TWO PRECIOUS AND DIVINE ANTIDOTES against the Plague of Pestilence; or any other judgement incident unto us. Giving excellent Instructions and Comforts unto all that well use them in time of Need. The first prescribing holy Preservatives against this, or any other PLAGVE: Written by a Christian and charitable well-willer unto his Country. The second, Setting down sweet Consolations for such as be visited by the Plague: Written by a famous, learned, and faithful Pastor, unto some of his flock in the time of their visitation. LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL NEWBERRY. 1625. An Antidote against the Plague, or any other judgement incident to this NATION. IT is said of Laish, that they judg. 18. were a secure people and dwelled careless: poor silly souls, they never dreamt of any harm, till the besom of destruction came and swept them all away. It is said likewise of the old world; that they Mat. 24. 38. eat, they drank, they married and were given in marriage; they gave themselves wholly to iovialitie and mirth, living so here as if they should have lived here for ever; never considering, that the rejoicing of the wicked is short, and the joy job. 20. 5. job. 21. 13. of hypocrites is but for a moment; That they spend their days in mirth and jollity and suddenly go down to the grave: they lay in a dead sleep, drowned in a deep security, till a fearful Gen. 7. and universal Deluge came out from the Lord, and drowned them all: only waking Noah was wonderfully preserved in the Ark. I would I could not say of our Nation as it was said of Laish: we are a secure and careless people; I would these Scriptures were not this day fulfilled in our ears; but alas it is more than manifest, we are a Nation drowned in security; this is the fruit of our long prosperity; we are at ease in Zion, we sit every man under his own vine and under his fig tree, therefore we sing a Requiem unto our souls, and say, We shall have peace though we walk after our own lusts; we shall never be moved: Soul take Luk. 12. 19 20 thy rest, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, and take thy pleasure, let thy heart cheer thee, be jovial and merry; but alas poor souls they never consider, that this night their souls shall be taken away from them; That for all these things the Lord will bring them to judgement; they Eccles. 11. 9 put fare from them the evil day. But in this sleepy and drowsy age, I doubt not but there be some waking Noah's, who if they cannot prevail for others, yet at least build an Ark for the safety of their own souls: in this cold and frozen age, doubtless there be some zealous Moysesses, who stand in the gap between God and his people, and hold God's hand from smiting by their uncessant prayers: though Egypt be full of darkness, yet there is some light in Goshen; some that shine as lights though the whole world lie in darkness: though the world be full of folly and the most part run on as fools, and are punished, yet questionless there be some prudent men that learn to foresee the evil to come and hide themselves. Prov. 22. 3. God hath given to this Nation of ours many a fair warning, as loath to smite, till needs he must: he hath sent his Ministers early and late to thunder in our ears; yet except we do repent, we shall all likewise perish, judgement will come: he hath set our neighbour's house on fire as a beacon to give us warning, I mean, the judgements that have befallen our brethren beyond the Seas: he hath sent many small judgements before, as forerunners of that great one to come; as little gunshots before the great murdering piece: It hath been told us before, that if we repent not God would do such a thing in England, that whosoever should hear thereof, both his ears should tingle; thus the Cocks crowed before the storm, but we regarded it not: God hath now sent a fearful plague amongst us as another warning more heavy than the former, and if this cannot move us to repent, we may still look for heavier, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it; I will yet punish them Levit. 26. seven times more, and if that will not do seven times more; the Lord will not cease to smite, so long as we cease not to sin; he hath more scourges than one; if the present Plague will not do, famine shall, if famine will not do, the sword shall utterly cut us off from being a Nation. I beseech ye my brethren consider it, even with tears I beseech ye: what a woeful spectacle will it be to see our streets swim with the blood of us all, to see our women ravished, and their little infants dashed against the stones; to see the cursed and abominable Mass set up in our Churches, to see all turned topsie turvie, upside down; whose heart doth not yearn and even melt within him, to think on these things: oh consider the fearful desolation that befell jerusalem: Lamentation the whole Book. and the grievous calamities comen upon our brethren beyond the Seas, they were God his people as well as we: oh that we could be warned by other men's harms. Quest. But what have I done (saith England) that such things as these should befall me. Answ. Behold, thou hast requited the Lord evil for good: God hath given thee the glorious light of his blessed Gospel to be Preached plentifully for threescore year together; he dispelled the mists and clouds of Popery and superstition, and caused this clear light to shine; he hath committed to thee his statutes and his covenants; he hath not dealt so with every Nation: he hath given thee many great and glorious deliverances, the like never heard of, especially those of the Gunpowder-Treason and Eighty-eight: then thou didst promise better obedience: he hath given thee long peace and quietness, no noise of War hath been heard in thy streets: he hath given thee plenty and prosperity, a land flowing with milk and honey, even all that heart can wish: he hath made thee even a Mirror and a Wonderment to the whole world for his manifold blessings. But how hast thou now requited thy God, O England? 1. with ignorance not only compelled but affected; Light is come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light: 2. with contempt of the Gospel, a crying bloody sin, a sin never heard of among the jews: 3. with Blasphemy of all sorts, swearing, forswearing, taking God his great and dreadful name in vain, nothing more rife even in the mouths of children that can but newly speak: 4. with profanation of the Sabbath, spending it in sports and idle pastimes. In thee is secretly committed that cursed sin of Idolatry: in thee is Atheism, drunkenness, rioting, feasting, when the Lord calls for fasting: in thee are disobedient to parents, contemners of authority, despisers of God his messengers, disdainers of equals; in thee are murderers, even Soule-murtherers; contentious persons, whoremongers, adulterers; in thee is Bribery, Oppression, Usury, Simony, fraud and cozenage; justice and Truth is perished from thy Land: in thee is lying, tale-bearing, false witness-bearing, covetousness, pride, idleness, fullness of bread, deep security, even all the sins of Sodom: in thee are many professors that make a show of godliness, but deny the power of it; in thee are Lukewarm Christians. These are the sins under which the Land groaneth; Dost thou thus requite thy God O foolish people? Shall we not think now that the Lord hath a Controversy with England? Shall I not visit for these things (saith the Lord)? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? Let me alone that I may destroy them at once. Hear O heavens, harken O earth, I have nourished up children, Isa. 1. 2. 3. and they have rebelled against me: the Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his master's crib, but my people have not known me (saith the Lord). Ah sinful Nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, why should they be smitten any more, they fall away more and more. I take no delight to upbraid mine own Nation, or to defile mine own nest; but for Zions sake I cannot hold my tongue: let me perish if I see my Country perish, and give them not warning. Wherefore I beseech ye my dear brethren (all true hearted Englishmen) in the bowels of Christ jesus, who died for us, and shed his own heart blood for us, as you regard your own souls, bodies, and estates; as ye wish and desire the peace and prosperity of this our Zion, dally with the Lord no longer, God will not be always mocked, turn now at the last unto the Lord with all your hearts; turn ye, oh turn ye, why will ye die? seek the Lord whilst he may be found, call upon him whilst he is near; draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Oh that I could even weep over this Land, as our Saviour did over jerusalem, and say: O England, England, thou that reiectest my Prophets, and despisest those that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered Luk. 13. 34. thee together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; wherefore thy house shall be left unto thee desolate: oh that thou wert therefore now wise yet in this thy day to consider those things that belong unto thy peace, lest at length they be hid from thine eyes. Woe to thee O England, Mat. 11. 21. if the great works which have been done in thee, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, in Sodom and Gomorrah, they had repent in sackcloth and ashes long ere this: And thou London, London, which art lifted up to heaven, for abundance 23. of spiritual means, shalt be brought as low as hell, except thou repent: wherefore I beseech ye again & again for Christ's his sake, for the Gospel's sake, for your countries' sake, for your own soul's sake be entreated; Repent, repent; Search, even search yourselves O nation not worthy to Zeph. 2. 1. be beloved, before the decree come forth, and ye be as chaff that passeth on a day: look into your lives, consider your ways, go apart, and seriously ask your souls; What have we done? Let your mirth be turned into mourning, your feasting Dan. 9 19 into fasting, weep and lament bitterly for your sins, cry mightily for mercy, even as for life and death; cease to do evil, learn to do well; wash you, make you clean, put away your sins from before God his eyes; rend your hearts and not your garments, amend and change your ways, bring forth fruits meet for repentance: that so ye may get the sword again into his sheath, which is already drawn out, and will give every one of us our death's wound, except we repent; and may quench that wrath which is already kindled, and will burn hotter and hotter, and never cease until it have utterly consumed us, if in time we quench it not by the tears of true repentance: wherefore now prepare to meet thy God, O England; It is more than high time to repent, defer no longer, if the last blow be once strucken, that is, cut it down, even utter desolation; there will then be left no place for repentance. Oh that I could therefore persuade you; but it is not I, it is the Lord that must do it; now Lord do thou persuade japheth; for we cannot: Turn thou us unto thee O Lord of hosts, make thy face to shine and we shall be saved; convert us unto thee, and we shall be converted, renew our days as of old; Lord thou longest for our conversion; thou standest waiting and crying; Wash thine heart, O England, wilt thou not be made clean; oh when jerem. 13. 27. will it once be? Lord cleanse thou us and we shall be cleansed; wash thou us and we shall be whiter than snow; cause us to come unto thee, why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear: O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay; Isay. 64. 8. thou art the Potter, we are the work of thine hands; oh destroy not the work of thine own hands; frame and fashion us, and make us such as thou wouldst have us to be: spare thy people, O God, spare thy people, and be jealous for thine inheritance, why shall the people say; Where is their God? O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord consider, and do it, defer not for thy name sake, for thy Christ's his sake, pity the desolations of thy Zion, of the City where thy name is called upon? Wilt thou O Lord, forsake for ever? Why is thy wrath thus hot against the sheep of thy pasture? Our sins indeed testify against us, that we are a rebellious & stiffnecked people, we lie down in our shame, and confusion covereth us; thou art righteous and just when thou judgest, but we are a perverse and froward generation; we would not hear when thou called'st, but stopped our ears, like the deaf Adder, therefore thou mayst now justly laugh at our Prov. 1. 26. 27 destruction, and mock when our fear cometh: but there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared, we beseech thee in wrath remember mercy, have mercy upon us according to the multitude of thy compassions, oh Lord save us or else we perish. Comfort us according to the days that thou hast afflicted us: Return O Lord, how long? and be pacified towards thy servants. Continue still to be our God, and let us be thy people; remove thy judgements which lie heavy upon us, and destroy us not utterly for thy name's sake: Make us all to turn to thee from the highest to the lowest by speedy and unfeigned repentance, that so thou mayst not utterly cut us off, even head and tail, root and branch, in one day; but mayst still delight to do us good, to multiply thy blessings upon us; and make us as worthy to be beloved in and through thy Son Christ jesus, that Son of thy love, as we have been for our long peace and prosperity of all the Nations of the earth admired: even so be it, Lord so be it. This is the first and general Remedy which a Nation must use for the removal and preventing not only of the Plague, but of any other judgement whatsoever; namely, true repentance, which stands in sorrow for sin, and reformation 2 Chron. 7. 13. 14. jerem. 18. 7. 8. Isa. 1. 19 20. jere. 14. 11. 12 of life. If ye consent and obey, ye shall eat the good fruits of the Land; but if ye refuse and be rebellious, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Now if so be I cannot prevail with the whole Land; then I turn to you that fear the Lord: I hope to have audience in your ears. If ye cannot prevail for others, yet make sure of your own souls; learn to hide yourselves, to build an Ark for the safety of you and yours. But ye will say, how may that be done? I answer. 1. If ye would not partake with the Plagues of the times, be not partakers of their sins. Come out of her my Revel. 18. 4. people (saith God) be ye not partakers of her sins, lest ye also be partakers of her glagues; if ye will needs sin with them, look to be plagued with them. Deut. 4. 3, 4. Those that went with others after Baal peor were destroyed, but those that cleaved to the Lord were kept alive. Zeph. 2. 3. Seek yet the Lord all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgement, seek righteousness, seek lowliness, if so be ye may be hid in the day of the Lord his wrath. The way to be hid in the day of the Lord his wrath, is to seek after lowliness, to carry ourselves meekly, and to walk humbly, the lowest shrubs are safest from storms; to seek after righteousness, to walk circumspectly, and warily, shunning the sins of the times, even more than the Plague itself; to keep our selves unspotted of the world, to save ourselves from this froward generation: the infection of sin is fare more dangerous than the infection of the Plague; that endangers the body only, this endangers soul and body for ever; how should we shun it therefore? How had we need to abstain from all appearance of evil, not only from the flesh, but from all the garments spotted with the flesh; the more wicked 1 Thes. 5. 22. jude. 23. the times grow, the more holy we should grow; the more iniquity abounds, & the love of many waxeth cold, the more blameless, and zealous in good duties we should strive to be: like bright orient stars, the deeper they go in the dark night, the brighter they shine: thus Noah shined in his generation. Though Egypt be full of darkness, yet let Goshen be light; though Israel play the harlot, yet let not judah sin. We are Christians, we profess our Hos. 4. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 14. 15. 16. 17. selves to be children of the light, let not us therefore have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them rather: let not fornication or any other uncleanness be once named amongst us; let not us defile our garments. Revel. 3. 4. 2. It is not sufficient that we partake not with the sins of the times, but we must mourn for the sins of the times; we must take a view of the abominations committed in Zion, and work our hearts to such a sorrow as may make our eyes to gush out rivers of tears, because men keep not God Psal. 119. 136. his law, than God will wonderfully preserve us: As he preserved just Lot out of Sodom, when it was consumed with fire 2 Pet. 2. 7. & brimstone from heaven, because his righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites. There was a mark set upon all the true Mourners in Zion, that when the Angel of the Lord came to smite, they might escape: so Ezek. 9 4. jeremy, because he wished his head a fountain of tears, jere. 9 1. that he might weep day and night for the sins of his people; see how the Lord preserved him alone when all the rest jere. 39 11. 12 were carried into Captivity: these things are written for our learning. 3. We must mourn for our own sins and labour to forsake them. It is said of josiah, that because his heart melted 2 King. 22. 19 20. at the Law read, both for his own sins and the sins of his people, and he humbled his soul before the Lord, that therefore he should be put to his grave in peace, and his eyes should not see the evil that God would bring upon the Land. So if like good josiah, our hearts even melt within us, and we humble our souls unfeignedly before the Lord for our sins, God will work wonderfully for us, and we shall find gracious experience of his goodness towards us: if God spared Ahab for his counterfeit humiliation, and would not 1 King 21. 27. 29. bring the evil in his days; how much more will he spare those that humble their souls before him in truth. And as we must grieve for our sins, so we must forsake our sins: he that hideth his sins shall not prosper, neither in soul nor body, he lieth open to all dangers; but he that confesseth and Pro. 28. 13. forsaketh them shall find mercy; God will be merciful to his soul, and preserve his body: He that walketh uprightly, walketh safely (saith Solomon:) he that laboureth to the uttermost of his power to clear himself from all sin, to purge his heart from all hollowness, not cherishng any one beloved sin, to be upright in his way; walking in all the Commandments of God without rebuke; such a man is a safe man, he is sure nothing can hurt him. It availeth nothing to burn juniper, to smell to Wormwood, to take somewhat in a morning, and to use many outward means against the Plague, so long as our souls are not severed from our sins; it is this inward uncleanness that is the cause of that outward, the Plague-soare of sin wherewith our souls are infected, causeth the Plague upon the body: sever your sins then from your souls if ever ye mean to keep the Plague from your bodies, say to these menstruous ; Get ye hence. Fourthly: We must trust in God for safety and deliverance; though we may use all good and lawful means, yet we must not rest in the means, but go to God for his blessing, and depend upon him for the success. The Lord Nahum. 1. 7. is good, and a strong hold in the day of trouble, he knows all those that trust in him; he knows, that is, he approves of them after an especial manner, He is a strong hold to such in the day of trouble. Psal. 33. 18. 19 Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, and upon them that trust in his mercy; to deliver their souls from death, & to preserve them in famine. Psal. 91. 1. and so forward: Who so dwelleth in the secret of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; I will say unto the Lord; O my hope and my fortress, he is my God, in him will I trust: surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the hunter, and from the noisome pestilence. He will cover thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in the night, nor of the Plague that destroyeth at noon day. Thousands shall fall beside thee, ten thousands at thy right hand, and yet it shall not come nigh thee. And why all this? Because thou hast said, the Lord Vers. 9 is my hope, and hast set the most High for thy refuge. Ye see then the wonderful safety of that man that makes God his confidence. The name of the Lord is a strong Tower, the righteous Prov. 18. 10. run unto it, and are exalted. Great is the safety then of righteous persons, of such as have gotten God to be their God in Christ, and stay their whole affiance in him; God will be unto them a Tower, a Castle, a rock of defence, a safe refuge to fly to in time of need. He will be their hiding jerem. 16. 19 place; He will keep them safely under his wings till Psal. 32. 7. the indignation be passed over. He hath an Ark for upright Noah, when he means to destroy with a universal Genes. 7. Deluge, an whole world of wicked ones. He hath a Zoar for righteous Lot, when he means to consume filthy Sodom Genes. 19 with fire and brimstone from heaven. For the Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of tentation, and to reserve 2 Pet. 2. 9 the wicked unto judgement. Therefore I conclude with that of David. Psal. 73. 28. It is good for me to hold me fast by God, and to put my trust in the Lord God: it is time for the chickens to run and shroud themselves under the wings of the hen, when the storm gins once to arise. 5. The fift and last remedy is, to betake ourselves to our prayers and tears, to cry mightily unto the Lord, to wrestle with him, as jacob did: this is that which holds God his hands from smiting: so long as Moses his hand is lifted up, Amalek cannot prevail. I beseech ye therefore all ye that wish well to this our Zion, pray for the peace of jerusalem: give the Lord no rest, but cry again and again, he love's to be importuned; the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, if it jam. 5. 16. be fervent: Pray, pray, pray therefore, cry and say: O Lord we know not what to do, only our eyes are up towards thee: what shall we say unto thee O thou preserver of men; we are even ashamed and confounded to lift up our eyes to heaven; we have sinned exceedingly, we, our Rulers and Governors, Prince, and people; we have all sinned; our sins are gone up as an heavy load, too heavy for us to bear; heaven and earth even groan under the burden of them, they cry mightily for vengeance, but hear the groans of thy servants, let their cries be louder in thine ears; hear the plead and intercessions of thine own son for us; his blood cries louder for mercy, than our sins can do for judgement, had it not been for that, we had all long ago perished, and been utterly consumed. O thou the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why art thou as a stranger in the land, as one that passeth by to tarry for a night? Why art thou as a man astonished, as a strong man that cannot help? jerem. 14. 8. 9 Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us, thy name is called upon us; forsake us not. Hast thou utterly rejected judah? Hath thy soul abhorred Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace, and behold no good; for health, and behold trouble: we acknowledge O Lord, our wickedness, and the wickedness of our fathers, we have all sinned: do not abhor us for thy name's sake; cast not down the throne of thy Glory; remember and break not thy covenant with us; we have no help but of thee, thou art our God, therefore save us; oh be favourable unto thy Zion, build thou the walls of jeresalem: Psal. 51. 18. so shall we praise thy name for ever, and teach all ages to keep praises for thee in store. Oh give salvation to thy people out of Zion; Psal. 53. 6. when thou shalt restore again the captivity of thy people, then shall I acob rejoice and Israel shall be glad. But if ye cannot prevail for others, yet at least air your own houses with daily and fervent prayers, and that will be a notable means to keep them from the present infection: or if it please God to lay it upon you notwithstanding ye have faithfully used all these means: then I dare boldly affirm, ye shall find greater refresh Psal. 94. 19 from God, than your affliction can afford you griefs: howsoever, it will but rid you out of a valley of 2 Cor. 1. 5. misery into everlasting glory. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things. FINIS. A Letter full of sweet Comforts for such as are visited by the PESTILENCE. GOD the Father of mercies, which hath so loved us to give his only Son for us before he gave us either children or ourselves, be merciful unto you my dear hearts in the Lord, Mr. A. and Mrs A. my bowels in the Lord: and so fill you with his superabundant grace, that you may say; It is good for me that I have been afflicted; The Lord Psal. 119. job. 1. hath given, the Lord hath taken, blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. Hearing of the Lords merciful visitation of you and yours, I was not a little affected; neither hath any particular loss since this hand of God hath been on the City, (though of friends and near kindred) more pierced my heart with grief than this of yours. Which seeing the Church, which hath called me to a public Ministry, permits me not in presence privately to signify, I beseech God to direct my pen to write somewhat for your comfortable application of God's correction to your soul's health. It had much affected me to see the succession of crosses in your imprisonment, your wife's long sickness, with manifold danger of life, etc. And on Thursday last I was very inquisitive of Mr. D. touching your wife and her delivery: for I had thought she had been sent into the country, because such is now the fashion, and her time of deliverance I thought had been expired long since. But I heard God had showed his power in her weakness, and gave her (which had long ago given the sentence of death upon herself) two children (which the Lord bless and make his own daughters and heirs) before I heard that God had smitten one of the former. He gave two before he would take one, and made her able to bear two at once, which in long time had been scarcely able to bear herself; that he might make his goodness and his power known. He I say, to show his goodness gave two for one; yea gave one for all, his own Son for ourselves, and for our sons and daughters: to purchase us to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. But 2. Cor. 6. he gave him first to suffer & then to reign, that he might lead the way to us; for the servant is not greater than his Lord: the son himself learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And he that made the world by his Word, was made a man for us, that he might suffer for us: Heb. 5. 3. in our nature fulfilled all the righteousness of God and yet suffered all the unrighteousness of men, even to that bitter, that shameful death of the Cross, which God himself had Gal. 3. 13. mystically cursed, and he was made a curse for us that we might be made heirs of blessedness. His Cross, figured in that tree cast into the bitter waters of Marah, takes away Exod. 15. 25. the curse from death and all afflictions in us and ours, and makes them sweet; doth season and sanctify them to us, and us to them. His presence doth still change water into joh. 2. wine, if we make him our chief guest: and (like Elisha's stick) makes the heaviest iron to swim, the heaviest heart, 2 King. 6. 6. Psal. 25. 1. job. 19 25. most cast down with sorrow, to sing, I lift my heart to thee. I know that my Redeemer liveth, made job to live in the midst of manifold deaths and spoils, and made him a gainer in & by all his losses. Though they assailed him all at once, and all the children and substance which he had gotten all his life before, were in one day taken from him, yet he lost not himself, by impatience; he blessed God which had given him himself, a gift that could not be lost; and as men in cold windy weather gird their garments closer to them, so he proceeded in courage, and said; Though he slay me yet job. 13. 15. Rom. 15. 4. will I trust in him. Th●se things are written for our learning, that thorough patience and comfort of the Scriptures we may have hope. Yea tribulation brings forth patience, patience experience, Rom. 5. 3. experience (of his deliverance from, or in, manifold troubles, as David's deliverance from the Bear and the Lion, 1 Sam. 17. made him bold on the Philistine) experience, I say, brings forth hope, even that hope which never makes ashamed. The Israelites were not in Canaan presently after their deliverance from Egypt, but walked thorough a tedious and irksome Wilderness, where was neither harvest, nor pasture, nor sweet waters, but their very food and raiment were miraculous provision. Yet did not God fail them, and hath promised never to fail nor forsake us: he which led Heb. 13. 5. them by a pillar of a cloud and fire, hath given us his word, to be with us to the end of the world. That history of the Israelites Mat. 28. 20. is a mystery of every true Israelite his living by faith, as it is often written, the Justice shall live by faith. We now are travellers thorough the Wilderness of the world to our heavenly Canaan, and for our spiritual life we find the world as cross as they did the Egyptians, Amalekites, and Amorites; our flesh is as distrustful as those which lusted for flesh in that desert, and the Devil watcheth all occasions to mutiny and rebellion: all that we see from our entering the red Sea till we be passed over jordan (from Baptism to death) is against us: yet our faith looks on him which is Heb. 11. 27. Heb. 11. 1. 1 joh. 5. 4. Ephe. 6. invisible, and is the evidence of things not seen. This is the victory that overcometh the world, this is the shield which quencheth the fiery darts of hell; to believe in Christ crucified, that God hath given him to us, and for us, and wtih him all things; this crucifieth the flesh, with all her distrustful lusts and imaginations; makes us deny ourselves, Mat. 16. 24. our wills, our understandings, husbands, wives, lives, live, all; and to say to God with David, lo we are here, do 2. Sam. 15. 26. with us as seemeth good in thine eyes. Should the Wheat say to the husbandman, why dost thou wound me with the sickle, why dost thou beat and bruise me with the flail, why dost thou grind me in the Mill, and put me after into the hot Oven? We are God's wheat, and before we can be manchet for the Lords Table, we must likewise pass troubles in the flesh. Yea it is comfortable to us, because God doth thus show himself our Father, and that he doth Heb. 12. 5. 7. 8. esteem us as sons, and not as bastards; for judgement here beginneth at God's house: he doth us conform us to his own 1 Pet. 4. 17. Rom. 8. 29. son Christ; he doth thus prepare us as soldiers by trainings and skirmishes to the battle with death itself, yea to the victory, to the crown; he doth thus show power in weakness, and makes us conquerors over sin and Satan. Neither do men sow their corn and seeds till the ground jere. 4. 3. Mat. 13. 22. be digged or ploughed, nor is God's seed like to be profitable till the fallow of our hearts be turned up by the plough or spade of affliction. Heaven will make amends for all, and the afflictions Rom. 8. 18. of this present life are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed. These light afflictions which endure but for a moment, work out unto us that fare most excellent and eternal weight of glory. Courage then, courage my hearts, comfort 2 Cor 4. 17. yourselves, your Captain Christ looks on and sees your sufferings and fightings in the flesh; nay he it is which thus trieth you: these crosses are his permission, yea his Commission, without which no plague can strike a stroke to the poorest sparrow, no not to the hairs of our head, all which are Mat. 10. 29. 30 numbered: yea he which striketh us or ours with his rod knoweth how to secure them that suffer and are tempted, having been tempted himself with greater sufferings: he was Heb. 2. vlt. Esa. 53. 4. 5. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 21. wounded and buised, and was made sin for us, before he would wound or buise us for our sins. Yea indeed all these blows are intended to the remainders of sin in us, not to ourselves, but that the spots of the soul may be drawn forth by these Plague-spots on the body, and the sinne-sores of the soul may run and be cut out of these bodily sores, that sin and death (if it proceed so fare) may be dead by that our bodily death (that the head of this Goliath may be cut off by his own sword, and death by death destroyed) and our souls may escape as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler, and may flee to their rest (not in the Tabernacle like David's Psal. 84. Luk. 16. 22. sparrow, but) in Gods own bosom. As Lazarus when none of Dives household would come at him, had Angels attending him to carry his soul into Abraham's bosom: so when fear and danger (this is part of this chastisement) prohibit others from us, he hath given his Angels a charge concerning us to convoy our souls to heaven, and mean while to guard Psal 91. 11. their unregarded bodies on earth. Lift up the eyes of your faith in belief of God's promises, & you shall see by faith, that which Elisha's servant did with bodily eyes, the City 2 King. 6. of London full of Charets and horses of fire round about every Elisha. God himself is the refuge of his servants, a house to Psal. 91. 1. them in this time of grace, a temple to them beyond all times in glory. Come Lord jesus to fetch and receive me to Apoc. 21. thyself, and come in what chariot it shall please thee, if in a chariot of fire as thou didst to Elias, or if in infected air by pestilent stroke; thou that triumphedst on the Cross, over death, hell, and the devil, canst triumph over my crosses, and by suffering canst make me triumph also over them all. Thy coming to me by this or any other sickness or death, is but my passage to come to thee: and to go to Christ and see him as he is, doth infinitely more than recompense Phil. 1. 21. 1 joh. 3. Rom. 8. 18. all the losses, rubs, and whatsoever irksomeness in the way and passage. And as for death, we and ours are vain and mortal, we die daily, our life is but a Candle which in shining burneth and wasteth itself. Me thinks it is better to have a summons, though by pestilential arrest, then to be dead whiles we live, as many are which are giddy and drunken with full cups of prosperity, or whiles 1. Tim. 5. 6. Pro. 1. 32. Luk. 12. Heb. 6. 10. we are singing, Soul take thine ease, suddenly to be snatched out of the world. God is not unfaithful to forget your freewill offerings lately to his poor members, he will reward it with a new grant as to Hezekiah in his pestilence with a new Esa. 38. term of life here; or which is best of all, with that life where no plague, nor Devil, nor sickness, nor death, nor Apoc. 21. cross, nor grievance, shall have possibility to annoy, where is fullness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand Psal. 16. for evermore, and those such, as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, where we shall drink of the River Psal. 36. 8. of his pleasures, etc. But I must end, though They do not. Your visitation hath not loft 〈…〉 gotten all these lines, and my daily and more fervent prayer for you and yours to him who is able to keep you that you fall not; Your loving Pastor, S. P. REad often Psal. 119. and 36. 37. 38. 39 40. 41. 42. and almost all of the Psalms. You have I think the Martyr book, read the Epistles of Bradford, Hooper, Philpot, and Careless: with innumerable others you have there also. Read often Heb. 11. & 12. & 13. and the story of Christ's passion. Esay from the forty Chap. to the end of that book, being full of sweet promises. Also the eight to the Rom. Pray, pray, pray, and cast all your care upon God for he careth 1 Pet. 5. 7. for you. With Peter agreeth Paul. Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. and 1. Cor. 11. 32. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. It is a short hell which we can have here, but our heaven will last for ever and ever. My poor love will scarcely suffer me to leave you, as you see by this long writing. But God is all love; he comes thus to build you, (that is to hue, saw, cut with the chisel and with all his crosse-tooles to frame you) to be a dwelling for himself, a temple for his spirit, a vine branch to his son, thus purged to bring forth more fruit. joh. 15. FINIS.