A CAVEAT to prevent future JUDGEMENTS: Or, AN ADMONITION to all ENGLAND; more specially, to LONDON and other places where the death of Plague hath lately been. (* ⁎ *)  
By ROBERT HORN Minister of the Word.  PSAL. 50.22. 
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.  
LONDON, Printed by G. M. for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith, and are to be sold at their shop at the golden Lion in Paul's Churchyard. 1626.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL AND REVEREND MAtron, Mistress AGNES DANET of Westhope in Shropshire, Widow; the comforts of this life, and the glory of the next.  
WORSHIPFUL Mrs. DANET▪  
YOur Obligation upon Me, binds me, at least, to acknowledgement. I with my wife, lived with you in house twenty years, save some few weeks. Most of which time, or (save some few months) the whole of it, I lived Preacher to your Tenants and private family, at a Chapel by; being there set and left by that rightly worshipful and truly religious old Gentleman, your most kind husband, JOHN DANET Esquire, long since with God. The instructions you received that while from me, & before that while of time from faithful men elsewhere, I doubt not but you remember and will practise for your part and time here. Some testimony you lately gave in your zealous and constant observation of those Fasts which were (weekly) commanded for London by Royal authority, notwithstanding your often infirmities and great years: which makes me now, under your name, to send forth this small Sermon, and to entitle you to it as to your own by many interests. In regard of the Plagues late fearful increase in London, and other places about, and further off, there came a commandment from our Augustus (King CHARLES) that all of the Realm, that could, or were fit, should meet together in a public weekly Fast on Wednesdays, to beseech the Lord by prayer and supplications, until it should please him to say, as sometime he said to the destroying Angel, with his sword over jerusalem; it is enough, hold now thy hand, 2. Sam. 24.16. To this, and to us his Royal Majesty began in a rare Precedent: and so, did no more by precept then what he first sealed by practice in his own high Person. The Plague was great: and so we fasted, and besought our God for it: and he was entreated of us, Ezra 8.23. upon the success (wonderful in our ears, most strange in London's eyes) his Majesty, hath since published his Royal pleasure for public thankes to God, through all the Kingdom. All which should move all of us of this Land (if we have not lost all life of motion) even now to turn unto the Lord with all our hearts. And therefore, for my particular, and to set myself (some steps) forward inso good a way, I have left this little pawn in the Sanctuary for mine own engagement. Where, I desire you (Good Mistress DANET) to go on in the same good way, you have been long upon, and that till you finish your course: which, that it may be with true comfort, to your Bliss eternal, I will pray (as I daily do) while we have being together. The time cannot be long to you or me: which should make us therefore (and I pray God we may be made;) to redeem all the good hours of it for the power of godliness and a pure conversation in Christ. Which gift also I humbly crave at God's hands for those you have Adopted into your family, as the charge of your providence: that, to God's pleasure, they may longer yet have the comfort of you, your Tenants in like manner, and that whole Neighbourhood, in that light which now you bear up among them by your life in the Gospel, and your being in the world, He saith Amen unto it,  
Clon-bury near Ludlow; june 1. 1625. Who is yours truly for his best means in the Word of Faith. ROBERT HORN.   

AN ADMONITION TO ALICE ENGLAND: More specially to LONDON and other Cities and towns in England, where the death of Plague hath (lately) been. (* ⁎ *)  JOHN 5.14. 
After these things jesus findeth him in the Temple, and said unto him; behold thou art made whole: Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.  
THis Scripture is a Scripture of admonition, and containeth matter of important counsel; which, directed to a man whom Christ loosed from his chain of a long sickness, concerneth us to amendment, that are sick of sin. He was held in his infirmity thirty and eight years: verse 5. some of us have been held longer in the chain of our sins. Now, after he was cured, (not knowing by whom) he was found in the Temple, to wit by Christ who cured him. And so, having strangely, and by miracle, without means, received health and power to walk, he walks to the Temple, (the house of prayer and praise) probably, (I think I may say purposely) to give thankes for his corporal health, and to pray for spiritual. Doing so; his Physician, who had done one good work upon him, purposing to do another, and better in the cure of his soul, returns (after he had, for a while, withdrawn himself) and comes to the Temple, where he found his Patient. Being found there, he begins (instantly) the cure of sin in his soul: puts him in remembrance how long a servant he had been to sin under an old infirmity; and telling him what a blessing he had received in his body, which was made whole, wisheth him to have care of his soul by breaking off his sins, or the course he held in them, after the course of the world: which, if he did not, would cost him dear, for a worse thing than matter of sickness would befall him in a worse place: at least, whom God could not amend with his Rod of correction, he would break with his iron rod, punishing him yet seven times more, that is, grievously, for his sins, Levit. 26.18. Thus I have opened the Text, which is the effect of the miracle here wrought; & showeth where Christ found the Man, whom he had made whole; and what he said unto him: for the first; it hath two circumstances; as of time, when he was found, and of person, who found him: for the second; it containeth a precept, sinne no more; and the reasons persuading it: and they are; the benefit he had received, thou art made whole; and the peril, if he sinned still; a worse thing would come unto him.  
The circumstance of time, in this word Afterward, or after these things, being a word of context, and referring to the ninth verse before, showeth what it was, that more specially, moved this Man, at this time, to visit God's Temple, and to be found in it; and that is the healing of him by Christ upon a word speaking: rise, take up thy bed and walk, v. 8. But I will take up no longer time, either for the further opening of this sentence, which is not hard; or for the taking in of Texts in coherence with this, which is not necessary. And therefore I pass to the Doctrines of this verse, their grounds or reasons, with their Use, and Application.  

Afterward.  
THat is, after this cure wrought, and person healed, Christ finds him in the house of prayer, and (returning) found him thankful: which Precedent deserveth followers; 
Doct.  and teacheth us after a benefit received from God, to be thankful to him: greatly after a great benefit; and presently, after any. So Melchizedech blessed God for Lot recovered by Abraham, Gen. 14.20. and Moses and the Israelites sang unto him in praise for the Egyptian yoke broken, Exod. 15.1, 2, 3, etc. and the jews kept a feast of memorial for their safety and the destruction of their enemies, and of that wicked Haman, Hest. 9.17. In Psal. 51.15. David desireth God to give him cause and matter, and then promiseth to praise God with joyful lips; not dividing between the effect and cause. Hence further, he debates with himself about rendering to God in this manner, Psal. 116.12. and, in another Psalm, summons all within him to this duty, Psal. 103.1. The Apostle Paul joins with prayer thanksgiving by an inseparable tie, Philip. 4.6. and good reason: for, as he saith; Colos. 4.6. praise sets the watch in our prayers, without which they would fall asleep in our mouths: the Scripture is full in this point: the reasons:  
We sit at an easy rent by such a return: Reasons 1 for, what easier than to confess the liberality of such a Landlord by taking words unto us, and by ordering our ways? Psal. 50.23. Secondly, thankfulness sanctifieth all our receipts, without which they are unclean unto us, Exodus 12.14. and no better than stolen waters, Pro. 9.17. Thirdly, true Christians must stand in some distance from Hypocrites, and dissemblers with God: the difference stands in point of praise, and not of petition: for, Hypocrites can make a good show in prayer: their necessities and desire of supply will kindle a fire of earnestness this way, Luke 17.13. but, when they should return with acknowledgement, where are they? verse 17. Fourthly, prayer is a sweet oblation to God: but the soul of it, and that which quickens it, is true thankfulness, Psal. 50.23. and here, what the body is without the soul; that is, prayer for a benefit, and no praise for it. Fifthly, of all the Sacrifices in the Law, this of praise was most acceptable to God, Psal. 50.13.14. which made our fathers in the estate of the Old Testament, often, and in many words to vow this oblation to God, and (as it were) to enter into bond unto him to pay it, Psal. 66.13.14. Ecclesiast. 5.4.5. Sixthly, if nothing else could move us to be thankful after a benefit, yet our own good by the hand, should; for, the remembrance of an old benefit prepares the way for a new: and what eloquence more forcible to draw from a man what we crave or need, than the showing of ourselves thankful for what we have had already? God sets no other rent-charge upon all he gives (who gives all freely) but the old rent of a thankful heart, and of thankfulness in our lives: and, if this be done, we shall be sure to be great gainers at God's hands. Seventhly, we are thankful to men for small matters: and shall we be unthankful to him that gives us all things? shall the wicked Heathen praise their gods of silver, and gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, & stone, who were made themselves, Dan. 5.4. and shall not we praise that God that made us, and all the world?  
The Use of this is for all England: Use 1 but more specially for London, and other Towns and Cities upon which the Sword of Pestilence hath been lately laid: for, should not these be found in the Temple with this man, healed by Christ? And, for London, the prime City of the Kingdom; seeing that so lately, the ways of it so lamented, being all shut up, Lam. 1.4. which now clap hands for their opening again, and for their being sown with the seed of man: should it not register in marble of remembrance a work of mercy toward it, so singular, and so strange? should it not cry grace, grace unto it? Zach. 4.7. for, from 44.63. dead and buried of the mortality of Plague in one week, in that City, the Bill fell in few weeks to no less than half a score; yea to four only: and can such an abatement, so wondered at, prove as the wonder that lasts but nine days? Rather, may not the Citizens, and may we not all say (this admirable decrease considered) as the people of Zion in captivity, after their return, said: We were like them that dream? Psal. 126.1. Surely, we cannot deny, that our mouth is filled with laughter, and our tongues with songs, v. 2. and, shall they be empty of his praise, who hath done so great things for us, whereof we sing? v. 3. When Iosh●●ah had made a great slaughter of Amaleck and his men; even so great and so long as Moses his feeble hands could be held from falling down, which was till the Sun went down, Exod. 17.12. God's charge to Moses was, that it should be written, for better remembrance, in a book, and rehearsed to joshuah, verse 14. This was a great blessing of God, and this so great blessing of his, must, both be written and spoken of: was it a blessing bookeable, which God shown to Israel against Amaleck, who wasted so many of his weak and feeble people? and, is it not worthy (both) to be spoken of and booked with letters of lasting praise in our hearts and mouths, that God hath, in manner, removed, so clean and quickly, from a City of so great use to the whole Realm, that Amaleck of wasting Pestilence? But our dulness hath need of much spurring, and and of those nails that Solomon (the wisest King and wisest Man) spoke of, fastened by the Masters of the Assemblies, Eccles. 12.13. for, how soon had we forgotten a work of this nature, (a work all made of mercy) by quitting London, as now, of the mortality of 3300. and odd, falling there of a like stroke of Plague in one week, and in the year 1603. This, for some years after, lay dead, and as buried in some perpetual grave: therefore hath God opened our graves again, by killing with the Plague of Pestilence in that same City, and thereabouts, from about April or after, to the 15. of December, 1625. no fewer than 35417. And I pray God this may be a warning for those of London, and of all England to keep better in remembrance, and to better purpose the Acts of God's mercy; and to keep both them and us from falling after the like manner of disobedience. If it be not; and if still we will prove unfaithful; though the Plague were quite gone; God hath other Vultures (as one saith) to send upon the carrion of a Realm, dead in sins, and trespasses: for, beside the Plague of Pestilence, he hath his glittering Sword (which is a grievous Plague) that he can put into the hand of an enemy of a fierce countenance, and of an implacable desire to our Land. But God turn away the evil: and to do our parts to do it; let the last grievously devouring Pestilence in and about London, and in other Cities and Towns abroad be, the grave of our lusts, Num. 11.34. and let a sound confession of sins, and turning to God from sin, bury them: else, it will be but to a greater hardening, that the Lord in his singular mercy, at his last great assize of common mortality, reprieved us, pulling some then, as a brand out of the fire, Zacharie 3.2.  
A reproof of those who bury Gods benefits so deep in Sepulchers of oblivion, that, 
Use 2.  (like as it fared with the nine cleansed Lepers, Luke 17.17.) there is no returning to give thankes. Many in some plunges of sickness (as dissembling Sailors in a storm) will fall to their devotions; who yet, (when the weather is over, and a calm sky of health succeeds) drown all remembrance of the danger, then, in their profane Cans of Wine and Beer. Then, (as unthankful Seamen) instead of finding them in the Temple, you may find them in some Alehouse or Tavern, tossing their Cans to the health of the devil. What is this but to receive a blessing from God, and to thank the devil for it? but, what man bestowing a benefit upon us, and losing his thankes, will send another after it? and, can we imagine God will, when men deal with him like those unthankful Israelites, whose prayers and praise ended almost as soon as they had passed the red sea? The Heathen did offer continually unto their false Gods their cinnamon and frankincense: and shall it be enough for us, or will it discharge us, for a day, or some few days, and that in no true meaning, to offer our tribute of praise to JEHOVAH, the true God, who is worthy, (and only) to be served in righteousness and true holiness all the days of our life? Luke 1.75. Shall we thus requite the Lord, as a people foolish and unwise? Deut. 52.6. unthankfulness is a close Thief: and will we so cunningly deceive God (indeed ourselves) by robbing him of the praise that is due unto his name? Rather, should we not extol him with our lips, and with our lives praise him? But who will not say, that he thanks God for all? To whom I say: true thankfulness stands not in words, but in obedience to God's Word: nor in saying, but in giving thankes: nor in labour of lips, but in purity of life. Then, to come to an issue. Thou sayest thou thankest God for all: but art thou a repentant and amending sinner? when God openeth his treasury, dost thou open thy mouth, and art thou liberal of his praises, Psal. 66.16.17. rather, and contrarily; when he shoureth blessings upon thee, dost thou not drop thankes unto him; praising him slenderly, when he gives to thee plenteously? or, is not thy thankes cold thanks, and thanks only in words; not zealous from the heart, nor faithful with a single heart? further, dost thou thank God with continuance; not churlishly, and with the thankes that hath soon done? dost thou praise God with thy praiseworthy life? Is thy tongue an instrument of the truth, and of his honour? Is his word thy counsellor? are his best Servants thy best Companions? his Sabbath days, thy best days? his Communion Cup thy sweetest Cup? his Service thy liberty? and his yoke thy crown, and thy glory? If this be so; thou mayst be numbered among the thankful to God: but if not so, & thou be still the same man thou wast: a drunkard still, a fornicator still, still a swearer, and profaner of God's Name and Sabbaths; a cold hearer or no hearer of the Word, and at Prayer and Sacraments carnal: so often as thou sayest; The Lord be thanked, thy mouth doth not bless God, but mock him: for, out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, praise and unthankfulness, james 3.10. So much for the circumstance of the time, that of the Person followeth.   

jesus.  
IF you ask who found this Man? it was jesus: if you ask where? it was in the Temple; the place where the means of Gods public worship were. In speaking of the person, I will speak of both together: the person is jesus, in english, the Saviour: the Temple was the house of public prayer and sacrifices; first built by Solomon: but after destroyed by the King of Babel, and rebuilt by Zerubbabel and Nehemiah. Hear Christ revealed himself, 
Doct.  who (before) was not known of the Man whom he had healed: which teacheth, that in Church-assemblies Christ is found, and finds us. In this way, and to such as are in it he reveals himself in the arm of his Word, Esay 53.1. and as they whom he healed corporally, were in the way by which he passed, Mat. 20.30.34. Mar. 6.55.56. so they must be found in the walk of jesus, the way of the means, whom he will heal spiritually. His ordinary walk is in the Temple of the New Testament; that is, in the public assembly of Christians. Thither (therefore) we must come, if we will know Christ in the arm of power to our Salvation. David knew the way by his experience, and followed it with love to the Temple. Psal. 42.1.4. and, when Saul (his Father in law) took this way from him by banishment for some time; how doth he desire his return thither by more than an ordinary affection? for, he fared as a woman, set a longing after somewhat, which (because she cannot obtain) maketh her sick of desire, Psal. 84.2. There God's evidences were kept, and there God was in place by an extraordinary presence: hence, the Prophet was taken up with a love thereof, even to the fainting of his soul: he had drunk deep of God's blessings in that earthly heaven; which being denied him by a kind of excommunication out of that Paradise of God, first under Saul, and then under Absolom his own son; how soul-sick was he for the daily sacrifices? Moses, when the people of God were kept with Pharaos' strong hand, as with a chain in Egypt, from serving at some public Altar, asketh their deliverance of the King, lest the Lord should meet them with Pestilence or sword, Exod. 5.3. and so, upon pain of death, God must be publicly served; which, if our bodies escape, our souls shall not. Thus it was in the Law and under Moses. In the New Testament, in like manner, it was the practice of Christians to beat this way to the Lord, Luke 4.16. and why did they so assemble, and so many in houses, which they called Synagogues, but because they were, upon promise, persuaded there to meet the Lord Christ, who would be in the mids of them? Mat. 18.20. At another time, the whole City came together in a like assembly, and to a like end, Act. 13.43.44. and for this, the assembly is called God's Army, Psal. 110.3. because God takes the muster of his people there. But further, for this meeting we have a commandment, and day set, 1. Cor. 11.17.18. 1. Cor. 16.1. Thus (then) we have traced the way in which we may find and be found of Christ: even the King's highway which fools cannot miss, and which none, but worse than fools, go out of, Esay 35.8. the reasons: Reasons  
There is jacobs' Ladder in the stairs of the means to heaven, Gen. 28.12.17. there God hath commanded the blessing, and life for ever, Psal. 133.3. Secondly, it is our Father's house, john 2.16. and where do children converse familiarly with their earthly Fathers, but at home in their Father's house? where have they the helps of natural life, but there? and in what house, but therein? And shall we not care to go home to GOD, our heavenly Father, in the Assembly; where we may have him to speak kindly to us by his Word; where we may speak familiarly to him in our prayers; where we may meet with his seals of assurance, and be bettered by his nurture & rod of discipline; where he gives us his Son, and gives us his Spirit, and grace in our hearts? where he keeps his wealth, and where his householdstuff lies? or do we not care for the abundance of God's house? or had we rather live beggarly in the world, then richly at Church? to be short; had we rather lose our gracious Father then find him, or be found of him in the way, wherein they that seek find, Mat. 7.7. we should be followers of God: and will we be followers of those, who choose another Father in their ordinary absences from the Assembly, than they have, who assemble willingly in the day of God's musters? Psal. 110.3. Thirdly, hence, when Cain was cast out of Adam's house, which was the Church then, he said to God; I am cast out of thy sight, Gen. 4.14. meaning his face in the Assembly, which is the Church now.  
But is Christ found in Church-Assemblies? 
Use.  and doth he there seek us? and seek us for much good to our selves? how unwise are we, and what fools for ourselves, if we will suffer every twist of occasion, though in never so small a thread, to hold us from thence? If a mortal King should seek us in some special place to bestow honours, and wealth upon us; and we (knowing the place) would not come thither, were we not both undutiful to him, and unwise to ourselves? This is the very case of our Papists Recusant, and Protestants at large. The immortal King of kings seeks them in our Church-Assemblies to make them rich in Christ, and great in Heaven: yet they will not be in place, nor tread upon the threshold of his Sanctuary, save where Law binds; nor some, nay many, where they are so bound. Of David's affection to the public places of prayer, hearing the Word, receiving the Sacraments, and the like, we heard. The river of his desires rising mainly in this case, could be kept within no bank: he could rest upon no ground, till, being in exile from God's Tabernacle, he was brought back again to God in his ordinances. It was his Cross, and a weighty one upon him, that by tyranny, and enforced absence, he was not permitted to worship at jerusalem. But now, who doth not account it the least of his trouble, that by sickness, and other impediments necessitated, not procured, he is held, as in bonds, from the public Assembly? who wisheth for his appearance before the Lord, as the Hart brayeth for the brooks of water? Psal. 42.1. who now feareth the hand of the Lord (that of which we heard) for omitting the public Service of God in the Congregation? and not holden from it by Pharaoh, as some necessary chain in Egypt, but with chains of their own, either unnecessary business, or carnal sports? Exod. 5.2. It was David's desire, above, or more than all he desired, to dwell in the house of the Lord all his time, and to behold the beauty of the Lord in his Temple, Psal. 27.4. we make no such request, nor will we take up our pleasant days with such sad matters. And some, though they dwell not far from the place, where the Ark of the Gospel is placed in the Preaching Ministers mouth, as in the Tabernacle thereof; yet, if the wether be not to their lazy minds, if any impediment seize them; a less matter than the buying of a Farm, or the proving of five yoke of Oxen, will keep them away, Luke 24.18.19. you must have them excused; they cannot: but more truly, they will not come: & why? they can serve God at home, as well as there: so could Abraham as easily, as have gone the dolorous journey of three days, to Sacrifice his dearest Son Isaac, Gen. 22.4. but Abraham must go, and Abraham did go to the place which God shown him. And so God will be served in the place he hath showed us, and in the manner, & as we have heard of him: there we must offer up, not the only child of our loves, but the foul children of our lusts, james 1.15. & that upon the Altar of the law that threatneth iniquities and sins. The jews came betimes to jerusalem, though dwelling in the uttermost lists of the Land: neither foul weather, nor peril by that long way could hinder them: for, with Abraham, they driven away all unclean fowls of exception, that might fall upon the carcases that were for that sacrifice them, Gen. 15.11. But now, David's place is empty: O Lord, how long? which, though saul's now do not mark, as Saul then; God doth: & the Pews & Seats that are empty so often, and for no cause he knows, who will one day say: wherefore come not these to meat, neither yesterday nor to day? 1. Sam. 20.27. I may add, and say; not these seven or eight weeks of days? And here let me speak to such unwilling and pressed men (where, God will have none in his camp but voluntaries, Psal. 110.3.) what would such do, if the 
* Master Widley his Tract on the sabbath. page 125.  Parisian line were stretched over the land, & men should be killed with their bibles in their hands, their blood being sprinkled upon the seats they sit on? would they not say: this evil is (all) of the Lord, & why should we wait on the Lord any longer, 2. King. 6.33. But to make short: ye that thus turn the back and not your faces to God's Sanctuary, & sacred house; consider your ways, and turn your feet unto God's testimonies: consider who it is that seeks you, and where, and for what. He that seeks you is jesus, he that saves his people, and must you, if you will not be damned: and he seeks you in the assembly: and there seeks you for your own good. I say therefore, would you be found of God in peace; or of your Saviour (the Son of God) to your peace and comfort everlasting: be in the way of the means: let your feet stand within the gates of the Gospel's jerusalem: there fall down low on your faces, and kneel before: he Lord your Maker, Psal. 95.6. And God persuade japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen. 9.27. But there are many out-lyers, and many, who when they should dwell in Shems Tent, at the times of public prayer and hearing, dwell in the tents of Cham, where their other impieties are accomplished and made up with their scoffings at Noah, the Preacher of righteousness O, how hardly are such persuaded to be in the Temple with Simeon and Anna, Luk. 2.27.38. or to be found in the Temple to be healed, as this man whom Christ healed? but jesus seeks them there, and they lose him in the world, and in worldly lusts of profit and pleasures. God and Prince require their presence: God upon pain of death; & the Prince upon pain of twelve pence for every day: yet neither God nor Prince can be heard; and how shall I?  
So much for the place where this man was found, with the circumstances of time and person; it followeth to consider, what Christ said.   
And said unto him, behold, etc. 
IN these words that Christ spoke unto the Man, we have a precept, and reasons persuading it: the precept in these words; Sin no more: the reasons are two, as first the benefit of his health, thou art made whole; and the threatening of a worse matter, if he should sin afterwards as before: lest a worse thing come unto thee: for the first of the reasons; we have the benefit itself, and finger at it, in the word; behold. After our Saviour had cured this man, he presently left him, as appeareth in the next verse before; now he returns again, as not meaning to be long hid, that his power might be known, & his strange work had in remembrance: which therefore made him to say; behold, as leading him by the hand to a deeper consideration of what was done upon him: as if he had said; thou was't tied to thy bed with a long infirmity of eight and thirty years continuance: now this tie is loosed by him that said unto thee; rise, take up thy bed and walk, v. 8. and now thou art no longer bound to thy bed, but free to God: remember and forget not: or behold; that is, intent thy thoughts to this work of thy cure, passing some pause upon it. This I take to be the meaning of our Saviour in these words: behold thou art made whole: which teacheth that christians should not pass over God's proceed towards them in his noble Acts, either of mercy or justice with a careless, or blind eye. In Psal. 32. the word Selah, which is a word of attention, repeated three times, as ver. 4.5.7. importeth as much: and, what God did against Amaleck (God's peoples enemy) must as we heard, be written in a book or register, Ex. 17.14. and in Deut. 25.17. it must be written, what God did that way, in sure tables of lasting memory. So Samuel, taking a stone, and pitching it between Mizphe and Shen, called it by the name of 
* Eben-Ezer.  hitherto the Lord hath helped us, 1. Sam. 7.12. The like stone of help for memory, did the jews set up in an extraordinary holy day to God for his delivering of them from the butchery of Haman, Hest. 9.17.18. And David brought his heart to an edge by such diligent booking of God's daily mercies: for, fighting the Lords battles, he set down, as in a commentary or just volume, the Gests and Acts of every days march to the praise of God. The book of Psalms shows he had the pen of a ready writer, this way: the reasons:  
One main end of God, Reasons in his strange works of mercy and justice, is to open our eyes and to provoke consideration: and shall God come so near, in them, to every one of us, and we take no view of him in objects of so great light? Psal. 50.22. Secondly, he that made all, doth all for himself; Pro. 16.4. that is, that his works might praise him, who is only worthy to be praised, Psal. 145.10. but how shall we give him the respects of his power, praise, goodness, and infinite glory, when in his works that are wonderful, we observe little or nothing thereafter; and when, from things that are stranger than we thought of, and greater than we looked for, we draw no matter to admire his wisdom so, as we be guided by it; or to magnify his power so, as we repose upon it? and here, tell me if it be not a disgrace to an expert workman, having made some excellent piece, that his friend should pass by, with contempt, with neglect at least, not vouchsafing to look upon it? To apply therefore: is this a disgrace, being offered to man who works imperfectly? what is it then, not to have in esteem the works of God, so perfectly wrought? And (here) Salomons counsel is, (and it is good counsel;) consider the work of God, Eccles. 7.13. Thirdly, when men coming into some shop, behold some curious work; they pass by it (knowing it made not itself;) and inquire after him that made it: and shall we looking into the shop of God's works, that are all excellent, lose our sight in them, never looking away to the most excellent workman, JEHOVAH our Creator? Fourthly, if God do nothing in vain; than what he doth always to purpose, must be thought of accordingly, by the assistance and help of our best meditation, Psal. 111.4.  
An instruction therefore to gather matter from all God's works, Use 1 (especially such as are strangely wrought) to our help in this duty: when we see judgements executed in the land, we must put them down in our memories, as in some book, that we may fear and be humbled by them: or, if God work mercifully in our kingdom, as he lately did by quenching so strangely those coals of Plague he cast into London, and by opening that Fountain of trading that was so choked up in the last Visitation by Pestilence: we must not forget his loving kindness to observe it for his praise, whose mercy endureth for ever. The Prophet, the Author of the 147. and 148. Psalms, was trained up in this School, & learned very much by the wisdom and justice that he found in all God's works. And surely, if we would go to School, but to our daily experience in this kind, having eyes such as this Man of God had, and using our diligence so as he did, we should not be so foolish & ignorant, and as beasts before God.  
The very heathen, that were without the word, and had no other books but the works of God to read in, did in them see somewhat of the true God, though not to his glory by the wisdom which is of him, Rom. 1.20. And shall we learn nothing of God, who have not only the dark book of his works to look upon, but the book of a plainer letter, the book of his word to meditate of? shall we become more foolish than the wiser sort of the heathen were, that only groped after God in their foolish hearts that were full of darkness, verse 21. And (now) to our purpose: do we think, or can we imagine that God sent and took away so great a fire of Plague, save for some few sparks that yet remain here and there untrodden out, only to hold talk of it, and not to fear that God that hath power over all Plagues? Then are we as blockish as those jews, whom jeremy reproveth for learning nothing of the fear of God by his blessings, yea though he reserved unto them the appointed weeks of the harvest, jer. 5.24. But God's children, and all whom the Lord hath made wise to their Salvation, will hear the Rod, and him who hath appointed or betrothed it; Mich. 6.9. If the father brings a rod, the fearful child will tremble: the whip of Pestilence is a sore Rod, & they tremble at it, whom God hath sealed. By it, or in sight of it, they gather themselves, and all their wits together, taking them up from their stray ways, before the decree (which is at the seal) come forth, or be executed against them, Zeph. 2.1. or they fan & winnow themselves from the chaff of sin, which cannot abide in the wind of the Lords justice, & is driven to hell with sinners, and all that forget God. They try their ways, and bring them to the touch, turning unto God, Lam. 3.40. and so are better by the rod, God's loving correction makes them whole: The wicked not so.  
A reproof of those who set all God's judgements, or Use 2 works done in judgement, at naught. There are that despise counsel, and will none of God's correction, Pro. 1.25. such are never the better by his word calling them, nor by the whip lashing them: whether God be angry or well pleased, they are all one. Let the earth be moved, they are not moved, and let the hills tremble, they fear not. In the sad days of a Land, caused by Pestilence, dearth, or the rumours of war, they drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, not troubled for the affliction of joseph, Am. 6.6. no adversity can make them change their merry note which they chant to their instruments of music, ver. 5. and they put the day of evil fare off, verse 3. They consider not the rod, and provoke the striker, neither can punishments awe them, nor blessings win them: for punishments, if they touch not them, no matter where they light: and for blessings, they take them as gifts of fortune, or with Papists, as their due and merit from God: they rise not by them to obedience, & they live in them to the giver's dishonour. Hence, so few to this day, see to any amendment, notwithstanding the singer of God, or rather whole hand in so grievousa Plague, or stroke upon London, never the like, or so great in any memory now living. But though God hath now stopped the sore, that so ran & ceased not; yet how soon he may open it again, who knows? & who should not consider? he is the same God that he was ever, and the God that hateth iniquity as much as ever he did. The Pestilence that was so lately sent, what was it but the fruit of an evil tree, that is, of the Realms sin? Our Land was all overrun with sin: Our Cities and great Towns were as the Pot, and the men in them, as the flesh, spoken of by Ezekiel, Chap. 11.3. & 24.3.4.5. Our Masters in Israel were (many of them) no Teachers: and some that taught, threw down by evil example what they builded by doctrine, eating and drinking with sinners, Mat. 24.49. the poor sheep were smitten with ignorance: all good fellowship was and did consist in pots of drink, and pipes of smoke. In the whole Land there was a large confederacy and increase of sinful men. The sins of the Churches spoken of. Apoc. 2. and 3. Chapters, were the sins of some of better note in their cold love of the truth: and for pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness (the very sins of Sodom) what were they but England's crying sins? Thus it was with us, and this we were, when the late Plague began: and if we fall again upon this evil bias of old custom to like sins or worse, not remembering Gods late hand, what can we expect but a new Plague, or the old renewed? God hath other rods of correction in his School, and iron rods to break us, if we will not turn at the correction past: or if we will sinne still, provoking God in the Church, and grieving him in the Commonwealth, the Lord will watch upon worse Plagues to bring them among us: for, when one affliction cannot prevail, he can send another, and many, till we be made better, or confounded, Levit. 26.18.19.  
So much for the finger directing to the benefit: the benefit itself followeth.   
Thou art made whole. 
CHrist here remembers the man of the benefit he had so lately and strangely received in his health, which was given him, not mediately in the Pool of Bethesda, but immediately by divine power. And these words are the ground of the subsequent admonition first, as if the Lord Christ had said: sin made thee sick, & God hath made thee whole; fall not back to thy sins past, lest the relapse make thee worse than ever. Quest. 
Quest. Answ. Doct.  But who made this man whole? Answ. God by his power, and Christ as God: whence learn, that as God can make sick; so it is he only that can make whole. We read as much in the Text of Hannabs' song; which Text speaketh of a greater matter: for it saith; the Lord killeth and maketh alive, bringeth down to the grave, and raiseth up, 1. S●m. 2.6. Now, it is easier to raise from sickness to health, then to bring from death to life. Therefore, Hezekiah (King of judah,) went the right way for health, when he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, Esay 38.2. hence Moses in his song saith, what we have heard Hanna in her song to say, Deut. 32.39. And the Prophet Hosea, exhorting the people that went fare from God in their sins, to draw back by repentance, gives this for one reason, that the Lord would heal them, Hosea 6.1. as if there were no Physician but he, nor balm of healing but by him: further also, so much the king of Israel (none of the best, rather one of the worst) confessed, saying; that he must have God's place, who will take upon him to heal a man of his Leprosy, 2. King. 5.7. the reasons:  
Hence, Reasons our health is commonly and truly called God's blessing: and here corporal Physicians, or Physicians of the body, are as the spiritual of the soul: for they are but Ministers by whom we believe, 1. Cor. 3.5. and so, these are but Ministers of health, and God is the giver: he that maketh an unbeliever faithful, is he that maketh a sick man whole: and this is God, for Faith is the gift of God, Ephes. 2.8. Secondly, sin causeth sickness, and impaiteth health, Micah 6.10.13. but God only forgiveth sins: it was alleged by the Scribes, and not denied by Christ, Mar. 2.6.7. and therefore he only can take away sickness and send health.  
An instruction to use such Physicians for our necessity, Use 1 as by whom we may be persuaded that God, who maketh whole, will send a message of health unto us. And these must be men of good conscience and sound Religion; not Popish, or of no Religion, if we can choose: else it will be said: is it not because there is no God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of the God of Ekron for your health? 2. King. 1.3. God giveth the blessing: and can we think that he will enclose it to us in evil means? further, having made our best choice this way, we must take certain religious preparatives, that their physic may have the better work upon us. And here, we must humble our souls with repentance, and confession of sins: yea crave pardon for them, and forsake them, purposing amendment: also, we must sanctify our sick beds, and make them up by the Word of God and prayer, 1. Tim. 4.5. The truth is; when a man is made whole, good medicines are good means unto it, but God's blessing is it that strikes the stroke of health, and recovers him. Therefore let those who have lately felt the sweet fruit of God's work, in their restore to health from the wound of Plague, bring forth like fruit of thankfulness in their turnings to him that hath healed them: else better they had died then; and that the Plague had taken away their life, when it took away their health. The want of this is (often) cause that diseases, curable in themselves, are made incurable by our sins: which should make us, when God gins his correction by sickness, to begin repentance by turning to him that smiteth us: when we take physic for our recovery, we must not take it as trusting in it, but repose on God for health: nor must our end of taking it be to put off death further than God hath bounded our term here: for, physic can go no farther than he hath appointed, who puts his staff into it without which it falls to nothing.  
A reproof of those who with Asa in sickness, Use 2 seek to physicians, and not to God, 2. Chron. 16.12. or to them in the first place, and to God, when there is no other remedy. Some never call when God bindeth them, job 1.36.13. bid them pray, they list not, or cannot: and for their sickness, they fret at it, and with Cain say; the punishment is greater than they can bear, Gen. 4.13 as if they should say: God doth not well so to punish them; that is, so severely, or so for nothing. And so, they anger him with their impatiency, who must give them their health if they ever recover; and increase the wrath, going further in but not coming out of sickness to health. But some, instead of seeking the Lord by prayer, seek to the devil in some witch for ease of pain, or end of sickness: so did Ahaziah, who falling through a lattesse in his upper chamber in Samaria, was so bruised with the fall, that he lay sick of it upon his bed, till he died: hereupon, when he should have sent to God in Israel he sent to an Idol in Ekron, Baal-zebub; that is, not to God in faith, but to the devil in sin, to know if he should recover of that disease, 2. King. 1.2.6.  
The admonition followeth.   
Sin no more. 
Our Saviour, having made this Man whole; here, like a good Physician, tells him what diet he should keep, to keep so. The diet prescribed is; Sin no more: the meaning is, not as thou hast done: and so he bids him not to keep a course in sin, as before, and not to return to the vomit which he hath cast: or, he wisheth him to look better to the health of his soul, for neglect whereof, he had such ill health in his body; and to take heed that by the ill diet of sin he fell not into a relapse. This may be our Saviour's counsel: where yet he intends not that he can be so free from sin, as that he should never fall again; for that is impossible in this mid-vaile: but intimates that his sickness was the fruit of his sin: 
Doct.  from whence we may draw this conclusion; that the diseases of the body (for the most part) come from the disease of the mind, caused by sin: and so, God correcteth sin with the whip of sickness, not always, yet most what, and commonly. I say not always: for, there are (sometimes) other causes of sickness beside sin, not known to us, but well known to God, joh. 9.2.3 yet sin (ordinarily) is cause. The first fall gave us this bruise, and ever since we spat blood through or by means of it. Indeed, a peace since was made between God and us in the seed of the woman, Gen. 3.15. but it never reached so far as to conclude a peace between God and sin: and he that was contented to be reconciled to sinners is at enmity with sin; hence, sin is the proper and kindly cause of Plagues upon a whole Nation, or particular person; and so of sicknesses upon it, and him. And for general strokes upon a Land, that sin causeth them, it is a plain case in the book of Lamentations: where jeremy showing what a folly it is for man so to vex himself, that is, so in vain by misjudging of his estate, helps to wind him out of the bypaths of so foul mistakes; and directly tells him, that being smitten of God, he suffereth justly the punishment of his sin: man suffereth for his sin, Lam. 3.39. but more specially, in the instance of sicknesses, that these also come deservedly for sin, beside the words here, the speech of Christ to the sick of the Palsy, (in which disease his sin held him) doth make plain as upon tables, Mat. 9.26. for, first he forgave him his sins removing the cause, verse 2. and then he healed his Palsy, changing the effect, ver. 6. God was coming to judah with good things in both hands: but he turned away: the good came not, which their sins hindered, and evil things were sent, which their iniquities were cause of, jer. 5.25. Eliphaz tells job, that misery comes not forth of the dust, job 5.6. and bids him to seek another mother for it, even the proper mother of misery, which is sin, ver. 3. The rebellious to God's ordinances (who are foul sinners) are threatened, for like matter, by the Lord himself, Levit. 26.15.16. and the Psalmist saith that fools, (by which he meaneth wicked ones) by reason of their transgression, and because of their iniquities are afflicted, Psal. 105.17. that is, afflicted with sickness, and visited with troubles, Psal. 89.32. the reasons: Reasons  
In many things we sin all, james 3.2. and all in some: but the least sin doth, at the best hand, deserve the gentle correction of sickness, which, having the own due, deserveth hell and death, Rom. 6.23. Secondly, the evil of punishment followeth the evil of sin: and God cannot make such a breach in his justice, as to spare for sin, when men do not spare to sin. God is righteous and not merciful only: and therefore David's song to him is of his mercy and justice, Psal. 101.1. Thirdly, God should do wrong, if it were not right to visit man's transgression with the rod, and his iniquity with strokes, Psal. 89.32. but the God of judgement cannot do but what just is: and it is just to give to every mother her own child; that is, correction where it is deserved, and more, where more is due: therefore, God afflicting for sin, it followeth that sin is the deserving cause of that affliction whatsoever.  
An instruction in all we suffer, Use 1 whether by sickness, or otherways, to confess the right father, even that which hath begotten all that with the seed of sin: we must confess our sins to be cause of all, and learn to profit by the hand to amendment. I say then: hath God lately crossed us in our trades? it is because we traded with sin: have our fields kept their Sabbaths? it is because we have not kept God's Sabbaths: have they been full of weeds? our hearts have been fuller of the weeds of sin: hath God touched us in our bodies? it is, because we have so dishonoured him in our bodies: doth the Land mourn? and may we not say, because of Oaths, the Land mourneth? jer. 23.10. So, for every sorrow we must say; this is our sorrow; that is, that which we are worthy of, and comes to the right owner, jer. 10.19. If God lay his finger upon us, touching us, in our estate with want, or in our name with disgrace; nay, if he lay his whole hand upon us, smiting us with the calamities of Pestilence, Famine, or Sword, we must clear the Lord in all, & in all say; Righteous art thou O Lord, & just are thy judgements, Psal. 119.137. David, when it was told him from the Lord by Nathan, that evil should be raised against him out of his own house, that the Sword should be laid upon it, that his wives should be defiled, and the child die, 2. Sam 11.12. pleaded to all this no other defence, but I have sinned against the Lord, verse 13. And he confesseth, that when all those judgements should come and be executed upon him, which God, by his Prophet, had threatened, yet God was free and he in fault. The like confession made Daniel for the people, or rather against the people for the Lord, in as fearful a judgement as could be executed upon a Nation; Dan. 9.5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14. which was, that the Lord was just, and that they had deserved somuch and more: what David & Daniel did in a Plague and calamity the greatest under heaven, that must we do in like manner, and justify the Lord in all his judgements: for, no judgement is executed, which is not executed for sin: the law reads the sentence, and God gives it: if God pour out the dregges of his wrath, it is, because we are frozen in our dregges of sin, Zeph. 1.12. the earth is filled with cruelty, before God will fill it with water, Gen. 6. and 7. Chap. and Sodom burneth with lusts, before God will burn it with fire, Gen. 18.20. & 19.5.24 25. So judah serveth sin, before God will give up judah to serve in Babel. She will not serve the Lord: for 70. years, therefore, she must serve a strange Lord, in a strange Land. And now for ourselves of this Nation; the Lord hath lately broken in by a terrible Plague: and shall we think other, but that the sins were strong and masculine that called for it? and if so: should it not make us in all that is come, to confess God's righteousness, and our own open shame, because we have sinned against him? Dan. 9.8. should it not make us to search and try our ways, and to turn again unto the Lord? or make us to new-cast ourselves, that we may be a people, holy to God? Tit. 2.14. If we do not, rather, if we will not, what hope, sin continuing, (the cause of Plagues) but that the effect should follow, great Plagues for sin? either God must lose his justice, or we perish, if we will not be reform: this was more largely spoken of in my Commentary on Psal. 9 1. ver. 10. the words; there shall no evil, etc. Doctrine and Uses there.  
A reproof of those who being under the hand of God in their many sins, Use 2 never give God glory by confessing unto him his righteousness, and their iniquities against themselves, but fret at the rod, and open wide against him that striketh with it: so did that reprobate, Mat. 25.24. who charged his Lord to be a hard man, and an unreasonable taker: one that had a very hard law, a law that reaped where it never sowed: if they do not what he commandeth, the law is intolerable, and who can help it? or, whose fault is it but his who should have given them better grace? so say Reprobates; so said Cain, and that God's punishment was above the fault, Gen 4.13. The Hypocrite, when God lays smart upon him, and pays him in justice, for iniquity and for sins, fareth like a beast that is sticked & haled with ropes, using neither meekness nor entreaty, but with roaring and struggling, and straining himself doubleth his pain. He never considers his sin, in which he is bound fast unto judgement, but complains of his punishment; also, he flutters like a bird in a Net, when God hath caught him: but, what is gotten by struggling thus under God's hands? they that are so impatient under the rod, must be bound to a form: and what do we get by running against the rock and stone of offence but a dashing in fitters, with the Plague-sore of a tormented conscience? if (then) we will not be (as the most wicked) when we are in fault, we must humbly (as the most penitent) submit when we have to do with the Lord; reverencing his just law, and clearing him. If he follow us with judgements, he is just: or, if he reject us, he is just, holy, and righteous. If he take away our corn in the time of harvest, he may do it, sin provoking him: if he bring the Plague again, why may he not, who taking it away in mercy, may in justice, reduce it for sin? if he kill with death, we cannot complain, the wages of sin being in our hands, Rom. 6.23. and the issues of it in his.  
The last reason persuading, followeth.   
Lest a worse thing come unto thee. 
THis last reason goeth off with a threatening shot. It hath a full charge, telling the man whom Christ healed, that if he did so again, that is, so as before, he should not carry it so easily: or then, it should be worse with him then ever, God having an iron rod to break those, whom his rod of correction cannot make better. And indeed, the Lord hath many judgements in his store-house that can never be emptied. If a man will not be said unto by one or two warnings, he can send unto him by his great ordnance. If sickness will not amend a land, if dear markets cannot, there is a worse thing behind. And so we see, when one affliction can do nothing, 
Doct.  God will send many and worse: if a light correction will not move us, he hath a heavier rod: and when one cannot, many shall. This is a plain case, as appeareth, Levit. 26.18. where Moses threatening, or God by him, obdurate sinners, tells them, if they will not keep their hearts softer and more steep in obedience to him; he will punish them seven times more, that is, more and further, and that according to their sins. The like is threatened against the like persons by the same Moses, Deut. 28.58.59. where, in the person of the Lord, the obstinate and sinners are told, that they shall have, as their purchase and merit, many strokes and wonderful, yea wonderrously durable, if they persist to sin against that great and fearful name, the Lord their God. In the next verse the 60. he holds on with more. And in Psal. 32.10. the Prophet speaks not of few sorrows, as crooks, to pull in the wicked when they offer to break from God, but of many. I say therefore, go as fare as thou wilt, if thou go from God, he can fetch thee again from any of all the quarters of the earth, with many, yea innumerable sorrows: the reasons: Reasons  
Even our earthly Parents, where a little correction twenty: and shall our heavenly Father do less, when gentler means can do nothing? Secondly, for this, the Lord hath his store-house of judgements, and a whole treasury of Plagues, Deut. 32.34. he hath a hammer to break the stone, jer. 23.29. and a rod of iron to break the horrible sinner, Apoc. 2.27. He will be a moth to Ephraim, and so consume him insensibly, by little and little, Hosea 5.12. or if the matter require more haste, a Lion to tear him quickly, verse 14. also to the house of judah, rottenness, which comes by degrees, verse 12. or if more speed must be used, a Lion's whelp that makes quick work, goes away with the spiole, and none can rescue it, verse 14. In the book of the judges; first, God kindles the fire of his wrath, selling his people (their sin is the price) into the hands of a strange Lord, but eight years, judg. 3.8. after, he makes the fire greater; and they served Eglon (King of Moah) eighteen years, verse 14. and after; and lastly, the fire was great indeed; for, he delivered them into the hands of the Philistims 40. years, judg. 13.1.  
An instruction to Christians, Use 1 when they feel sorrow after sorrow, one cross after another, a greater after a lesser, to lay all upon their own intractableness under God's gentler hand: for, what marvel where we renew our sins that God should renew his Plagues: & where we vie, there he should revy, and come over us with the same hand? that he should punish with increase, where we increase the sin? and fetch his blows often, when we often sin against him? yet (as one saith) there is great difference between God's children, and no children, in this manner of dealing: for, God's children, are first called by the Word: if that do nothing, or little, they shall be called by some works of his justice in others: or, if they profit not that way, they shall feel smart themselves; first, by light crosses and seldom, and after by sharper, and more often: and, if yet they abide in sin, they shall be fetched out, as out of the fire with strong and long afflictions: but for such as are no children but bastards, they must look for one breaking after another till their necks be broken: Plague shall follow Plague, till the last be executed, as upon Pharaoh. God will deal with them as wise fathers do with graceless children: he will lay away the rod, and put them out of doors. And here, let us (the people of this Kingdom) take heed: the Plague hath been among us, and hot in London: if so many warnings will not serve, what shall we look for, but that God should lay away the rod of our correction, saying; wherefore should ye be smitten any more, Esay 1.5. and so put us out of the doors of his kingdom for ever? if the fire of Pestilence cannot purge us, there is a fire in hell will burn us: ye that have escaped out of the fire of Pestilence, consider; that ye go not out of one fire, and another fire consume you, Ezek. 15.7.  
An admonition to Christians, Use 2 to pity themselves by amendment betimes: the longer they put off, the more they must suffer: and what wiseman will not save his skin as much as he may? if he receive one blow, he will ward the second, and arm against the third. Now, apply this to thyself: doth God lightly humble thee? that should make thee, or should not that make thee, when thou art up again, to look better to thy ways, and to thy feet to set them in God's testimonies. O remember this ye, that rise from sickness to sin, not to amendment: hereby ye do but make work for another, and smarter Visitation. A man should come out of sickness, as gold out of the furnace, which is purer by it, & more shining: but many come out worse than they went in, who are not God's gold but Satan's dross: afflictions, sickness, poverty, pain are the portions of sin from God, and rods of nurture in the hands of a loving Father: but if the rod of nurture better us not, rather if it make us worse, what hope of us more than of salomon's fool, who being sore and often beaten for his fault (it was of drunkenness) would follow it yet more? Pro. 23.35. Of such blockishness and privation of sense we read in the wicked Israelites; who though stranger's devoured their strength; and this was no small affliction; yea, though grey hairs were here and there upon them, and this was no new affliction; yet they knew nothing, neither sought the Lord for all this, Hosea 7.9. no rod, no calamity could do any good upon them: were these wise for themselves? or are they wise, that will fall a sleep in a regardless security, while they are in the heart of the sea, and far from any shore, as did salomon's drunkard, who therefore might have perished without all remedy? So for the careless and incorrigible in the hot brunt of London's last Mortality, what wisdom in them, that they had no better regard; seeing that by such senselessness of so fearful and great a judgement from God, they purchase more strokes to the fools back, which cannot but be so, when one stroke, and such a one, can so little move them, or never a whit?  
To have thirty and eight years sickness, and all that long time, to keep in bed, must needs be a grievous chain: yet Christ tells this Man of a worse thing in chains under darkness, binding to damnation: for such a matter I take this worse thing to be. 
Doct.  And then we learn hence, that corporal pains here, should breed care in us to prevent eternal in the hells: for, therefore the Lord judgeth us here, 1. Cor. 11.32. and therefore, when we suffer here, & but for a very short time, (or rather no time, compared to time endless,) in the ache of a tooth or anguish of other member; and yet cry out as if we suffered, or should suffer eternally: how should this put us in remembrance & fear of that place where, & those torments wherein the wicked and all that forget God, do, and must suffer world without end in ever burning flames of hell? should not such an occasion set spurs of care into us to avoid the worse thing, when the thing before was so grievous and tormenting: the reasons: Reasons  
Good reason it should be so; for otherwise GOD should lose that labour, and we our souls. Secondly, then is the fittest season: for, when can a man so fitly remember a smart, as when he smarts? and when so well mind the torments of hell, as when, by reason of torments like those, he can at no hand, mind and remember with pleasure the pleasures of sin that bring down to hell?  
A reproof of those who mind nothing in sickness but health; nor in prison but liberty; Use nor in pain but ease. They never labour, with bodily health to get saving health; nor with liberty from prison, the liberty of Sons; nor with the ease of the flesh, ease and rest from their labours in another world: their happiness stands (all of it) in their riches, their life in their abundance, and their rejoicings in the favour of men: all their care is, not to prevent misery for hereafter, but to store themselves with some foolish happiness now: where David yet in the highest float of his kingdoms, felt his sins as a mountain, & the pardon of them, as the greatest ease worldly, Psal. 32.1.2. to be shut up in sin, he esteemed it greater thraldom, then to be shut up in prison: and the favour of God he desired above all favours here, Psal. 4.6. This use he made of his sickness caused by his sin; the pain of it put him in mind of worse pains, and more intolerable, which was his benefit thereby for our imitation. I pray God the like mind may be found in those, whether rich or poor, at whose hearts the Lord knocked by this last calamity of Pestilence; and I pray God it may be found in all of us to our amendments: Amen.  ECCLESIAST. 7.13. 
Consider the Work of God.  
FINIS.