Hebrew Peace Offerings and Lamentations

PEACE-OFFERINGS AND LAMENTATIONS: BEING The Tears of a Compunctionated and Compassionate spirit, shed over the Pale and Consumptive Face of Heart-sick ENGLAND, issuing as from the bleeding Heart of a Son over his languishing Mother.

EXPREST In a LETTER to a Friend.

IF a Friend be born for Adversity, being brought forth into the World of Friendship, on purpose to live, and breath like himself in that Winter-season, when others die [and either are not, or else are unsavory] like to gaudy Flowers with the Summer of Prosperity; what may you promise yourself from me, who avow myself so perfectly your Friend in this day of Public and Common Calamity! If Friendship be but as it were in its Minority and Pupilage, whilst at Nurse in a prosperous day, then may it reasonably be expected, to exert some manly and virile expressions of its full Age, Growth and Strength, in the darkest of adverse Nights. It is but little that I am capable of, but my Love is not little [nor the less for wanting due expressive Capacities] having hardly any other Spheres to move in, save those of Prayer, and Exhortation; and there only through the reflection of the healing beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Marvel not then, if my Love in the Lord, like fire oven'd up in a narrow room, break out in the more flaming fervours of an enkindled zealousness, set on fire from Heaven.

Christian this Paper then by the Name [to which I hope its Nature will answer] of an Antidote against the present Plague, it being an Alexipharmacum against this Epidemical Pestilence, which marches like an armed Man, trampling upon, and triumphing in the Spoils of Thousands, Week after Week, as if it made Music to itself of the Groans of gasping Men and Women, whilst their Heart-strings crack, and burst, with the touches of its dreadful hand!

But woe is me, that the High way of my Discourse sies through Golgotha! what should I be, but Jeremiah rediviv'd, with mine head resolved into a Fountain, and mine eyes turned into rivers of tears, gushing out the imbittering sorrows of my Soul as through Flood-gates, never to be shut, till the slaying of the Daughter of our People is over!

Horror seizeth me, and Trembling possesseth me, as if I was plunged in a Gulf dugg in Aceldama, bankit with Magormizabib. Couldst thou be more astonishit, oh my Soul, or more painfully in Travel, if my Pen was carved of a Bone, snatchit out of the Grave, and dipt in Blood, ink-horn'd in an human Skull!

Let me show you, if I can for my heart, or if your eyes drop not out with weeping, to behold what the Plague is, then the Causes, then the Cure thereof, as also a Preservative there against, till the day of Healing shall break and dawn upon us.

If you would view this Leviathan, I cannot impaper you so lively a shadow of this Death, as you may see in a few Nights walks, after those heaps of Ca • kasses carried to their Pits, whose unpompous Funerals are sadly Solemnizated with the Sighs and Groans of those few left at home alive, as if it were but to die at the next Assault of the Generalissimo of the King of Terrors; but where all be swept away, how sad is that silence! that is a close mourning indeed.

I shall not define it; yet give me leave to show you its Nature in its Name, which is not miscall'd, either in its common Name Plague, nor yet in its proper Name Pestilence; out of the one, and the other, whereof we may spell instruction.

The Hebrew for Plague is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which properly signifies a stroke, or a scourging. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is a general word, and signifies any heavy stroke of God. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Percussit ad mortem. It is a stroke unto Death: And the Greek word Translated speaks the same English. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a stripe or wound, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Percutio, to strike, whence Plaga, and thence our English Plague. Every Plague is not the Pestilence, but every Pestilence is a Plague, and may be so called; not only because it is a stroke, or wound, but with an Emphasis it may be so phrased, as if no stroke were so much a stroke as the Plague, as we call it the Sickness; as if other Diseases were a kind of Health, compared thereto, and that alone the Sickness. So then a P • ague is a stroke from Heaven, which renders the blow more deadly, it being the lifting up, and letting down of an Almighty hand against a People. Let me also English the Hebrew for Pestilence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (1) A Pest, killing Men, or present Destruction, or Death. The Chaldee, and Septuagint, without more ado, call it Death, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and Thousands in England have had reason to call it by that dreadful name, as if the Prophet were hereby to be expounded, saving, Jer. 9 21. Death is come up into our windows. Some derive it from a word that signifies Order, because the Pestilence keeps Order sometimes, sparing none in its way, because Rich, or Poor; but as it keeps Order in one sense, it breaks Order in many more. Others derive it from a word that signifies to desert, because vast and populous Cities are made Desarts thereby; in Piel it signifies to overturn too properly, Multi Peste evertuntur; Trade, Life and all being overturned with the stroke of this hand. I find it inquired and left unresolved with an incertum est, why the same letters in Hebrew, which signify a word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signify also the Pestilence, which made me, under correction, to conjecture this for a Reason, because the Plague is the Voice of God when angry; and comes and goes at his word; he speaks but the word, and as Lightning the unquiver'd Arrow flies to its slaughter; and at his word, it returns to its Quiver again. In the Greek, Famines and Pestilences, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , come from the same Root, and bear the same fruit in all Languages (1) Death, rooting out the Sons of men from the Land of the Living; and in Matthew, as well as in one of the Poets, they are joined together, like Twins going hand in hand to kill and destroy. Sometimes I find the Plague in Scripture marching alone, and sometimes with its Fellow-Commissioners, the Sword and Famine on either hand, to ruinate and not to spare. And sometimes the Plague or Pestilence be markit with blacker Characters, and written with more great and capital Letters, then at other sometimes it is found; so it is called a very great Plague, Num. 11. and wonderful Plagues, Deut. 28. a noisesome Pestilence, Psal. 91. or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Peste contritionum. It is aggravated sometimes by seven times more Plagues, Levite. 26. and sometimes it is threatened without number, by All my Plagues, Exod. 9. sometimes it is shewn with special tokens on its bosom, being called Pestilence after the manner of Egypt, Amos 4.10. But the smallest Characters thereof do decipher Sin, and imprint Sorrow where they come. Under which stroke of our provoked Father, let us all write with penitential tears on the doors of our hearts, shut up against sin, and opened with strong cries, and fervent supplications, Lord have mercy upon us.

Have you not by this time seen enough [if the Lord pleased] yea too much, what the Plague is? Is it not high time to find the spring of this overflowing scourge, if it may possibly be, to stop it up?

And who will not conclude, that it is not more sure that there is a Plague in England, then that England 's Sin hath infected Her with the Pestilence? Thy Sickness, O England, is bred out of thy own Corruption, thou hast caught the Plague of thyself. That is, the Plague of our Houses, came from the Plague of our hearts. Whatever hand first brought it, God's hand sent it; and our sins have sent for it, crying aloud in the ears of his Jealousy, till his Displeasure awakened in Judgment, and found us out, and sin lying at our doors.

And you may read the Commonness of Sin, in the Commonness of the Calamity; and that Sin spread Generally, in that the Sickness spreads Epidemically. More indeed have fallen into Sin, than have fallen by the Plague; let us yet living, lay to heart that saying of our Lord, Luke 13.4, 5. on those Eight persons upon whom the Tower of Silo fell, and slew them, Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell ye Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Thou hast not hid thy Sin, O England, neither doth God hide his Judgments. Thou hast sinned openly, and God rebukes thee openly; he strikes thee not in secret; thou mayest run and read, or rather lie down and feel his Displeasure.

I do not undertake here to determine for what sins we thus smart, I much rather wish, that everyone would search his own heart, and try his own ways, and finding the sins of his Soul, cry out, Hinc illae Lachrymae, I have found thee, O mine Enemy, in mine own bosom; and so turn again unto the Lord before it be too late, before sentence pass against us from Heaven irreversibly. God he best knows, and I pray God show everyone his sin, whatever it be, that he may sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto him.

Yet I cannot but remember, having so lately read the Causes of great Plagues of Old, if in Scripture they be rightly Recorded, and if that Record from Heaven be true, which some perhaps who may have the heart, yet have not the face to question.

First, The first that comes into remembrance, is that of the Egyptians, against whom God fought with an Host of Plagues, marching under Ten Colours. They were overcrept with Frogs, like to be eat up with Lice, swarming with Flies, rotting with the Murrain, ulcering with Boils and Blain • , plagued with the Pestilence, Death shower'd upon them with Hall mingled with Fire, they were ready to be swallowed up with Locusts, Darkness as the shades of Death, midnighted them, they were slain in their First-born; and all upon this nice Controversy (if Moses be but a credible Author) whether poor Israel should go free, and worship God, as he had appointed them, or no: and though their Jealousy (that Israel -bane) scandal'd them against them, as against a People who, they said, would join with their Enemies, miscalling them an idle People: Yet God at last, after an hot Dispute, concluded against the Egyptians, and had his will of them, and wrought Israel's deliverance from their imbondaging Yoke out of the fire, or rather out of the water. And there was no end of their Plagues, till God's people were set free; when that was promised to be done at any time, God made a Cessation; but upon the renewing of their Affliction, God renewed their Plagues.

Secondly, I find the Plague bred at another time by an evil Report brought upon the good Land, Numb. 14.37. Those who brought it up, died of the Plague before the Lord. God will not bear it, that men should disparage a Land which he had recommended; and discourage his Peoples entrance into Canaan, when he had so freely given, and faithfully settled it on them by promise.

Thirdly, I find the Plague the issue of Fornication both Corporal and Spiritual, begot by unlawful Contracts of Women and Idols. It is the Bratt of Whoredoms, legitimated so far by the Justice of God, as to eat up and devour Adulterers. Numb. 31.16. When they committed folly with strange Women, and then with their gods in the matter of Peor, there was a Plague amongst the Congregation of the Lord. 2 Chron. 21. Jeroboam made high places in the Mountains of Judah, and caused the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah. Behold with a great Plague will the Lord smite the people, ver. 14. so saith that woeful Commination, bound with the Oath of God himself, Ezek. 33. Ye lift up your hands towards Idols, and shed blood, and stand upon your Sword, and defile everyone his Neighbors wife; as I live, saith the Lord, they shall fall by the Sword; and they that be in the Forts and Caves, shall die of the Pestilence. Which invisible Enemy, not to be seen till felt, can sack Castles, scale Walls, force Guards, and slight the strongest holds in the World.

Fourthly, I find all Sin indiscriminatedly the seminary of Plagues; Read and tremble, Jer. 21.9, 12. The best way to keep whole, is faithfully to endeavor to keep the whole Law of God; the breach of any of God's Laws contumaciously persisted in, may make a breach for the Plague to come in at, to quarter with a people, till it give them no quarter; which the Lord acquaints us with without a Parable, Deut. 28.58, 59. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Luw, &c. then the Lord will make thy Plagues wonderful, and the Plagues of thy seed, and of long continuance. Behold, upon the reckoning aforesaid, here is Judgment entailed, and Sickness made hereditary. Deut. 28.14, 15, 21. Thou shalt not go aside from the words which I command thee, to the right hand, or to the left; if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to do all his Commandments, the Lord will make the Pestilence to cleave to thee, till he have consumed thee: And believe me, it will be hard shaking it off, when God makes it cleave on; and it falls off very sadly, when nothing will uncleave it but the dust of the grave; it is a woeful falling off, when there is nothing left to fall on: That killing word threatens them more formidably, than the blaze of a Comet, Till I consume thee. And who will retain the name of Christian, and not confess that he owes as complete an obedience to the Law under the Ministry of Christ now, as they did, or could do to that of Moses then? And if any man shall show himself so much a Son of Folly, and a Father of Dreams, as to flatter himself with a vain conceit, that he may make bold with Jesus, because he is so merciful an High Priest, and thence presume to stumble, or trip on the left hand of Prophanation, or on the right hand of Superstition, let him sufficiently be corrected by the 10th of the Hebrews, ver. 28, 29. He that despised Moses his Law, died without mercy; of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? &c. Which, how well can a man do more, than by despising his Law, as was said before of Moses? or which is worse, if worse can be, by despising and trampling upon the Law-giver, as if he was either unwise, unfaithful, or unauthoriz'd in his own house (as Moses confessedly was not) and so must be supplied by others, though compared to him, the Wisemans wisdom is conceited folly; his Fidelity, better named Infidelity; and his Fatherhood, but as an Infant of yesterday.

To pass by the rest, I shall conclude, that Lots wife stands not a plainer nor a firmer pillar to warn Posterity by, than doth this Truth in Sacred Writ, That incorrigibleness in sin will make the Plague incorrigible, that is, incurable. If men despise God's ways of healing, God will mock at theirs, and laugh all their Antidotes to scorn Hark how God thunders from Heaven, how his Anger burns, how his Fury smokes, in Jer. 29.19, 20. I will persecute them with Famine, Sword and Pestilence, because they have not hearkened to the words I sent them by my servants the Prophets, &c. But they would not. Jer. 14.10, 12. They have loved to wander, and have not refrained their feet; when they fast, I will not hear; but will consume them by the Famine, Sword and Pestilence. If men will not refrain their feet from the evil of sin, God will not refrain his hand from the evil of punishment, Lev. 26.21, 23, 28. God will walk as contrarily to men, as they can walk to him; and more, if they will not do God's Will, they shall not have their own; to the froward, he will show himself froward; and to the impenitent, he will not repent of his fury; but hath in store seven Plagues more, and punishments seven times more. He will make the stout heart of man ache or break, and will make men weary of their sins, or of their plagues and punishments. Who can overlook that remarkable place, the fifth Chapter of Isaiah, from the 8th verse, to the 26th, where this Truth streams in a full Current there is Woe enough poured out (if the Flood-gates of Heaven can let out enough, thrown open by a mighty incensit hand) upon those who call evil good, and good evil; who besmear the face of Holiness with reproach, and paint that of Prophanation, if not with fair, yet with passable Colours; putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; miswriting Gall on Vessels of Honey, and Honey on Bladders of Gall; calling Trash and Trumpery Bread, and Bread Husks; calling the snuffs of greasy Lamps light, and the shinings of the Sunbeams darkness; as if a man could not be too bad, if he be not good; nor easily an offender of men, who will break but enough of the Laws of God; and who take away the righteousness of the righteous from him, which they can never do before the Lord, though they may do it before men; it may be snatchit away in the rewards thereof in this World, but their works will follow them in that which is to come, and they shall be rewarded accordingly. Just thus was our Lord and Master served; Barabbas was released, and Jesus, that just and good, and blessed one was condemned. All his good Deeds, all his Righteousness kept him not from being numbered amongst Transgressors. Daniel's unblameableness served not his turn, his Righteousness was so took away, that he was condemned as a Criminal, though no fault could be found in him, save in the matter of his God. For which willful mistake, you may behold in the aforesaid place, how Judgment triumphs, and Vengeance marches with brandisht Sword, and displayed Colours, threatening out these words, For all this, his Anger is not turned away, but his Hand is stretched out still. If men have not done, neither will God have done; if they will have the other Cup of Sin, they must have the other Cup of Sorrow, though the dregs come in it.

Thus you see what Cockatrice Egg bred this fiery Serpent of old, that so much stung Israel to death time after time; and may therewithal remember that these things were written for our Learning.

Methinks by this time you impatiently call for a Cure, being pained, if not fainting at delay, whilst England like Rachel, lies weeping for so many of her Children, and will not be comforted, because they are not.

I shall not multiply Remedies, lest you lose the Remedy in the Crowd, and refuse all, not knowing which to choose; and in search of the best, fix on none. And since frustra fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora; One Catholicon, prescribed by the great Physician, and Healing by the experience of all Ages, may satisfy without Exception or Perturbation. Thy None-such then, O England, thine All heal that can never fail thee, except thou fail thyself therein, is in one word

Will it go down heartily? Will you take it or no? for your Lives sake refuse not so wholesome a Remedy.

But that thou mayest not be deceived [Thou dear Land of my Nativity] and that thou please not thyself with fair Prescriptions, on foul and inoperative Liquors (except to Intoxication) let a Son of bowels, though abject, assure thee with tears in his eyes, and with an heart bleeding with thee, and for thee, that the Elixar I speak of, is to be had nowhere but from the Laboratory of Heaven. It will never be found amongst the subtle medlies, and presumptuous mixtures, and deadly, though enriching experiments of whatsoever Mountebanks, though gilded with the most flattering Titles and Pretentions that ever the Serpent used himself, or communicated to his Pensioners, as the Master-piece of Juggleism. So said Ephraim, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; so said the Spouse, Draw me, and I will run after thee; and so said God himself, I will take away the heart of stone, and give thee an heart of flesh: From whose hand the Acts of the Apostles receive their Coronation, imbellishit with this Jewel, enrichit with this Grant of Repentance unto Life, Chap. 11.18. who as the Apostle tells us, 2 Tim. 2.25. gives Repentance. Give, O Father of Mercies, this one blessing of Repentance unto England; and in that Box of precious Ointment thou presentest us our healing, and our sovereign Cure.

But yet lest Deceit should lurk under Generals, and that thou mayest particularly know the balm of Gilead, you may be ensur'd that you are right,

First, If your Repentance be true and legitimate, not spurious and adulterate. Counterfeit Antidotes may delude the Patient, abuse his hopes, trifle away a critical hour, leave Nature to faint in an unrelieved languishment, and perhaps may set the few drops of the remaining Oil in the Lamp of life, all into their last blaze, but minister nothing to recovery but an helpless desperation. So, sure I am, counterfeit Repentance helps not, heals not, profits not, unless delusorily, and in a Dream, Calenturing only the heads of men, and so ingulphing them in the Sea, instead of walking them in green and pleasant Fields. It catches men out of the bottomless Pit with as hopeless Threads as those of a Spiders Webb, sorry supports upon which to hang the weight of Eternity, and of immortal Souls. It lavisheth away the most improvable Treasures of an hour of grace, leaving sin in possession after all its Leases of Ejection, on which condition none are refused the broad or privy Seal of Hell by the Prince of Darkness. It highly provokes God to Jealousy, who will not be mockit above all things, nor let any Coyn pass for current with him, which is not imprest with his own Royal stamp and image. A forgery in the conveyances of an eternal Estate, pleases no one so much as the Devil, who knows that the cheated Fool is thereby made seven times the Child of wrath more than before; and that the House thus swept, is only made the more ready to entertain him, with seven more unclean spirits with him therein, to keep the Revels of Hell within the more securely and unsuspectedly, under the well-painted Signs of Repentance hung fairly in sight without.

And true Repentance may undeceivingly and unmiscarryingly be judged of, by its having more or less of the heart of man therein; if all ones heart be in it, it is then good, and cannot be counterfeit. If none of ones heart be therein, it is then good for just nothing; as unsavory Salt, it will not so much as enrich the Dunghil. Let then my heart on thy behalf (dear England ) echo to that voice of Heaven, Oh that there were such an heart in thee!

Secondly, Thy Repentance is warrantable, if it be complete and full, as it is prescribed in the Dispensatory of Heaven, the Scriptures of Truth; compounded at least of humiliation of spirit, and of reformation of life, and that in the simplicity of thy heart, or else its, deficiency reprobates it; and all this elaborated with the spirit of prayer, and of supplication, Jer. 31.18, 19, 20. Isa. 1.15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Dan. 9. from the 5th verse to the 21. Where the infection is deep, the application must be so sovereign, as to chase it out of those deeps, and to eradicate and extirpate it, or else it will in one place or other obstinately maintain some of its strong holds against the life of man. Sin invenoms the very heart, and if Repentance reach not thither, it doth nothing; the Fountain must be cleansed, or else the streams be tinctured all in vain. It is equally lost labor to wash the Blackamoor, as only to wash the mouth, or face, and wipe the lips; make clean work as you go, lest the fire catch hold on the remains of the stubble, and prove too hot for you. Sin is strangely disseminate; no little Nettle spriggs, nor Rootlets of Thorns will spring so fast, nor spread so far as Sin; no Leven will ferment so soon, nor incorporate into the whole lump like Sin; it must therefore be plucked all up, lest what is left sting, and pierce thy Soul to death; and purged all out, lest the little behind be too much to leaven, and sour the whole. You must put off the old man, or you are a dead man; without Reformation, you miscall anything you call Repentance. To sin anew, is to abett old sins, not to repent of them; if it do repent of anything, it is only of Repentance; it is not much in a fit to make a vomiting up of sin, and with the Dog, to lick up the same Vomit again when the qualm is over. If sin live, you will die. If sin be your Sovereign, you are no Subject of Repentance. Without a new life, there is no amendment; all is rather worse and worse. And your Repentance, as it must be very general, so it must be very particular, of all sin, and of every sin; because every sin is so venomous, that it may prove deadly in the extremist corner of thy heart. He is far from whole, who hath but one or two wounds in twenty cured; and they it may be but superficially, and merely skin'd over neither. Death can find its way in at one breach, and take its fill of spoils. He is little the better for his Medicine, whose pain is only chased from the feet to the hands, from the hands to the head, whence it may shoot as deadly Arrows, and it may be more point-black to the heart than before; it is little the near that the pain is on foot, so long as it keeps so sure-footing in the man. The leaving of one sin, and taking of another, is but leaving one to keep the rest the closer; and those retained, may be as near a way to Hell as the other; and may sufficiently arm vengeance against a man both in this world, and in that which is to come. To reform one day, and sin another, is to be well only, as some seem to be in Fevers, till the return of the next Fit, and then they be as bad, or worse than before. Repent of all sin, and then it is sin you repent of; if all sin be forsaken, then thou mayest be sure that Christ hath, or else will make thee whole.

Thirdly, It ought to be universal. National Sins, call for National Repentance; Epidemical Distempers, call for proportionable Remedies. When the whole House is on fire, it is a poor low assistance to quench only a Threshold. When the whole man is sick, it is a faint, lifeless application to cure only a joint or two. Some Distempers are too far disseminated to be cured by Topics; where all have sinned, all must repent that mean to be saved. The pentance of a few, though it may do much in the case of the Penitents own Soul, yet it may signify but an omicron to a Nation laden with iniquity. Thus whole Nineveh being in the black Bill, first by the spots of their own sin, and then by the tokens of God's wrath markit unto death, they generally drunk of this Antidote; the Cup of Repentance went round, and so they drunk their own health; though it were bitter to the flesh, they stood not upon that in case of life and death, Jonas 3. from the fifth to the end. Let everyone turn from the evil of his way, and from the violence that is in his hand, saith the King of Nineveh, sitting under a Canopy of Sackcloth powder'd with Ashes. Let all those who hate to be reformed, and will not repent, saying to the Lord, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy Law; oh let them have a care that the Ulcers of their hearts do not gangrene, and that the Lord be not awakened to cut them off, as he doth Thousands week after week.

Fourthly, It should be timely: Why comes the Doctor, when the poor Patient is dead? What need of water, when the house is in Ashes? how heartless are those hands who are building their Wall, when the Sea hath already broken in, and is much likelier to sweep them away at their work, than they are to check its fury, and foaming rage? Principiis obsta, was seasonable counsel. Preventatives, and Preservatives, is wise man's Physic. Delay is most dangerous, poor Forty days thereof had given Nineveh up a prey to utter destruction. As Nature is sometimes so far spent that there is no room for Remedy, so Grace is sometimes so ill treated, that the Sun of that day sets, and then poor Souls have miserably benighted themselves. In such a black and dark hour, our Lord could tell Jerusalem in tears, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee, &c? but thou wouldest not; but now (oh now, this sad and woeful, and too too late now) behold your house is left unto you desolate. They shall seek me early, saith the Lord, and shall not find me; I will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear comes; Prov. 1. There is a Day, an Evening, a Sun-set rather, when Noah, Daniel and Job, can deliver neither Son nor Daughter, save their own Souls. Learn (O Soul) of the Stork, and of the Swallow, thy time of returning, whilst mercy and thy misery be in their spring; lest if the Tide of mercy ebb away from thee, the floods of Justice overflow thee. Send, O Lord, such ready Ministers, as hastened lingering Lot out of Sodom, to speed sinners out of the ways of sin and death, into the paths of repentance and life. How sad is it with a poor Wretch, whose pain forceth him to cry out, Good Doctor, will nothing help me, nothing ease me? I would gladly drink away my pain in the bitterest potion; I would endure Bleeding, Blistering, Cupping, anything in exchange of my pain; and after all, meets but this drop of cold comfort, It is too late now to save my own life, I cannot save yours; you should have sent before, Death will • ow be your Physician, and your Physic too. But how infinitely more sad is it, when Christ with all his bowels, and notwithstanding all his blood, and all his skill and ability to save, and all his fullness of grace, shall give over a sinner, or a Jerusalem as lost and gone, for having lost their season, their day of grace.

Fifthly, Let Repentance be continual, at least till there is no more to be repented of. A mere fit of Repentance will go over with as vain a deliverance, as one or two untimely, and fruitless pangs of a Woman. Relapses are dangerous: To sin again as soon as ever the Rod is gone, is to send for it again with a witness; he that is weary of Repentance, will repent that weariness. He that tireth in well-doing, however he begun, is like to make a bad end. It is in vain to fast from sin one day, to take your fill of it another; it can be to no good purpose to vomit up a little sin, when smitten on the breast from Heaven with judgment, only to make more way to drink in iniquity, as the Ox drinks in water, and perhaps more greedily (for the Ox, and the Ass too, know when they have enough) when the stroke and pain be over. How black are those bright-like hours, which are but lightnings before death; where death doth but sport a little with life before he prey thereon? how blacker are those beginnings of Repentance that end in sinning, I should say in dying, which are but leapings up from Hell to sound the depth of the bottomless Pit? Proceed then from good to better, till thou beest with Christ, which is best of all; lest if thou growest evil again, thy latter end be worse than thy beginning.

And if this Antidote (1) such a Repentance, so true, so complete, so universal, so timely, so progressive, do not, if taken aright by God's grace, cure thee, O England, I dare be sick, and die for thee, and receive all thy Arrows, till there be no place left whereon to wound me; till death be even glutted with devouring me; and I indulge my persuasion this confidence, being nourished by considerations which will bear it up, and bear it out; and those from Meditations of

• God the
  • Father.
  • Son.
  • Spirit.
• Penitents.
• Repentance.

The honor of God is his Crown Jewel, the tenderest apple of his Eye; and Penitents are made very conscious thereof, desiring not that the most High should give his glory to another, adoring his grace for refusing to take it in their confusion, and choosing to receive it in their conversion; wherefore hearing his voice, they lay it to heart, and give glory to his Name, crying Holy, Holy, Holy, both to Father, Son and Spirit.

First, They glorify God the Father, which was the work of his sinless Son when in the World; and that,

1. In his Sovereignty, to which they bring their Tribute, and pay their Homage, as most due, weeping out in confessive Tears, that he wounds, and that he alone can heal; he kills, and none but he can make alive; and for their lives they dare not go to any other, and not to him; finding that though their destruction be of themselves, yet their salvation is only of the Lord, to whom they come, prostrating their faces on the ground, and in the dust, knowing, that if he speaks the word, it is done, they shall be made whole. If he but command deliverance, it will run, hasten, and stand fast and sure, If mercy but say I will (O England ) be thou whole, all is well.

2. Penitents hearts set too their hands in subscription to the Justice and Righteousness of God, who will be justified when he judgeth; wherefore they sweetly weep out in consort to the voice of the Rod, We have sinned, what shall we do unto thee, O thou preserver of men! It is a Sovereignty appendant to the Crown of a Father to give those refractory Children correction, who rebelled against instruction; they confess upon their knees, that their Fathers wisdom conducts, and his bosom (out of which he snatcheth his roddy hand) moderates, and that his bowels mitigate every blow, and therefore it is that every Twig is not turned into a Scorpion; and that the Scourge stings not them to death at every blow, whilst he deals with them not after their sins, nor rewards them after their iniquities.

We are as Clay (cry out the cleavings of their hearts under the coaning furrows of the Rod) mar'd in the hands of the Potter, who might as well have dashit us in pieces, and thrown us to the Dunghil, as have new molded us in judgment, to fit us for our Masters use in mercy. To this tune weepit out David his penitential strains, Psal. 5.1. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, &c. Though he sinned against Uriah, and his wife (as the Prophet caught him in his confession against himself, in that he was the man that took away the poor man's Ewe lamb) yet it being God's Commandment he broke, his Law he violated, he forgot all others, to remember that he had sinned against the Lord. It is the penitent heart, who in his Lamentations of a sinner, says plainliest, and sighs sweetliest, Holy and true art thou O Lord, just and righteous are all thy works, and equal are all thy ways: Whilst the murmuring Impenitent mutters out, What have I done? Why doth he find fault?

3. Penitent Souls magnify, by hoping in God's mercy, crying out in the same breath, To us belongs confusion, but to thee belongs mercy; wherefore though he killeth them, yet they dare not but to trust in him, plowing up the fallow ground of their hearts, to sow the precious seed of their tears in hope, rending their hearts, that grace may mend them with new ones, turning to the Lord, because he is gracious, there being mercy with him that he may be feared; saying with the Prophet, Who knows, but God may be entreated, and return, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him? Joel 2.13, 14. As if they could tell that God would turn from his fierce anger that they perish not, because nobody can tell nothing to the contrary in the presence of grace, the heights, and breadths, and depths, and lengths whereof, quicken their hope against hope, as Sarah's heart was impregnated with hope when her womb was dead.

4. Penitent Souls subscribe to the Truth of God (at least in hope) impressing and warranting those, and such like words of Truth. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, Mal. 3.7. Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you, James 4. When they set forward to meet the Lord enthron'd on his Mercyseat, kissing his Scepter engraven all with promises; beginning also to believe, that Curses against sinners be not gone out of God's mouth in vain, and that in the end they will not prove Rattles for fools to sport with, who make a mock of sin, keeping that May-game all the year long. They begin to know that sin will be the ruin of the impenitent, and that the Soul that sins without repentance shall die, because the mouth of Truth himself hath spoken it. Believing the truth of the deadly Threats, and dreadful Cominations (as also of the rich and precious promises) they start up to outrun them by Repentance, flying into the arms of mercy, unto the breasts of love, which milk themselves out through the bleedings of Jesus, and so they fall down at the footstool of grace, till life, and love from the Father of bowels take them up, and set them down Sons among the heirs of grace through Jesus Christ.

5. They begin to espy a beauty in Holiness, and a loathsomeness and leprosy in sin, which was once veiled to them by the deceitfulness of sin, and through the blindness of their own hearts curtain'd by the wily crafts of Satan. Their beloved sins are hated, their Mistresses are mastered, their right hands are cutting off, as sinister and left ones; their right eyes are plucking out, which look to Hell-ward, that they may clearly discern the narrow way, that leads to Heaven. They begin to be sick at heart, to see themselves in the mirror of the Law, adorning themselves after the dress of the Gospel, washing, that they may be clean through the blood of the New Testament, resolving to be holy, because their Father is holy; and not to live, except he through his Son live in them; and never to love themselves, till the new man be formed in them, after the image of him that created them.

Whence may I not conclude, That he that in Justice wounds them who dishonor him, will in mercy heal those who give glory to his Name; which he hath caused to be remembered forever, by what in all Ages he hath done, and given, and forgiven for the sake thereof? wherefore the Father will thus honor Penitents, who honor him world without end.

Secondly, In and with the Father poor Penitents honor the Son also, and that in a

• Necessity
• Sutableness
• Sufficiency

of and in him.

1. It is the sick, broken-wounded, dead in their own sight (as are true Penitents) who find a necessity of Christ, who fear, and feel that the pursuers of blood will overtake them, and destroy them, unless sanctuary'd in him, who alone is able to save; it is they alone who cry out heartily, What shall we do to be saved? finding all condemnation in themselves, though none to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who dare call nothing balm, but what is in this Gilead of God; knowing neither help nor hope, except the good Samaritan undertake them; that they are lost to Eternity if he find them not, and must damn and perish except he seek and save them.

2. Penitent Souls find a suitableness in Christ, as if he had been filled and sealed, and sent on purpose for them, poor, weary, and heavy laden hearts; if their wants had been to have spoken, if their wounds might have gaped out, if their weaknesses and wearisomnesses might have cried, they would have begged in blood for just such a Christ, for the very Jesus our Lord, had they but durst, or could it have entered into a created heart to have imagined what none but the heart and hand of God could find, and bring out. This is he; weep out their bleeding hearts, he, or nobody, whom we desire to love and serve, or dare to trust.

This is Immanuel, so infinitely God, so unquestionably Man, who is our Mediator, and our Peace; there is not, there cannot be, we want not, we desire not such another; this alone is he, so willing, so good, so gracious, so full, so fellow-feeling, so dead, so alive, so risen, so interceding, so powerful, so peaceable with God and Men, that out of choice, as well as out of necessity, we acknowledge him our King, Priest, and Prophet; God's Christ, and our Jesus; finding all within him, what need they seek anything without him? which makes them sing betwixt weeping and smiling (with tears resembling the showers of Sunshine) Open ye gates, stand open ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.

3. Penitent Souls adore his Sufficiency; when Faith once begins to see what the Scripture shows, beholding the Son of man walking as the Tree of Life, crying out, His grace must needs be sufficient for any of the Sons of men, that is sufficient for us the very chiefest of sinners. Who need fear Cure, that but come to him, that behold what he hath done for our Souls? where the Leopards are cleansed, the Deaf are made to hear, the Blind to see, the Lame to walk, the Dumb to speak, the Dead to live, and whence he hath cast out so many Devils; who can bring him a harder Cure? a worse or more dangerous work and Cure, than he hath found in our hearts? and yet his grace is experiencedly sufficient for us: And thus penitent Souls honoring the Son, he will honor them; and that by presenting them to the Father to heal and cure.

Thirdly, Penitent Souls glorify the Spirit, in his patient waiting for his so powerful striving, and unanswerable pleading with them for his so seasonable remembrances, sunnie illuminations, heavenly teachings, divine quickenings and enlivenings of them, for any kisses breathed in Prayer and Supplication on them, blessing him for convincing, and more for converting grace; for cutting off the overflowing Scourge of the Plague from their Houses, by stopping the spring there of in their hearts: And who can behold poor Penitents thus glorifying the God of all Grace; and not conclude, that the Grace and Peace of God is and will be with them. And thus God himself takes part with my confidence, or rather is the whole thereof, who is on the side of this Truth, That true Repentance will be an effectual Antidote against thy Plague (O England ) never to be repented of.

Secondly, Consider Penitents themselves; if your satisfaction want yet any grains, and have not full weight made to it, by what went before. For they do not only take part with God, being on his good Spirits side, against themselves, submitting, and yielding unto, and being crucified with Christ; being willing to be nothing, to be anything, that God may be all; judging with God, and for God against themselves; and that both in his Word, and in his Works. For let God judge the worst against sin that may be, they judge so too, not caring what becomes of sin, if it be once out of their hearts; let sin die for them, so they may live; longing for nothing more, than to see its death at the feet of Jesus, that sin may live no more in them to kill and destroy them, but that Christ may live in them to save and keep them alive; what God writes in his Law against them, poor self-condemned Penitents subscribe unto, acknowledging the black Characters set on their hearts, and black Lines drawn over their heads to be right and strait, being cast by Law, and sentencit as Malefactors, as Sinners, as worthy of Death; they confess the whole Bill when drawn up against them, own the Indictment, and plead guilty; and in the Court of their own Consciences pronounce themselves dead men, flying, and crying to Christ to blot out the Hand-writing against them, to satisfy the Law, to reverse the Sentence, to forgive the whole debt, to justify them freely by his Grace, at whose mercy they lie for life or death. And also when the works of God in his Judgments carve guilt upon them in black and blew strokes, executing displeasure, they judge themselves guilty too, not knowing how to judge otherwise till a pardon help them, and some act of grace deliver them, knowing that mercy is the only alay in Divine Judgment, whilst sin is burnt up, and the sinner saved. But over and above all this, Penitents are not the men Indignation looks for, whom wrathful Judgments inquire after; but they be other men, better men, new men: And God will not strike the men he loves, instead of those he hates (and he gives no chance-blows, and in that sense hits none against his will) nor can he be ever angry with those with whom his Soul is well-pleased. God was wroth, and is still with the Idolatrous, Disobedient, Rebellious, Covenant-breakers, Proud, Liars, Covetous, Hypocritical, Uncharitable, Wrathful, Revengeful, Unclean, Drunken, Swearing, Sabbath-breaking, and profane men, &c. But the true Penitents are men fearing God, humbling themselves, meek, merciful, ceasing to do evil, learning to do well, and God will have mercy upon them. Such were some of you, but ye are washed, &c. If the Plague was sent amongst us to condemn Sin, and to awaken us to Righteousness, then to the truly Penitent the work and errand of the Plague is done before it come to them; and in mercy it may be discharged from any further attendance upon them, or troubling of them; and that Messenger of Heavens black Rod, may make this true Return of the Writt into the highest Court, concerning everyone in particular which he received to Arrest, and Attach such or such a sinner, he being now truly penitent, that the man there specified, Non est inventus; the Penitent is no such manner of man, who can truly say, Ego non sum ego; and so instead of an Arrest, he may deliver him his Quietus est.

Lastly, To leave doubt no doubting, and to demonstrate my confidence nothing vain, let but the Repentance mentioned be considered, and who then with both hands will not write Antidote thereon, and so laying it to his heart, cry out, O thou healing Potion, why took I thee no sooner!

However try, O England, try the virtue of true Repentance; to be sure it cannot hurt thee, but by God's grace it may heal thee, not only of this Plague, but of more deadly and eternal ones, which will further appear in the consideration,

First, Of its Spring. Those healing waters issue from the touches of God's own Spirit upon rocky hearts. When God smote Ephraim's heart, then Ephraim smote upon his Thigh; when God touches the stone, then the stone rends and breaks; when God lays Sin, and Law, and Judgments to heart, then poor Penitents lay them to heart, and God will be highly pleased, when men bring him in Sacrifice, the first-fruits of his own Spirit; who knowing the very mind of his Spirit, Rom. 8.27. will by no means overlook the works of his own Spirit, when wrought after his own mind. He will well please himself with the operations of his own right hand. He beheld the issues of the first Creation, and behold they were all good, and well-liking; and he will not cast a more unfavourable eye upon those of the new and second Creation. Did he ever despise a broken and a contrite spirit, since there was such a Sacrifice to offer to him in the World? which the Prophet, as knowing his mind, says plainly, O Lord, thou wilt not despise.

Secondly, To ensure it a Peace-offering, Penitents have an Altar whereon to sanctify that Sacrifice. Aaron took a Censer, and put fire therein, and incense thereon, to make an atonement for the people when God's wrath was gone out, and when the Plague was begun. And he stood between the living and the dead, and so the Plague was stayed, Numb. 16.46, 48. And David built an Altar, and offered Burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and so the Plague was stayed, 2 Sam. 24.25. And the Lord he was graciously entreated. We have a better Altar built by David's God, an Altar, who was David's, and is our Lord, Hebr. 3.10. upon which a broken heart is full of savor, of a sweet smell in the Nostrils of the most High. Thus perfume thyself, O England, there offer up the sacrifice of a contrite spirit, and thy Plague will cease.

Thirdly, The faithful promise of him who cannot lie, which is Yea and Amen, doth warrant my confidence of the acceptation of true Repentance, which the Lord, if he receive it not for its worth, yet he will reward it because of his word, who never yet broke his word, or forgot his promise. Try, and trust him (O England ) upon his word; Kiss the Sun in that glorious ray of light and love. 2 Chron. 7.14. 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 forgive their sins, and heal their Land. So, Jer. 18.7, 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy. If that Nation against whom I have pronouncit, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them.

Lastly, All experience is on the side of this Truth, and proclaims Repentance sovereignly Antidotical. Was ever Repentance hid from God's eyes in destroying, till it was hid from a people's eyes in sinning? Did ever any not find a place for salvation, who found a place for Repentance? Did ever Israel repent truly, and yet in vain? When Christ threatened his Church at Ephesus, Rev. 2. to come quickly, and remove their Candlestick, he barracado'd them with a double breast-work against the assaults and on sets of his threatened Judgments, in the ingemination of this blessed Proviso, Except ye repent, Except ye repent; so for our encouragement and example it is said of Nineveh, Jonah 3.10. God saw their works, and they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and he did it not.

Methinks, by this time, you will not say that this is but one Doctors opinion, but rather confess it worth the taking. But withal, you perhaps may hesitate about the getting of it down, because so many are concerned of so differing complexions, palates and humors in the taking thereof; and therefore may demand, if some disgust it, and some spill it as water on the ground, whilst others kick and spit at it, yet what shall they do who like it so well, as to cry and call for more thereof? what hope is there for such who thus hunger after righteousness? what hope is there for such in an evil day? or what can they do?

First, I heartily recommend to all such, the spirit, principle, and practice of Joshua, lively breathing, and patterning us in his 24th Chapter, ver. 15. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you, &c. but as for me, I and my house will serve the Lord. Let Lot be righteous, though Sodom blow the Coals, and kindle the flames of his anger, who is a consuming fire. Let Noah every way preach Righteousness, though the Sun of Righteousness exhale from the hellish fogs of the old Worlds sins, from their sinks and lakes, and puddles of pollution, enough to pour down a deluge of wrathful destruction upon them, and to open the Treasures of the deeps that the flood may spring in upon them, and God will Zoar and Inark them through the tenderness of his loving-kindnesses, and the carefulness of his all-waking Providences.

Secondly, Let them have a lively fellowship with that fatherly and soul-like spirit of good Jeremiah, whose soul wept in secret places for their pride (which stopit their ears by shutting the doors of their hearts) whose eyes wept sore, and run down with tears, Jer. 13.18. Have you not seen the delirious singing of dying men, tune the hearts of their friends to lamentation, and turn their eyes to bitter weeping? Those who are well, being pained so much the more, because the sick seem to feel so little, or none at all (Death in their insensibleness making triumph on the seizure of their senses, and showing the spoils thereof) let then the insensibleness of others under their sin-bred sickness, fill you with the greater sense thereof; and let their rejoicing in evil, make you sorry at your very hearts, and being made Priests to God, Rev. 1.6. by the great high Priest, get between the Porch, and the Altar, and weep out, Spare this people, O Lord, &c. and besides the dutiful yearnings of your bowels over the afflicted, how can you forget that by special order from Heaven, they were all markit for preservation, who did sigh and cry for the abominations that were done in the Land! Ezek. 9.4.

Thirdly, Let such well weigh in their hearts, that when God's burning anger blazed highest, and scorchit hottest; and when his compassionate sparing, and forgiveness reachit lowest; yet then he refused not to his holy, humble, faithful, obedient, and dutiful ones, their own Souls for a prey; though Noah, Job, and Daniel were in it, they should deliver neither Sons nor Daughters, save their own souls, Numb. 14. The conscience of which with humble confidence, put that question into father Abraham's mouth, Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? which he in part (and God in the whole) put as it were out of question, saying, That be far from thee, to slay the righteous with the wicked, Gen. 18. when, besides themselves, Ten righteous persons might have saved Sodom from its sulphurous conflagration. Some may fall in the Wilderness, that all may be warned, and none secure; others, like Doves before a storm may hasten home, love snatching them away from the evil to come; but God will spare his remnant; and though he bring them through the fire, he will also bring them out of the fire for his glory.

Fourthly, Let all such, amidst the Infection on earth, air their Souls well in Heaven; and let their solitude hasten their dwelling in the secret of the most High, making by faith God their Friend, and Christ their next Neighbor (having their Conversation in Heaven in and with him) and the Spirit their Comforter, and their Counselor; the closer they be shut up, let them open the doors of their hearts so much the wider for the King of glory, who having taken our sins, sears not catching, will not refrain visiting our dwellings, but the rather come, and sup the oftener with us, because of any other Infection. Let all such refrain evil company, lest sin prove catching, the Mother-plague of all: And let them keep a good diet, never going out fasting, but feed upon Christ in his promises next their hearts, and all day long; which faith can well digest, and love can make thereof the richest of Feasts; and let them always be abounding in the work of the Lord, being rich in good works, that when, and how, and wheresoever the Lord come, they being found well-doing, may be found of him in peace Let them drive a quick Trade with Heaven, that their inward man may grow rich and prosper; and when there is none but Christ, he will be enough, he will be all things, and turn a dying Chamber into a Bridal Chamber for their Souls; and by his love make himself dearer to them than life, in that when all forsake, and are departing, he will never leave nor forsake them, but out-stay sorrow, sickness, pain and death, and all with their Souls.

Fifthly, Let such get the blood of the Passover on their hearts, as of old it was on the houses of Israel: When I see the blood, saith the Lord, I will pass over you, and the Plague shall not come nigh you to destroy you, Exod. 12.13. Make Christ your Passover whom God hath made so; and by fresh acts of faith besprinkle not only the Posts of your hearts doors, but yourselves all over with his blood; and let it be to God for a token that you are of another nature, heart, spirit, and way from them, who will go on by sin to provoke the Holy One of Israel; how can the destroying Angel strike through that blood? what weapon hath he that can look it in the face with defiance? If he do smite at you, he dares not, for fear of your Father, strike, or touch your Souls; at most, and worst, he can but reach, and give one half of you the blow, and that by far the least half too; your immortal part is invulnerable, and out of danger.

To conclude at last, let not such lose the Royalty of the promise for want of faith and holiness. Unbelief stops the mouth of the promise, or rather the ear of the heart, and unholiness turns the voice and sound thereof quite another way, Psal. 91. He that dwells in the secret of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his Truth shall be thy Buckler and Shield; thou shalt not be afraid for the Pestilence, neither shall the Plague come nigh thy dwelling. Mal. 3. And I will spare them, saith the Lord, as a man spares his own son that serves him.

And so (my dear Friend) not knowing which I have most out-run, your patience, or my own purpose, in this so long-winded a Discourse, my tedious Line once at last, is drawing to a full point; though you see instead of receiving a Letter, you will find yourself in my Book.

I shall pray out the rest, begging with all my heart that the Sun himself would please to light you to this shadow, and brood your Soul under the Almighty's feathers, till fledg'd with grace, it may mount up with more and better than Eagles, or Angels wings to its rest, in the bosom of eternal love; and hide you, and yours all over, under this buckler and shield, for an everlasting defense, that so walled about with Heaven, you may say to Fear, Danger, Plague, Pestilence, yea, to Death itself, though dressed up with Terrors, and armed with Horrors, Where are now your Teeth, Stings and Talons? what can possibly be your piteous and sorry victory? since by faith trampling on the head of the great red Dragon, and triumphing over the gates of Hell and Death in Jesus Christ, I am more than a Conqueror through him who hath loved me; And that no fatherly heart may be so tenderly willing, no hand so dextrous and ready to spare a serving Son (who cannot well be spared) as the Lord may be to spare you and yours, through our Savior and Redeemer, Amen, Amen; and so I rest,