. In the first of Samuel chap. 6.9. the Philistines being plagued with emrod's, the Priests and the diviners talked of a Chance that might happen unto them; If (said they) the Ark of God goeth not such a way, than we shall know, that it is not his hand that smote us, it was a Chance that happened to us. But we being now plagued must know that it is not a chance that hath happened unto us, but that it is his hand that hath smitten us. 
Vers. 19  As the Magicians of Egypt Exod. 8. said of the dust turned to louse, This is the finger of God: So may we say of the pestilence, that this is the hand of God: and that we may perceive by the words of God himself thus threatening Pharaoh, now I will stretch out mine hand▪ that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence Exod. 9.15. And we know how David accounted of it when he made choice of it, saying, Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord. 2. Sam. 24.14. Answerably in the last Proclamation for the Fast, it is acknowledged & pronounced to be the immediate hand of God. Yea, it is a sword in that hand, the sword of the Lord, the Pestilence, is the language 1. Chron. 21.12. where is the same story with▪ that 2. Sam. 24. Which sword (to use the words of David. 2. Sam. 11.25. devoureth one as well as another, as well rich as poor, young as old, where it lighteth and hitteth; and of which we may say, as the same David did of the sword of Saul, that from the blood of the slain it returneth not empty. Chap. 1.22. If I whet my glittering sword, my sword shall devour flesh (saith the Lord, in the Song dictated unto Moses, Deut. 41.42.) Oh! what a world of flesh hath this sword devoured? 
1. Sam. 15.33.  How many Women (as Samuel said unto Agag) hath this sword made childless? In the holy story what do we read of? fourteen thousand and seven hundred Numb. 16.49. but there is a greater number in the same book, viz. twenty and four thousand Chap. 
1. Cor. 10.8.  25.9. and that (as S. Paul saith) in one day. But we hear of a fare greater sum yet; even seventy thousand men, and that in three days space (some have thought less than one day) 2. Sam. 24.15. All these in all, a hundred and eight thousand, and seven hundred, among the Lord's people Israel, as they are called in the Text. In the Histories of other nations we find most strange reports. To tell you some of them, 
Pet. Forestus. de febr. pestilent.  and concerning some great cities. As Venice, in which in one plague time (as a learned Physician hath reported) died sexaginta medici, no fewer than threescore Physicians, who were not able to do themselves any good. And Constantinople, in which the Plague hath been very frequent, and is said to have taken away a matter of two hundred thousand in a year. 
Henr. Blount. in his voyage into the Levant. pag. 44.  But the greatest Plague that I ever heard of from one place, was that at Grand-Cairo in Egypt, in which not many years since (as a late worthy Traveller who was told it there, hath told us) were swept away in one year eighteen hundred thousand & odd. And here I think upon that which is reported of that mighty Persian Emperor Xerxes, 
Herodot. lib. 7.  who having gathered together as huge an army as (I think) ever before any had done, and having gotten to be seventeen hundred thousand strong, viewing upon a time all that company, being together, broke forth into tears upon this consideration; that within the space of one hundred years not one man of so many hundred thousand would be left alive, 
Epist. lib. 3. ep. 7.  and (as Pliny saith) quòd tot millibu● tam brevis immineret occasus, so great a number should last so little a time. Upon the consideration of those eighteen hundred thousand (one hundred thousand more than in that army) I cannot but say this; Good Lord! that in so short a space, not of one hundred, but of one year, not one man of so many hundred thousand should be left alive; and that so great a number in so little time should be cut of. To leave other countries, and to come home, to our own land, I cannot but here speak of that most heavy and extreme plague in the twenty third year of King Edward the third AN. DOM. 1349. of which I may say as it is said of the hail in Egypt, Exod. 9.24. that it was very grievous, such as there was none like it in all this land, since it became a Nation. When (as the words of our Historian are) vix vivi potuerunt mortuos sepelire, 
Tho: Wa●singham.  there were hardly enough left alive to bury the dead: and the opinion of many was, quòd vix decima pars hominum fuisset relitcta ad vitam, that scarce a tenth, one in ten of people was left alive. judge of it, by what I shall tell you out of our writers from but two or three places. And first of all our greatest city (than not near so great as now) London; 
Stow.  in which the Churches and Churchyards being so filled that they could receive no more, a new burying place (there where now the great hospital is) was purchased and hallowed, 
The .  and therein more than fifty thousand persons laid and interred in the afore-named year. In which in another city, viz. Norwich, in the space of six months, even from january the first, to the first of july, the relation is, that there died fifty sven thousand a hundred & four persons, besides 
* In quibusdam Religiosorum domibus, de viginti vix supererant tantum duo. Walsing. vid. Stow. in Annal.  religious persons. And having told this of Norwich, let me tell this too of one Town in Norfolk, Yarmouth, in which is but one Church, & yet at that time (as a Table hanging in that Church hath witnessed) seven thousand fifty and two were there taken away. But to come to later times, and fresher memory: let me speak of London again, and to say nothing of the present condition of it, of which we have weekly notice, give me leave only to reflect upon that dismal time there about an eleven years since, in which above twenty thousand Families got them gone, escaping for their lives, (as the Angel said unto Lot, 
Vers. 17.  Gen. 19) and (as it is said of the Levite, 
Vers. 8.  judg. 17.) departing to sojourn where they could find a place. And yet notwithstanding so many leaving that place, died of the Plague four thousand four hundred threescore and three in one week. I here think of the words of Samson, when he slew so many at one time, judg. 15.16. heaps upon heaps! At that time there were heaps of Carcases one lying upon another, like dead bones in a Charnel-house, and in that valley whither Ezekiel was carried, chap. 37.1. Thus (beloved) you see how the Pestilence, although it walketh in darkness, yet it destroyeth in the noonday, and then maketh thousands, and ten thousands to fall, Ps. 91.6.7. It walketh in darkness invisibly, we cannot see the coming of it: like the Prince of darkness, 
Vers. 7.  job. 1. it walketh up and down in the earth, from City to City, from place to place. It walketh (I say) yea more, it flieth, it being the arrow that flieth by day, as well as that walketh in darkness, Ps. 91.5. And that flying Roll, which the Prophet Zacharie saw, chap. 5.1. and of which vers. 3. thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I will bring it forth, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it. Many have been the houses, and households, which this sickness, being once in the midst of them, hath consumed. In the 12. chap. of Exodus v. 30. we read, that in that great slaughter, of the first borne in Egypt, there was not a house where there was not one dead. But we have heard of divers houses infected, in which have been all dead, not one left alive. As the Egyptians at that time said, we be all dead, 
Vers. 33.  so have had many in many houses cause to say: for as the Lord threatened by his Prophet Amos thus, chap. 6.9. It shall come to pass if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall dye; so may I apply, and say, it hath come to pass, if there remained ten in one house, that they have all died. O the heavy hand! O the cruel sword of God Almighty, and of his destroying Angel! O the deadly Arrows of his quiver, the poison whereof drinketh up the spirits of men (to speak with job, chap. 6.4.) Well might Moses say, 
V 7.9.  Ps. 90. We consume away in thy displeasure, and when thou art angry all our days are gone: and fitly may we say Thou in thine indignation hast stricken us with grievous sickness, and by and by, 
In the Psalm in the book for the fast.  we have fallen, as leaves beaten down with a vehement wind.  
But it is now high time to strike upon another string, and to come unto what I proposed in the second place, viz. The cause of the Pestilence in the land, which I said, is the Plague of the hearts of men etc.  
The Mariners in jonah, in that mighty tempest desired to know for whose cause that evil was upon them, chap. 1.7. being persuaded, although being heathens, that there was a cause for it extraordinary. And (Beloved) when such an evil as this, malum poenae, an evil of punishment is upon us, it is good and fit to search, that we may know for whose, and what cause it is. S. Paul 1. Ep. 11 30. told the Corinthians, that among them many were weak, and sickly, and that many slept, and died. But there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cause for it; for this cause (saith he) namely, for their evil carriage, and condition when they came to the Lords Supper. When the Son of the Widow of Zaraphath was dead, what were her words unto the Prophet? O thou man of God art thou come to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 1. King. 17.18. She took her sin to be the cause of the death of her Son; and I may truly pronounce that which she spoke of, to be the cause of the death, and slaughter of so many sons of men. I may use the words of Solomon, and most fitly say of the Harlot Sin, that she hath cast down many wounded, yea many strong men have been slain by her. Prov. 7.26. It is worth the observing, what you may find, 1. King. 16. concerning that wicked king Zimri, who burned a house over him self with fire and died: But what was the cause of such his death? It is plainly said there, that he died for his sins which he sinned, etc. ver. 18.19. In the pot of sin there is death. Thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin, 
2. King. 4.40.  and makest his beauty to consume away, etc. (said David unto the Lord, Ps. 39.12. And I will make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins, (said the Lord, Micah. 6.13.) As the Lord answered David, when he enquired concerning the three year's famine; It is for Saul, and for his bloody house. 2. Sam. 21.1: So if any inquire concerning this, and other year's sickness, and mortality, and what may be the true cause of it, it may be answered in like manner: It is for sin, and for its bloody house: which bloody house, is that which my text speaketh of, a man's own heart, in which a man's spiritual part lieth, and in which the Plague of sin hath its seat and residence. Of which part we may say most truly, what Tertullus did of S. Paul most maliciously, that we have found it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Plague: Act. 24.5. And as S. Peter did of Simon Magus, chap. 8.23. that we perceive it to be in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. What bitter waters issue from this fountain, how much iniquity, and how many Plagues are in this part, the heart of man, our Saviour hath told us at large, whose words are, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all which evil things (saith he) defile and infect a man, Mark. 7.21.22.23. This is that inward part, of which, speaking to the Pharises, he saith, that it is full of ravening and wickedness, Luk. 11.39. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart, 
1. King. 4.29.  (saith he who had so large a heart. Eccl. 9.3.) And how can it choose; when Satan many times filleth it, (as S. Peter said to Ananias Act. 5.3.) this being the house, out of which the unclean spirit came, and said he would return into again, entering in, and dwelling there, (according to our Saviour's words, Mat. 12.) Satan thus filling it, 
V 44 45.  and that unclean spirit dwelling in this house, it becometh like the giant Augaeus his stable, full of unsavoury matter, and as S. james saith of the tongue, chapt. 3.8. an evil, full of deadly poison. Of the deadly poison and venom of sin, which infecteth a man, yea undoeth him; and by reason of which many a man may cry out with the Prophet Jsai. ch. 6.5. & say, Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips! Sin is the Plague of the heart, and the cause of the plague in the land. Men have had this plague in their hearts, the plague of pride and haughtiness: the plague of envy and malice: the plague of covetousness, and inordinate desires: the plague of cruelty, of hypocrisy, and the like: They have had it in their mouths, 
Luk. 6.45.  speaking of the abundance of the heart, wishing a plague and pestilence, one upon another; and now it is come home unto them, they have it in their houses. I told you before the word of Tertullus the Orator, calling S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a plague: and I remember the words of that pander Sannio in the Comedy, saying of himself, 
Terent in Adelph.  ego sum pestis, I am one that am a plague; and I may say that men have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, plagues infecting one another, with the plague, and contagion of sin; and now they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, plagues to one another, in infecting one another with the disease, and Contagion of the plague. Men have sat in cathedra Pestilentiae, in the chair of Pestilence, according to the phrase in the vulgar Translation, Psal. 1.1. And now they sit, in domo Pestilentiae, in a Pest-house. Men have kept ill company, and therefore they are now kept from company: Men have not feared God, and therefore God hath made men to fear men. Men have been sick of sin, 
Ephes. 2.1.  and dead in it, and therefore are so many now sick, and dead of this sickness. Our sins which the Prophet Jsai. ch. 1.6. calleth putrifying sores, have caused so many putrifying sores to break out. Our sins as red as scarlet, (according to the words of the same Prophet, 
Vers. 18.  in the same chapped.) have made the red, and scarlet spots so common. Our proud flesh hath caused the Lord to use this sickness as a corrosive, to eat it away, and to make it eat, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as doth a canker, or gangrene, (to use S. Paul's words in another case, 2. Tim. 2. 
V 17. Rom. 13.12. Psal. 88.5. ) Our works of darkness have brought among us the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and which sendeth so many to the place of darkness. Our sins have increased, and therefore hath this disease increased. Hear, and think upon the words of the Lord unto Israel, jerem. 30. I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one; for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased. v. 15. What shall I say? As David saith, Ps. 107.34. A fruitful land the Lord maketh barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein: So may I say, a full Land, a full City, he maketh empty, for the wicknednesse of them that dwell therein. Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside-down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. etc. and why? because they have transgressed the laws etc. Isai. 24.1.5. To be brief; as the Lord saith concerning jerusalem, Ezek. 14.22. Ye shall know that I have not done without cause, all that I have done in it: So must we know and be assured, that what he hath now done unto us, and in this Land, he hath not done without good cause: with which cause it is time to have done, and I have. Only as Quintilian having told of his many losses, saith thus; 
Institut. l. 6. in Proaem.  Non sum ambitiosus in malis, nec augere lacrymaruncausas volo, uti namque esset ratio minuendi! So let me say, I take no pleasure here in aggravating this cause, or in making things more or worse, I wish rather there were cause for the contrary. The time passeth, and I now pass to the third thing, which I said I would show, viz. what course is to be taken when there is in the land Pestilence, Plague, etc. which I shall do as briefly as I may.  
In the beginning of my last part I told you of the mariners in jonah, how they desired to know for whose cause that evil which they suffered was upon them: Let me now tell you other words of theirs unto jonah, ver. 11. What shall we do that the sea may be calm unto us? In like manner it concerneth us to talk of, and to take a course, to advise what is best to be done, and to do our best, that the sea (as I may say) of this sickness may be calm, the storm of it be blown away, and a serenity ensue. And here let me turn you to an excellent place, than which, none sitteth our turns better; you have it Lamentations, chap, 3. v. 39.40.41. Wherefore (saith the Prophet) doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways: Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God, in the heavens. Living men when they are punished, are apt to complain, 
job. 1.22.  and murmur, yea, to charge God foolishly, and with Jonah, to be angry, 
ch. 4.9.  even unto death: but wherefore (saith jeremy) doth a man so? he doth but suffer justly, it is but the punishment of his sins. But to complain and murmur is not the way, and course to be taken; to do so, will do no good, but hurt: the best thing we can do, is to search and try our ways: to lift up our heart, with our hands, unto God in the heavens. Which words you perceive how well they do answer those in my Text, and that which at the first I told you from them, when I observed the course, etc. which, I told you is twofold.  
First, that every man ought to study to know the Plague of his own heart.  
And next, that God's people are to make prayers, and supplications unto him, in his house, & there to spread forth their hands.  
Of which, one after the other, let me speak. And here let me come in again with the words of the Prophet Jeremy, let us search and try our ways: search for the Plague of our own hearts, that we may know it, as David said he did, Ps. 77.6. I (saith he) common with my own heart, & my spirit made diligent search; & as that woman did, Luk. 15.8. who swept the house, & sought diligently for her lost piece. Venena non desunt sed torpent, (saith Seneca) poison doth sometimes lie still, and as it were asleep: and the plague, we know in some houses lurketh, and lieth dormant a great while before it breaketh out, and is plainly known: and so doth the plague of sin in the heart of man; which heart (saith the Lord jerem, 17.9.) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? what man can know the heart of another man? and one man is loath that another should know the deceitfulness, and desperate wickedness of his heart. Even as we have known some who have known the plague to have been in their houses, and yet would not be known of it, would not acknowledge it till needs they must, being not able to smother it any longer. In like manner there are many who know a plague to be in their own heart but they will not acknowledge it, like Gehazi, 2. King. 5, 25. and like Ananias, and Saphira, Act. 5.8. they cover their transgressions as Adam by hiding their iniquity in their bosom, to speak with job. ch. 31.33. even as it is said of an adulterous woman, Prov. 30, 20. that she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. I said before what the Lord said concerning the deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart Who can know it? but I may here say, who will know it? I mean that of his own heart: that of another man's heart many are most willing to know, and with Momus in Lucian they would fain have a window made that they might see and know it: But the deceitfulness, and desperate wickedness, the Plague of his own heart (I say) who will know it? Men might know it, if they did but take the care and course to know it; that that David did, whose words you heard before I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search. Or if they would do as Seneca said he did, 
De Ira l. 3. cap. 36.  whose words are; quotidiè apud me causam dico, totum diem mecum scrutor, facta ac dicta mea remetior, nihil mihi ipse abscondo, nihil transeo. Every day I have a pleading with myself: when the day is passed, I examine myself how I have passed it away; I repeat with myself all that I have said and done, I conceal nothing from myself, I leave nothing unthought of: and such a course he that is a good and wise man indeed useth to take, as the Poet saith in his Character of such a one judex ipse sui totum se explorat ad unguen. 
Virgil  He judgeth, and searcheth, and sifteth himself throughly and perfectly. But alas! as the Prophet Hosea saith of Ephraim Ch. 7.9. grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not: and as it is said of the Church of Laodicea Revel. 3.17. that she knew not that she was wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: So may it be said of many that they will not know, will not be sensible of how it is with them, and of what is within them, the Plague of their own hearts; Suis quisque malis blanditur: men are apt to soothe themselves in their evil ways: even as David speaketh of the ungodly that he flattereth himself in his own eyes. Ps. 36.2. even as did that Church of Laodicea, of which I told you even now, who when she was in that taking as you heard, yet said, that she was rich, and had need of nothing. It is a most true saying of Seneca, 
Epist. 116.  Plerique student magis excusare vitia quam excutere: it is the study of too many rather to excuse, then to give over their vices: and it was the complaint of the Poet.   nemo in sese tentat descendere nemo. 
Pers. sat. 4.  
No man goeth down into himself, no man soundeth the bottom of himself; even as the Prophet jeremy, speaking of the wickedness of the people, complained and said, that he harkened, but no man repent him of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Chap. 8.6. But enough of this, I will not enlarge upon these complaints. Having told you the complaint of one Poet, let me now tell you the counsel and advise of another— teipsum 
Concute, 
Horat. Serm. lib. 1. Sat. 3.  num qua tibi vitiorum inseverit olim  
Natura, aut etiam consuetudo mala.  Shake thyself, search thyself whether or no nature, or evil custom hath sown into thee any vices. Shake thyself: do as they do who hav● to do with  and stuff in infected houses, who shake, and move, and stir them, to get out of them the infection: or, as was enjoined to be done in a leprous house, which was to be scraped within round about, Levit. 14. 41. Search thyself I say. Let us search our ways (once again to tell you the advise of the Prophet.) In the times of plague, we know there are searchers who have experience, and can judge of the disease: Let us (Beloved) be our own searchers, searchers of ourselves, such a one as David was, who said (as I said once and again before) my spirit made diligent search; & search he made about his heart, communing (as his words are) with his own heart: by doing which he came to know the plague of his own heart, saying, Ps. 51.3. I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me, praying in that Psalm thus, Create in me a clean heart O God, 
V 10.  He knew his heart had been foul, and had need of cleansing, and therefore prayed for it, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me etc. wash me throughly from mine iniquity, 
V 7. 2. Ps. 19.12.  and cleanse me from my sin. O cleanse thou me from my secret faults. But to make short: Let my exhortation be that of the Prophet Jsai. ch. 1. ●6. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, and that of S. james ch. 4.8. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded and to make use of the words, Ezek. 20.43. Let us remember our ways, and all our doings, wherein we have been defiled, and loath our selves in our own sight, for all our evils that we have committed!  
There is one thing more you know which I must needs say something of, but now can say but little, which is concerning prayer and supplication to be made by God's people. etc.  
They are the words of S. james, in his last chap. 14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him. Is any infectious & contagious sickness among us? Let me say too, let the Elders of the Church, the Ministers, be called unto, and upon, and they must pray for the people: according to the advice, joel. 2.16.17. (being part of the Epistle for the Fastday.) Gather the people, assemble the Elders, let the Priests, the Ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch, and the Altar, and let them say; Spare thy people O Lord etc. and as Pharaoh called for Moses, and Aaron, who were Priests, (for Moses and Aaron among his Priests, Ps. 99.6. and said entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death, Exod. 10.16.17: So it is the part and duty of the Priests, and Ministers especially, to entreat the Lord God, that he would take away from the people this death and Plague; and this they must do, according to my Text, in his house, his holy places, and Temples. As David said, 
Ps. 68.33.  Ps. 42.8. that he went with the multitude into the house of God, so the Priest and multitude of people, who are safe and free, must go together into the house of God, and there make prayer and supplication unto him; they must, as the same David said, that he, and the people would do, Ps. 132.7. go into his Tabernacle, and fall low on their knees before his footstool, and withal (according to my Text) spread forth their hands there, and as the same David exhorted, Ps. 134 2. lift up their hands in the Sanctuary: their hands, as david's were, 
V 6.  Ps. 26. being washed in Innocency, before they with him go to the Lords Altar, and with those hands the heart being lifted up, according to the words formerly cited, Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens, and thus with David, Ps. 5. coming into God's house upon the multitude of his mercies, & in his fear worshipping towards his holy Temple, both Priest & people may say with him, Ps. 48.8. We wait for thy loving kindness (O God) in the midst of thy Temple: and they may hope and be confident, that although (as David saith, Ps. 11.4.) the Lord's seat is in heaven, yet with all (as it is there) the Lord is in his holy Temple, that this Lord will (as the same David was assured he would his, Ps. 18.6.) hear their voice out of his holy Temple, and that their complaint shall come before him, and shall enter even into his ears, and that (according unto the prayer of Solomon, David's son in my Text) he will hear in heaven his dwelling place, and forgive. And as there must be public prayer in God's house, so ought there to be private in our own, and in our private rooms, according to our Saviour's advice, Mat. 6.6. Enter into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and according to the example of Daniel, who in his chamber, kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed. Dan. 6.10. Both public and private prayer are now enjoined by our Sovereign, and I trust it will prove a sovereign remedy for the occasion. Let me be bold and say, making use of our Saviour's words, Mat. 17.21. This kind, this kind of sickness will not go out of this land, but by prayer and fasting. We know what hath been the effect of prayer and supplication, and that at such a time as this. The Lord threatened to smite his people with the Pestilence, Moses besought him to pardon their iniquity, and the Lord presently said, 
V 12.19.20,  I bave pardoned according to thy word. Numb. 14. The Lord did smite them with the Pestilence, but when Phineas stood up and prayed, the plague ceased. (As we use to read it, Ps. 106.30. In that great Plague, in the time of King David, David and the Elders of Israel fell upon their faces, and prayed for the people, and called upon the Lord, and the Lord commanded the Angel, and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof, (as we may read 1 Chron. 
V 16.17.26.27. 2. King. 20.7.  21.) Once more, King Hezekiah was sick (as it is thought▪ and is probable) of the plague, and sick to the death, and he prayed unto the Lord, and he spoke unto him, and he gave him a sign (as it is 2. Chron. 32.24. And as we see hence what hath been the effect of prayer at such a time as this, so we are told what it shall be, and that by the Lord himself, and that too, answering this very petition of Solomon, which is my text: unto which you will find the Lords gracious answer, in the last mentioned book 2. Chron. 7. The Lord appeared, and said to Solomon, I have heard thy prayer, and if I send Pestilence among my people, if my people which is called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked waeyes; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land, v. 12.13.14 & from this Lord, his Prophet joel hath assured us that upon the humiliation of the people, upon the tears and Prayer of the priests, the Lord will be jealous for his land, and pity his people, chap. 2 17.18. and the prayer of faith of God's faithful people shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up &c. (saith S. james chapped 5.15.) and therefore (as he saith vers. 13.) Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. And let me say for those among us that are afflicted, let us pray; for it may be the case is so with some of them that they cannot pray for themselves. Pray for one another, that ye may be healed. (Saith the same Apostle in the same chapped. vers. 16.) It is the best office that one Christian can do for another, which S. Paul most frequently and earnestly desired might be done for him; and at the hands of those unto whom he wrote, begged for nothing more earnestly then for that, as do show those words of his unto the Romans, Now I beseech you brethren, for the Lord jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me! chapped. 15.30. And therefore, as he said unto the Hebrews, chap. 13, 19 I beseech you to do this: so let me beseech that this may be done, frequently, faithfully, humbly, hearty. Pray for thyself out of great necessity; For others out of Christian charity. Pray that thou mayst truly know the Plague of thine own heart: that God would cease it, in thy heart: and that he would cease and stop it in the land. Use the prayer of the prophet Habbakuk, in that chapped. where he speaketh of the Pestilence, ch. 3.2. O Lord in wrarth remember mercy! 
V 5.  that of the prophet Isai, chapped 64.9. Be not wrath very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever! behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people! That of the prophet Daniel, chapped 9.19. O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord hearken and do not defer for thine own sake, O God Or that of Solomon in my text, Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive! pray, that God would hear in H●●ven, his dwelling place, the prayers her● made upon Earth, his footstool: and that he would hear in heaven the prayers made in heaven for us upon the earth, ●● jesus Christ our Mediator, who ever liveth to make intercession for us; By th● blessed Saints, out of the altitude of their charity, the Church triumphant for the Church militant; By the souls under the Altar, who cry, and say, how long O Lord holy and true, O thou that hearest the prayers unto thee shall all flesh come. 
Ps. ●●  Now unto him that heareth the prayers, God the Father; to jesus Christ, God the Son, who prayeth for us; and to God the holy Ghost, be all Honour, etc.  
FINIS