AN ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION, HOW FARE IT IS LAW FULL TO FLEE IN THE TIME OF THE PLAGVE; Extracted out of a Sermon preached in Alderman-bury, by THOMAS TAYLOR. PROVERBS XXII. III. And hides himself. Quest. MAy a man, to hide himself from the Plague, for sake his place, his calling, and remove himself and his? Answ. M. Calvin answereth this question in one of his Epistles thus: A question riseth from the stupidity of men without sense of humanity, Whether we may not avoid the Plague? They would have no man change air, nor avoid contagious and poisoned places, nor delight in any pleasing prospect, etc. Facessant paradoxa hujusmodi, querum usus est nos exuere omni sensu. But, this answer being too short for such as desire to walk by rule, we must consider, first, the persons; secondly, the reasons; thirdly, the cautions; fourthly, the objections. First, public persons, whom, by virtue of their special calling, the Church, or Commonwealth, or the Family, cannot want, may not flee, unless they by others may competently supply their own absence. But private persons, whose Calling the Public may for a time want, may avoid the danger: for, Reason 1 First, all manifest perils ought to be avoided, if without impiety we can shun them. Psal. 91. It is lawful to avoid an arrow coming upon us; and not to avoid it if we can, makes us accessary to our own death. But this is an arrow coming on us, and by good means to be avoided: it cannot be less lawful, than to avoid fire, or sword, or poison. Reason 2 Secondly, God hath given us special commandment for the care & preservation of our own lives, & to use all good means of preservation, & hath sanctified preservatives & physic to this purpose. He that hath charged us with the care of our brethren's lives, much more hath charged us without own. Reason 3 Thirdly, David used many caves and hiding places: in a short time he fled from Saul into twelve several hiding places; To King Achis, to the King of Moab, and to the King of the Philistines, into the cave of Adullam, the Grove of Hareth, the Desert of Ziph, of Maon, of Engedi, of Paran, etc. Yea, Christ and his Disciples fled oftentimes from danger: and why not we till our hour also be come, that in the mean time we may be the more serviceable to God and his Church? Nay, God himself bids Elias go flee and hide himself from persecution by the Brook Cherith. He could have kept him safe from Ahab and jezabel without his fleeing, in the midst of them; but he teacheth us what godly men may do in the like cases. Ob. But this is to avoid the sword of man; but speaketh not of the Plague, the hand and sword of God. Answ. What we may pray the removal of, we may lawfully avoid: but David prayed the removal of the plague, 2 Sam. 24.1 Kings 8. If thou send a Plague and pestilence, and thy people pray in this house, then hear out of heaven, etc. Num. 16.48. So Aaron prayed, and stood between the living and dead, and the plague ceased. Reason 4 The fruit of faith is the use of such means, as which God hath appointed for the effecting of his own decrees; & the more faith, the more use of means: whereof this is one, Acts 27.31. Not to converse with the infected, and to departed from the infected place so far as salva conscientia & charitate we may. Paul believed none should perish in the ship, according to the word of God, yet must they not be saved unless they abide in the ship: for there must be shipmen to guide and govern the ship to land, as it came to pass. Thirdly, the cautions or conditions in fleeing the Plague. Caution 1 First, see no profaneness be in the flight, or impiety, as if we would or could avoid the hand of God: we must not intent to flee from God; for whither shall we flee from his presence? but first flee unto God. For as we must not neglect the means of our safety: so we must not trust in them, but in God's blessing, who must watch and hide, or else all comes to nought. Caution 2 Before thou avoid the effect of God's anger, see thou avoid the cause of it, and that is thine own sin: else can no dens, castles, or caves hide thee. john Baptist wisheth men, by fleeing the cause, to flee wrath to come: 2 King. 14.19. otherwise, Amaziah flees to Lachish; but death flees after him, and overtakes him, because he fled not from sin the cause of his misery. For it is not change of place, but of mind; not of bodies, but vices, which is the true refuge and sanctuary. In returning consider, that faith and repentance must be your rest. No, say they, we will flee upon horses. Esa. 30.15. Yea, but your enemy's horses shall be swifter than yours: no flight swift enough to save him that will carry his sins with him. The first step in fleeing, must be to flee thyself. Caution 3 In fleeing from infection, be sure thou be'st as beneficial absent as present, in things spiritual, temporal. 1. Fail not by sound humility and godly sorrow to bewail thy sins, which have provoked the wrath of God, and aswell absent as present seek to appease God, and avert his stroke from thyself and others. Even absent thou must put thyself into their misery, as one that hath provoked that displeasure. 2. Omit no duty of charity and beneficence: if thy person be removed, leave thy purse behind thee, & thy best help, as one that knowest thou art not loosed from the common law of neighbourhood; but art charged still to see no needful thing wanting to the poor and needy, whether sick or sound. Caution 4 In fleeing look to thine affections, that no excessive fear of death move thee: for thou must still keep a desire to be dissolved, and stand as Sarah in the door of the Tent to entertain that messenger, and be ready for death whensoever the hour is come: nor yet incredulity or weakness of faith force thee. But let faith lead thee forth, and let it be no loser. Noah by faith went into the Ark, and stayed, yea, till God led him out. Ob. 1 The plague is not contagious, nor comes from man; but an immediate hand of God, and so is not to be avoided. Answ. 1. It follows not, because it is the hand of God, that it is not contagious. Was not the leprosy a rod & scourge of God? and yet was it not infectious? 2. It follows not, because it is the hand of God, we must not use lawful means to avoid it: for so is famine, sword, fire, war, the hand of God; and yet who can deny we may use lawful means to avoid them all? Beside, it was the law of God most carefully to avoid the Leprosy, and not to come near persons infected? and why not the plague or other contagious diseases? Balaam's Ass, seeing the drawn sword of the Angel, will shun it. Ob. 2 But none can resist the providence of God. He hath numbered whom he will smite with the plague, and who shall not be touched: and none of them whom he hath appointed to fall, shall escape? Answ. 1. The providence of God, being the first cause, takes not away the second causes, but stablisheth them, because he stablisheth and executeth his decrees by means and second causes: and it were a tempting of God, to refuse the lawful and allowed means of preserving life, by which God ordinarily saveth whom he will save. 2. God indeed knows how many shall be smitten: and if we knew the secret will of God concerning ourselves, than were our wills to be surrendered to Gods will: and an heart affected with God's glory, will be readier for death than life, if God reveal to it, that to die is better than to live. But not knowing this, we are not loosed from the use of lawful means for the preservation of our lives, till we see our hour to be come. 3. God knows and hath decreed how many shall fall by the sword in war, and yet who will say it is unlawful to use weapons to defend ourselves, and fight for our lives? So God knows how many shall fall by famine, in time of dearth and scarcity: but is it therefore unlawful to buy food to preserve our lives? Did not he command jacob to go and buy food in Egypt, whom he could have preserved without means, but would not, because means were then, though far off. Ob. 3 But the plague is good to the good, so not to be avoided. Answ. It is not simply good neither. It is not good in itself, nor as a cause; but as an occasion of humility, repentance, fear of God: neither is it so, but by the work of the Spirit. But it will not follow, that it is not to be avoided. For our sins are occasionally good to humble us, and work in us fear of God, and yet are to be avoided. So all miseries are turned to good to the good, but yet we may lawfully avoid them. Ob. 4 But we have callings in which we must abide, and we have promise of protection while we are in our way, and therefore must not avoid them. Answ. We must abide in our callings, unless we be necessarily thrust out: but this is no willing desertion, but a suspending of the exercise of it for a greater and higher reason. For if for some occasions a man may leave his calling many months, as for health, profit, pleasure; much more to save his life. 2. We have promises to be kept in our way: but promises make not men slothful, nor foolishly rash and temerarious, to thrust themselves into probable and certain danger; for that is not our way. Ob. 5 But charity seeks not her own, but Gods, the Churches, and our neighbours: and by our flight or fear our brother may not perish for whom Christ died. Answ. 1. Charity seeks not itself wholly or only, but yet destroys not itself. Ordinary charity, in saving himself, seeketh God's glory, and the Churches good, and not himself only. 2. Charity so respecteth the sick, as the sound be not neglected: to comfort one, we may not hazard many; nor so look forth, as forgetting our own home. 3. Charity seeks the good of several persons, but so as it prefers the safety of the Universal. That is inordinate charity, when other good means may be used for the comfort of the afflicted: a man casts himself into manifest danger, and with himself, his family, if he be private, and the Church and Commonwealth, if he be public. This question was excellently beaten out between Zanchius and a godly pastor named Curiensis. This pastor held it unlawful to separate from the Infected, or to leave the places infected; and commended M. Bullinger, who being sent for by a woman infected, went to her, and brought home the infection into his family, and presently lost his wife and two daughters. Now M. Zanchie commended the charity of M. Bullinger, but did not altogether approve his fact, because the woman might have been otherwise comforted, than by his going to her bed side, and setteth down some directions, after long debating. That good pastor, being too venturous, was taken with the plague; and when he was near death, cried out, O utinam Zanchij consilium secutus essem, Would to God I had followed M. Zanchius his counsel. Quest. But is every prudent man hid from the evil, as this Text seemeth to say? Come not all things alike to all men? Doth not judgement begin sometimes at the house of God? and are not the godly wrapped sometimes in the common danger of sword, fire, plague? and who more afflicted than they? Answ. Godly men suffer evil with wicked men (for Abraham and jacob are in the famine with the Canaanites. The good Israelites as well as the bad are under the oppressions of the Egyptians. Caleb and joshua bore the sin of Israel forty years with the murmurers. Elias was afflicted in the hard times procured by Ahab and jeazhel,) but are ever hid. For, 1. Distinguish of punishments. Some are revenges; some, remedies, exercises of grace, virtues keepers, as Aquinas calleth them. The prudent are ever hid from the former: but it were not good to be free from the latter. 2. Distinguish of persons punished. Some are vessels of wrath, to whom even benefits are plagues: some are vessels of mercy, to whom all evils work to good. These are ever so far hid, as that the Lord never hides his face from them, but for a moment, but that to embrace them with everlasting compassion. 3. Distinguish the manner of hiding. The prudent cannot so hide himself, as to be free from feeling of trouble: but he is freed so, as that he shall not fall in them; or if he fall, God puts under his hand for a seasonable deliverance. But how are they that are slain with the sword, or die of the plague, delivered? Many are the troubles of the godly, and great: but the Lord delivers them out of all. But deliverance is threefold. 1. Some are delivered temporally, that others may see and praise GOD'S goodness, as Daniel from the den, the three children from fire, Ezechiah from the plague, that fathers might tell their children, etc. 2. Some proportionally; not by pulling them out of danger, but by pulling out the sting, and whatsoever is hurtful, and arming them with strength, patience, and sufficient grace, that in darkness they see light. 3. Some he delivereth eternally from danger, by suffering them to be overcome, and taken away by sword, plague, etc. and dealeth with his vessels of honour, as we with ours: which when we would scour the brightest, we oil, and soil, and foul them as if they would never be clean again. And as with his natural Son: he will not remove the cup, till he have drunk the last drop. Yet he leaves them not comfortless, but gives them by death freedom and victory over death and deadly things; that when they are slain, they are not overcome, but more than Conquerors. And one of these ways the Lord ever hides his Children. LONDON printed by T. P. for john Bartlet.