THE KING'S MEDICINE FOR THIS PREsent year 1604. prescribed by the whole college of the spiritual physicians, made after the copy of the corporal king's medicine, which was used in the city the former year. GIVEN, As a NEWYEERS-GIFT, to the honourable city of LONDON, to be taken in this year for the soul, as the other was for the body. HEREUNTO are intermixed, First, the wonders of the former year, his triumphs, two funerals, two coronations, two preachers. secondly, LONDON'S and ENGLAND'S newyeers-gift, to offer up unto the Lord for his new-yeers-gift, containing King DAVID'S Sacrificing after the ceasing of the pestilence, necessary to teach us the duty of our deliverance. The whole collected out of the first book of Chr. ch. 21. Made and written by JAMES GODSKALL, preacher of the word.  john. 5.14. 
Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.  
At London printed for Edward White, at the little Northdoore of Saint Paul's Church, at the sign of the gun.   

To the right honourable the Lord Mayor of the most reowmed City of London, and to the right worshipful the Sheriffs, and Aldermen their Brethren, I. G. wisheth all graces to be multiplied from the Lord, by the holy spirit, both for the government of his people, and for their everlasting salvation, through jesus Christ.  
THE almighty God (right honourable and worshipful) hath dealt the former year with your city and suburbs, as Kings and Princes in the besieging and taking in of towns: first they invade the suburbs, and liberties; where they destroy, pull down, and set on fire: secondly they come before the walls and gates of the city, which (if the inhabitants be not able to resist) they presently take in, sound the alarum, blow the trumpets, strike the drum, and destroy both young and old: which causeth sighs, lamentations, weeping and howling: So likewise the Monarch of the world, the Lord of hosts, having put on his helmet & cloak of revenge Es. 59.17. & taken one of the weapons of his wrath, (of which in his armoury of justice he hath great store) hath first by his destroying Angel taken in your suburbs, freedoms & liberties, there he hath kindled their houses with the fire of the plague, & made whole families desolate, he hath shot off his arrow that flieth by day, 
Psal, 91.5.  & set the pestilence that walketh in the darkness, & destroyeth at noon day, thousands and ten thousands have fallen before him, Psal. 9.6.7. he hath made many to fall, and one fell upon another, as the Prophet speaketh jer. 46.16. So that they have first tasted the cup of god's wrath. Secondly he is come before your gates, taken them in, & to speak with the psalmist he hath whet his sword, 
Psal. 7.12.  bend his bow, made it ready, & ordained his arrows for them that persecuted him. His angel hath kindled the flying fire among your citizens, it hath entered into their houses, & remained in the mids of them Za. 5.4. The alarum hath been given, witness the continual alarum of bells, the trumpets of jehovah, which have sounded in your ears so that your citizens have also been set as a mark for the arrows of his heavenvly displeasure to be spent at. O the widows & desolate orphans! O the sighs, tears & lamentations of old & young, rich & poor, yet continuing for the miseries of the former year? To what shall we ascribe the cause of our weakness, that the bars of our gates, & we also, have not been able to keep out the destroyer? And to use the prophet's words, why have our valiant men been put back, 
jerem. 46.5.  and could not stand? Two things, R. H. make the inhabitants not able to resist: first, the force of the enemy without, and lack of weapons within to repel the enemy, Secondly, treason or traitors within the city, which tender it up. The first, they are able often courageously to withstand, as experience of green memory, in that admirable besieging of ostend, admired of all the nations of the world, doth testify: but the second very seldom, of which the Low-countrieses have had often woeful experience. Both of these forenamed, have made us unable to keep out of our city, the Lord of hosts, his slaying angel, and his flying arrows, First the default and want of spiritual weapons, and of that armour of proof, described in the 6. to the Ephesians, our heads being not covered with the helmet of salvation, our hearts with the breast plate of righteousness, our loins with the girdie of verity, our feet with the gospel of peace, our hands having not the sword of the spirit, and the buckler of faith: the which weapons, our long peace & prosperity, had made us to cast aside as careless soldiers, and to take the armour of sathan, 
The armour of Satan.  the helm of mistrust, the breastplate of injury, the girdle of falsehood, the shoes of discord, the shield of infidelity, the sword of the flesh, the darts of Atheism, epicurism, unmercifulness, pride and gluttony. The second cause of our weakness, hath been treason within; the traitors and rebels within our walls, which have rendered up the city unto the Lord of hosts. Perhaps you will object the Apostles saying unto me, 
2. Cor 7 4.  that, I use great boldness of speech toward you. Be not offended beloved, I mean our manifold sins and iniquities, which are, as an ancient father termeth them, traitors within us, which render up the castle and fortress. This is the nature of sin, it maketh us soldiers, rebels, and to use the words of the holy ghost, fighters against God Act, 5.39; Satan being the captain, our flesh the lieutenant, our pride the standard and flourishing ensign, our lying tongues the trumpets, our blasphemies the pikes wherewith we do as it were pierce him through, our dissensions the drum to give the alarum, and our damnable oaths and swear, the horses wherewith we do as it were tread and trample under feet the sacred name of the immortal god. 
Four sorts of traitors have rendered up the city.  But, to particularise, four sorts of traitors and rebels we have had amongst us, which have betrayed us, and rendered up the city. First, traitors against the majesty of god the king of heaven, our blasphemies, Atheisms, cursings, idolatries, damnable swear, our contemning of his heavenly proclamation, and of his spiritual heralds. Thus sathan, as an old Seba, had blown the trumpet and many enticing blasts, & had carried us away from our true allegiance to Christ jesus our king. These kinds of sins, although they are committed beneath upon the earth, yet they reach as high as heaven, and therefore may be compared unto the pioneers or underminers, who although they are busy under the earth about the foundation, yet their purpose and intent is above, to cast down the high walls, towers and fortresses. secondly, traitors against our neighbours, our murders, adulteries, our thefts, robberies, frauds and oppressions of the poor, our false witnesses against the innocent, our slanders and depriving of the good name and fame of our brethren. Thirdly, traitors against our own persons, as our whoredoms traitors against our chastity, drunkenness against our health, pride against our humility, and prodigality against our substance. fourthly some against the prince, Abners', Asahel's, Isbosheth's, 
2. Sa. 2.  Seminaries and jesuits, repining at his felicity, traitors, (to invert the words of AUGUSTIN against the Donatists) convicti non conficti, by conviction, not by confiction, locusts, come from the bottomless pit of hell, spewed forth from the sea of Rome and Rheims in heaps, into the land, who would rather have a Reboam then a Solomon; and therefore are vermins, being come out of the high Oak tree of Rome, seek to destroy the green Olive tree in the house of the lord 
1 ●●l. 52.  And have not some home-bredde enemies blown the trumpet of Seba; 
2. Sam. 20.  saying, we have no part of David, nor inheritance in the son of Ishai? to whom may be said that which Wisdom speaketh to her son, Pro. 31.1, What my son, the son of my womb! and yet they have risen against their mother that did bear them, and gave them suck.  
These four kinds of traitors have betrayed us, and made us unable to resist the King of Heaven; & as they have provoked the Lord against us, so have they also made the Lords Angels & the elements our enemies. As it hath been with the father, so hath it been with the sons; as it hath been with the King, so hath it been with the subjects. For, a King being offended, his servants are ready to be executors of his anger and displeasure. O the admirable force of sin, that whereas nothing is able to break the hedge of the Lords vineyard, the Lion, nor the wild Boar, yet our sins are able to make a breach: & as one speaketh; The Lord is a strong Samson: but yet our sins, are as a razor, by which we take away, as it were, his strength, and by which we do, as it were, shave the head of that great Samson our judge and defender, that he cannot, or rather will not help us. I have showed you then (right Honourable) the causes of our impotency; give me leave also to signify to you the means, how to escape, against the future, the brunt of such a judgement and heavy assault; behold in this new years gift, out of the armoury of King David, I discover the right armour of proof, wherewith we shall be able to keep out another time the destroyer; namely, King David's repentance, a tree branching itself, into these fruits, the knowledge of his sin, desire of remission, accompanied with faith, humble confession, prayer, sacrificing, prostrating of himself in sackloath with the Elders of the people. No other target or sword, no other gate to shut out the destroyer than this. These are man's, or rather the Christians weapons. God hath given to every living creature his weapon to defend himself and to resist; to the Bee his sting, to the Bull his horns, to the Cock his spurs, to the Horse his heels, to the Bear, his paws, to the Elephant his snout, to the Lion his teeth, to the Fish his sins: but to man or a Christian, he hath given one more forcible than all the rest, repentance and prayer, fit weapons to resist and to keep out the slaying Angel, and the Lords army.  
Now, that we might be skilful in the handling of them, this Treatise setteth, before our eyes, DAVID, a skilful captain. Esteem not (Right Honourable and Worshipful) that it cometh too late, & out of time: for as after the taking in of cities, there is a portraiture and Map drawn of the siege and taking in, and of the manner thereof, with a description of the traitors which have betrayed it, or of the cause of their weakness and unability to resist, and that for the instruction of others, that therein they might learn, where to amend the fault, and the means how to keep out another time the enemy: So likewise, after the besieging and taking in of your honourable city, by the Lord of Hosts and his Angel, behold, I have made a portraiture, and drawn a Map of the manner of the causes of our weakness, of the traitors which have betrayed it, to show hereby the means to stop the breach, and the way to resist, if he return again the next summer, or any other time. For although, now in the winter season, our enemy the pestilence ceaseth to annoy us, yet he may perhaps the next spring return, if we take not heed. For, the plague is like unto Kings and Princes in the besieging of cities: in the winter season, they commonly retire, the coldness of the winter suffering them not to continue; but when the Summer appeareth, behold they are in arms, and come before the city, destroying, burning, and shooting. In the same manner, the Plague which ceased in the winter, returneth often in the summer. And therefore let us not become careless Soldiers. Great hath been the diligence (by the commandment of our wise and gracious Prince) of the spiritual Captains in your city, to train up the Lords Soldiers, and to teach them to handle these weapons; paise-worthy have been the weekly mustrings in the Lord's field, I mean, your weekly fastings in the congregation through the whole city; we have experience of success, for we have overcome the invincible Lord, and caused him to retire. But let us not therefore give ourselves to security, and lay aside these weapons: but rather, as the citizens who are in doubt of the enemies returning, let us continually watch and pray, Luk. 21. that if he return, we be not unprovided: let us not tarry to take them, until the Lord enter the city, as we have done, lest we smart for it again. Alexander the great, being ready to give an assault, saw one of his Soldiers then first to take his buckler in hand, and viewing it to try if it were strong enough: for which negligence he displaced him, and punished him; let us also take heed, that we suffer not a just punishment for our procrastination and delay. To avoid the same, (because the prints or marks of gods correcting hand are yet to be seen, and the noise of the mournings and groanings of many, do yet sound in our ears) give me leave (Right Honourable and worshipful) to give unto you, 
Good counsel for the city.  and to the whole city, a twofold counsel. First, keep in your city this year, yea continually, spiritual garrison, have the armoury of David, exercise yourselves in the handling of these spiritual weapons. Secondly, let your city be walled with mercy, judgement, truth, sobriety, humility and sanctimony: and so it will be stronger, then if it had walls of brass and Iron, and will be able to keep out the judgement of GOD in the highest strength thereof. To draw towards a conclusion, accept this little unworthy Treatise (Right Honourable and Right Worshipful). I offer it unto you this first day of the year, for a new years gift, with the name of the (King's Medicine) which, the Treatise following will lay open unto you. It was a medicine used by King David, and the Elders of the people, and therefore being a kingly medicine, is not unfit to be dedicated unto your Honour, a King's Lieutenant, and also to you (Right Worshipful) the Elders of the people. The Lord grant, that with the 24. Elders, ye may fall down before the throne of GOD, and give all praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honour, power and might, unto GOD, 
Revel. 4.10.  for evermore. Amen.  
Your Honours and Worships to command, and to use, in the Lord, JAMES GODSKALL the younger.   



THE KING'S MEdicine of the former year, against the Plague of the body. The first part.  
TAke Sage of virtue, 
The ingredients.  Rue (otherwise called Hearb-grace) Elder-leaves, Red bramble leaves, and Wormwood, of each of them a good handful, stamp them all together, and then strain them through a fine linen cloth: and put to the juice a quart of perfect good White wine, and a good quantity of white wine Vinegar: mingle them altogether, & put thereto a quarter of an ounce of White Ginger, beaten to small powder: use to drink this Medicine every morning fasting (for the space of nine days together) the quantity of a spoonful at a time, and this will (by God's help) preserve you for the space of a whole year.   

THE KING'S MEDIcine for this present year, against the Plague of the soul and the effect thereof.  
TAke the herb of virtue, (the doing of good. 
The ingredients.  Psal. 34.14, and the herb of patience (otherwise called a waiting upon the Lord. Psal. 37.7.) wherewith possess your souls. Luc. 21.19 Instead of Hearb-grace, take another, called Christ's grace: and in the place of Elder-leaves, Elders examples, following and imitating the Elders of Israel. 1. Chro. 21. prostrating yourselves before the Majesty of God. Let not two things be the ingredients of this Spiritual King's medicine, which are in the corporal, the Bramble & the Wormwood. Leave out the proud bramble, and his leaves, for he would exalt himself above the other trees. judg. 9.15. Secondly, leave out also the bitter wormwood of hate, anger, and envy: and according to the counsel of God (the best Physician) deu. 29.18: Let there not be among you any root of bitterness and wormwood. In steed of these two, take the humble Figtree and his leaves, who would not exalt himself above others. judg. 9.11. Mingle herein the broad fig-leaves of lowliness, humbling yourselves under the mighty hand of God. 1. Pet. 5.6. covering your good works (as the Figtree his sweet fruit) with the broad leaves of humility. Take of each of these a good quantity, and be abundant in good works, and in the work of the Lord (as the Apostle speaketh) being filled with all fullness of God. Ephe. 3.9. Strain these through the fine Strainer of uprightness and integrity, walking uprightly Psal. 15. Avoiding all hypocrisy, and laying aside all guile and dissimulation. 1. Pet. 2.1. In steed of white Ginger, put thereunto, the hot ginger of love towards God and thy neighbour: let it be white and pure, loving without dissimulation. Rom. 12. verse 9 Further, hot and fervent: Above all things, having fervent love among you 1. Pet. 4. vers. 8. Break with the stamper of obedience and humility, the hardness of thy heart: Let it smite thee as david's did, make as it were a small powder of it through humility: and if to day thou hearest the voice of the Lord, harden not thy heart. Heb. 3. In steed of white Wine, put to the juice of these: The perfect white and pure wine, that is, the blood of jesus Christ, and the sour Vinegar, of his death and passion: For, only by the virtue of this, the medicine must operate. Use to take in this medicine every day fasting: sometime outwardly and corporally (when in public calamity it is appointed by the superior power, to remove a present judgement) but always inwardly & Spiritually, losing the bands of wickedness, taking off the heavy burdens, letting the oppressed go free: covering the naked, dealing thy bread to the hungry, Esa. 5.8. use this (I say) not for the space of nine days together, but the whole year, yea, all the days of thy life. So continuing in the Lord. Phil. 4.1, and being not weary of well doing. 2. Thess. 3, 13. And this will (by God's help) preserve you from the Plague of the soul, and the infection of this world. I say, not a whole year, but all thy life time, till against the future resurrection, both with body and soul, thou mayest live eternally.    


THE KING'S BOdily Medicine after infection. The second part.  
IF it fortune, that one be strike with the Plague before he have taken the former medicine: then take the things rehearsed, and put thereto a spooneful of Betony water, and as much Scabious water, and a pretty quantity of fine Treacle: and temper them well together, and let the patiented use to drink it often, and it will expel the venom or poison forthwith. But if the Botch do happen to appear, then take a good quantity of Elder leaves, red Bramble leaves, and Mustard seed: stamp them well together, and make a plaster thereof: apply it to the sore, and it will draw forth all the venom and corruption.   

THE SECOND part of the Spiritual medicine.  
IF it fortune, that thou art stricken with the Plague, before thou hast taken in the former King's medicine of repentance, then take the things afore rehearsed: and lest in thy affliction thou wax impatient: put thereunto, not the balm of Gilead. Jer. 46.11. But the Spiritual treacle and Mithridate of the consideration of Gods will and providence. Psal. 39.9. opening not thy mouth because he doth it: and holding that nothing can happen unto thee, without his appointment. Further, that thou shouldest not distrust or despair of the remission of thy sins, of the health of thy soul, and of the goodness and power of God the Physician. In steed of Betony water, put there-unto, a good quantity of that Aqua benedicta, of that blessed Water of God's mercy, praying with DAVID, take away, O Lord the trespass of thy servant. 2. Sam. 24, 10. and wash me that I may be whiter than snow. Psal. 51. This will cool the heat of thy conscience, and comfort thy weary bones. Add as much of the water of life. john 4.10. which is powered into our hearts by the holy Ghost, unto everlasting life. Fetch it by prayer, of Christ the Physician and Doctor of our souls: for he doth give it to quench our thirst. joh. 4.14. Put hereunto thy Baptism water, representing the blood of Christ jesus: It is one of the three witnesses. 1. john. 5. assuring thee of the remission of thy sins. Leave out Scabious water: I mean, that Scabby Holie-water, with the Bulls and Indulgences of the Antichrist: for it will make thee to get scabs and sores in thy soul, and be unto thee, not the water of life, but the water of death. Add also a good quantity of that comfortable treacle of hope, with the consideration of the future glory: being sure that thy redeemer liveth, and that thou shalt see him with thine eyes. job. 19.25. Mingle and temper thus well together, this patience, faith, confidence and hope: and let the patiented that is infected with either of them both, use to drink this King's medicine often: let all his life, in health or in sickness, be a continual repentance and meditation of these things, and it will expel the venom of his sin, of impatience, distrustfulness, and immoderate fear. But if the filthy botch of impatience, distrustfulness and immoderate fear do happen to appear: then, instead of Elder leaves, take a good quantity of elders examples: the faith of ABRAHAM, patience of JOB, the hope of DAVID, & take my brethren the Prophets for an example of patience in suffering adversity: Jam. 5.10. Further, take also the mustard-seed of God's word. Matth, 13.31. with the excellent commandments, admonitions, promises and comforts contained therein: mingle these together, consider upon them, make a plaster of them, apply it to thy sore, it will draw forth the venom & corruption of impatience, distrustfulness, and immoderate fear. The mustard-seed, as PLINIUS doth witness, is both purgativum & curatiwm, it purgeth the body of evil humours, and cureth the venomous biting of a Serpent: Even so the Spiritual mustard-seed of the Word, purgeth and voideth the evil humours of the soul, and healeth the venomous biting of that old Serpent the Devil.     

THE KING'S MEDIcine for this present year: Collected out of the 2. book of Sam. Chap 24. and out of the first of the Chron. Chap. 21.  
THat which the Apostles in the beginning of their Epistles, have wished unto the Saints of God; the same in the beginning of the year, I wish unto you beloved of LONDON, for a New-yeeres-gift. Grace be with you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, beloved, begin this present year, with that excellent Prayer of MOSES. Teach us, 
Psal. 90.  O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. That which is reported of the DOLPHINES (in the enrie of this year) may put us in mind of the state of the former year: they play most in the Sea, when a tempest is nearest: And have not we the former year, in the Sea of this world, been most playing, rejoicing, triumphing, erecting our Arches, and some of the works like BABEL, when the tempest of the Pestilence was nearest, and when we least expected it? the sudden alteration which ensued, preacheth it to the whole Land. And as the Lord hath bestowed the former year upon this Kingdom, the greatest benefit which she ever received: so hath he also in the same year, sent the greatest Pestilence in our memory, which she ever felt: And note this with me, that as the Prophet DANIEL, in the first year of the reign of King DARIUS, who was made King over the Realm of the Chaldeans, 
Dan. 9  understood the desolation of jerusalem, the royal mother-city of jewrie: which moved him to turn his face unto the Lord by Prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth: So likewise, even in the first year of the reign of King JAMES, who was made King over the Realm of England: We understood, and also saw the desolations of the English jerusalem, the mother-city, and imperial Chamber of this kingdom, which moved us with DANIEL, to turn our faces unto the Lord, with prayer and fasting, which is the best Physic to cure the Plague of the soul, with the effect thereof, the Plague of the body. The Physicians against the bodily Plague, have prescribed a certain remedy, called, THE KING'S MEDICINE, so termed, because a king of England used it in the time of Plague. This hath been the medicine of the old year, great hath been your diligence (beloved of LONDON) to follow this prescription, and being aided by nature and experience, some of you have taken in this King's medicine, to prevent the Plague: others, being already prevented by the sickness, have taken it in, to expel the venom, and to be delivered from that secret evil and noisome Pestilence: with what success, yourselves have had experience.  
The old year being past, give me leave to prescribe another King's medicine, fit for the New year: so called, because a king of Israel used it, with the Elders of the people. It is a medicine against the Plague of the soul, fit for all times. If PLATO could say, 
Repentance.  that the life of a Philosopher, aught to be a continual meditation of death: how much the better may we christians say, that the life of a Christian ought to be a continual repentance? Although the Plague of the body be ceased, yet it is to be feared, that the Plague of the soul doth yet reign and continue in many places, both in the City and suburbs, & therefore as you have been diligent the old year to take in the king's medicine for the body: so be not negligent this New-year, to take in the King's medicine for the soul. It is a medicine which will cost nothing, and as fit for the poor, as for the rich. The Physicians divide their whole practice in two general parts, in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preventing Physic, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recovering Physic, according to this rule: The bodily king's medicine used the former year, doth consist of two parts, as it may be seen in the medicine itself, which I have annexed to this Treatise. The first, is for them that are not yet infected, to prevent it. The second is, for the infected, to remove it. The same medicine for both, but with an addition. So likewise, the Spiritual king's medicine, which I purpose to describe, consisteth of these two parts: It is a preventing and a recovering Physic, necessary to prevent future calamities, and to recover the health of the soul. All this hitherto spoken, premitted as a Preface, before we proceed: let us let some order in this our discourse, and draw the scattered branches home to their root. I will use the method that Physicians do use in their practice of Physic, showing unto you the cause of the sickness, the medicine to heal it, and the operation of the medicine. And this is the method which the Holy Ghost himself, that wise Physician doth follow in these two Chapters prefixed, which I have taken to be my text, and the subject of this discourse.  
The words do empty themselves into these four particulars: 
A division of the whole discourse.   
The first, containeth The King's sickness, the Plague of the soul, DAVID'S sin, consisting in the numbering of the people. verse 1.2.3.4 5. which I may call, the King's evil.  
The second, the effect, operation, and misery of the king's sickness, the Plague of the body, verse. 14.15.16. with the outward cause of it. The providence & decree of jehovah: Secondly the inward cause, the sin of DAVID.  
The third, containeth the King's medicine itself, to cure both these diseases, and this twofold Plague, DAVID'S repentance. verse 10. and 17. 1. Chron. 21. verse 8.16.17.  
The fourth, the operation of the King's medicine. verse 25 and the Lord was appeased toward the Land. And 1. Chron. 21. verse 26.27. with the action and behaviour of DAVID, after his recovery, by the virtue of that medicine, his sacrificing. 1. Chron. 21. verse 28.  

The first part, containing the King's sickness with a description of the Plague of the soul.  
THe King's sickness, 
1. Part  is the Plague of the soul: In which, the learned Physician, God the Holy Ghost, describeth two things. First, the disease itself: secondly, the counsel of JOAB (as a Physician) showing unto the King the means to prevent the increasing of this spiritual infection. 1. Chro. 21. vers. 3. In the King's disease, four things are to be observed: First, the person infected (DIVID the King) Secondly, the air infecting him, or the means by which he got the infection. 1. Chro. 21. verse 1. (Satan) with the consideration of the time when he got it: Thirdly, the disease itself, the Plague of the soul, with the pestilential Carbuncles, & devils tokens, by which this infection did manifest itself. ver 1. (the numbering of the people) Fourthly the time how long this infection remained in DAVID'S soul before it was discovered, and felt by DAVID, (nine months long) Hear is a large field to enter in, 
2. Sam. 24.8.  but I purpose not to amplify the two first parts, this New year inviting me to the description of the King's medicine: I will only trip over them, & as the Poet speaketh, tantum summa sequar fastigia rerum. I will only point at them, leaving the amplification of them to the meditations of the Reader. 
1 The person infected considered.  The person infected is DAVID, who may be considered two manner of ways. First, as a public person, a King: secondly, as a private person, DAVID: a holy, a righteous man, a sweet singer of Israel, 
1 As a public person.  a man after Gods one heart. As he is considered as a king, therein we behold, that credit, countenance, priority of place, and the greatness of the person exempteth him not from the infection 
Doctrine  of sin, but rather maketh him subject to this kind of Plague: for as they are most subject to the plague of the body, which are of a sanguine complexion, & of a high colour, according to the rule of the Physicians: So likewise, they which descend of Noble blood, and whose arms are countenanced with high colours) as the proverb goeth) are most subject to the plague of the soul The high Cedar is more subject to the boisterous winds, than the low and humble Willow tree: the mountain more than the valley; Worms engender soon in the softest wood, & motes in the finest garment. The archer can aim better at the greater mark, then at the little one: & as Satan lifted up Christ upon an exceeding high mountain, and then tempted him to ambition, 
Matth. 4  which he did not beneath in the valley: So they which are elevated upon the high mountain of honour and dignity in the Church and common weal, are more subject to the poison of Satan, than they which are beneath in the valley. As Princes are not free from the corporal infection, so are they not exempted from the spiritual plague. It was a foolish humour in CAESAR, who thought, that to be an Emperor, was safeguard enough against danger: for being in a tempest, and the master himself doubting the worst: Fear not, saith he, Caesarem vehis, thou carriest CAESAR. MAXIMILIAN had some like conceit, when he told his soldiers dropping away at his heels with the shot of their enemies: you must not adventure as far as I do: habent enim principes peculiarem quandam fortunam suam: For Princes have a luck of their own. And yet CAESAR might have been deceived, and afterward was in a safer place. To be an Emperor, is no safeguard, either against the Plague of the body, or of the soul, neither Princes have a luck of their own to escape the poison of Satan. 
The use.  Princes and subjects, learn here wisdom: Princes in regard of yourselves and of your subjects: Subjects, in regard of your Princes. 
1 In regard of princes  Princes, seeing ye are subject to get the Plague of the soul, avoid presumption: for as it is not good to be presumptuous in the time of bodily infection (for the boldest of them all may catch it) so adventure not too far, in regard of sin. Keep the windows of your eyes shut, and let not the infectious air of concupiscence enter therein. Hang at your hearts the fear of the Lord, as a preservative against the heart-plague: & as you are diligent to keep from your Court the infectious person, so be not negligent to keep out of the same, the flatterer, the Atheist, Epicure, Libertine, & Machavilion professor: for such infect both the Prince and the Nobles. Ye that are the heads of the people, imitate the serpentine prudence, 
Mat, 10, 16  Be wise as Serpents: a precept for the Prince, for the Priest, for the people. As the Serpent's chiefest care, is to preserve his head: so let your principal study be to preserve yourselves from the infection of sin, for this spiritual infection is not only hurtful to the head, that is, to yourselves, but also to the body, that is, to your subjects, according to the tenor of the common proverb, Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis. Credit, countenance, priority of place, maketh the subjects and inferiors bolder to sin, because they sin with such authors. Evil behaviour in Princes, infecteth as it were the air round about. A sick head disordereth all the other parts: a dark eye, maketh a dark body. JEROBOAM infected with the plague of sin, infecteth all Israel: and therefore being mentioned in the book of GOD, draweth a tail after him like a blazing star, Who sinned, and made Jsrael to sin. You then that by the warrant of your precedency, pull others to wickedness: you bind two sins together: sinning yourselves, and sinning before others, putting a stumbling block before their feet. Such bitter roots shall answer for themselves and their corrupted branches, such leprous and contagious souls, shall answer for the pollution of their own persons and of others. Such poisoned fountains shall not escape with single judgement, because they have polluted the whole course of Waters. I leave you Princes, and come to your subjects; 
2 In regard of subjects  let the danger of your Princes, move you subjects to take care, not only for yourselves, but for them also. And as they, who in the time of infection depart out of infectious places unto the purer-ayre, are not only careful of themselves, but take with them, those whom they love, giving them in preservatives, that they might scape the infection: So this is the duty of the obedient subjects, 
Pro. 18.10.  going unto the name of the Lord, that strong tower, to carry with them in their prayers, their Princes and magistrates, whom they are bound to love as fathers, that their souls may be preserved from the infection of sin. As there are no better Halberds, and no trustier guard to preserve a King from bodily danger (as an ancient father speaketh) than the prayers of the righteous: So I may say, that there is no better preservative for the soul of the Prince, to keep it from the spiritual infection, than the humble prayers of the loving subjects. It is the Apostles precept, that prayers, 
1. Tim. 2.1.  supplications, and intercessions, should be made for Kings, and for all that are in authority: As a king for himself, so pray thou for the king: 
2. Sa. 24, 10  Take away, O Lord, the trespass of thy servant. I conclude this point, which concerneth kings and subjects, with the prayer of a king, fit for a subject: Give thy judgements to the King, O God, and thy righteousness to the king's son. psal. 72.1.  

2 David considered as a private person,  Secondly, DAVID being considered as a private person, a holy and a righteous soul, a man after Gods own heart, and yet (behold) infected with the plague of sin, taketh me as it were by the hand, & biddeth me tell you beloved, that the holiest, the most righteous, the godliest, may get the spiritual infection, & sometime are taken with spiritual apoplexies. 
3. Doctrine,  Where is the Patriarch, the Prophet, the Apostle, which hath not had the falling sickness? Both the bad and the good, get the corporal infection: and so, not only the vessels of earth, but vessels of the greatest honour, in the great house of the Lord, are sometimes polluted. For as JEROME speaketh, Nunquam ad perfectionem pertingemus nisi confecto stadio nostro, we shall never attain unto perfection, until we have finished our race. Magnum electionis vas, perfectionem abnuit: The great vessel of election, PAUL himself, denieth perfection, saith BERNARD. As there is no Pomegranate wherein there is not some kernel amiss (as the proverb goeth:) So where is the Saint in whom there is no fault? The Ark of covenant itself doth Preach it, for consisting, (ex lignis Sethim auro obducto, 
Exod. 37, 1.2 ) of a certain Wood called, Shitthim-wood, over-covered with gold, doth signify, that the Church, as long as she is in the world, shall never be free from the Plague of sin: and yet that she is purged and covered, by the innocency, and golden perfection of Christ jesus. The righteous DAVID, and the Holiest NOAH, may be compared unto the ORANGE tree, which beareth at one time ripe fruit, green Oranges, and blossoms. So the Christian figtree, planted in the Lord's Vineyard, hath some imperfection. And how canst thou deny this, o impure perfectist? seeing man falleth, as LACTANTIUS hath noted, three ways: In deeds, in speeches, in thoughts; who can say, I am clean from sin? Pro. 20.9. Show him me, and I will praise him, tell me where he is, and I will honour him, let me see him, and I will worship him as a mortal God. Is there a body without a blemish, or a day without a cloud? The Heathen POET could say, 
Horace  Nemo sine crimine vivit. There be two false positions touching the corporal Plague: which, although many have held to be true, yet I have found false this year. The first, that an old man can not get the Plague: The second, that he that feareth it not, shall not lightly be infected. As touching the spiritual Plague, if any should hold these positions, examples would prove the contrary, in old DAVID and ancient NOAH. Old NOAH could preach that a flood should come, and yet a second inundation prevailed against him, and he became overflowed with wine, as the old world with water. PETER would seem the strongest, & to fear nothing, and yet he showed himself a weakling, and got the Plague of Apostasy, which remained in his soul, till he was wakened by the alarum of a silly Cock. But I cease to report their falls. lest I seem to take pleasure with ungracious CAM, to uncover the nakedness of my fathers: 
The use.  you that stand, learn by their ruins two things, to avoid presumption, 
1 To avoid presumption  & to walk circumspectly: First, by their falls, learn not to fa●, draw not on thee, sin with the cartropes of examples, take no advantage at the ruins of God's Saints, countenance not your sins, by the examples of those who healed them. Alas, precious vessels they are, but made of clay, and shaped of the self-same mould, whereof thou, and all mankind is fashioned. Secondly, learn prudence: 
2 To learn prudence.  If the spiritual Physicians get this Plague, how hardly shall the patients escape? If the Cedars in Libaenon are thrown down, no marvel, if the low shrubs be shaken & supplanted: If ye are Prophets, trust not the prerogative of your calling: Prophets have fallen, patriarchs have fallen, Apostles have fallen, Stars & Angels have fallen: Are you strong? alas trust not to it, it is infirmity. Thinkest thou to be pure, o perfectist? alas, trust not your purest and uprightest spirits, whilst they have their dwelling in houses of clay: there is a law in the members striving against them, to get the victory: Sayest thou, I have stood a time? yet trust not your legs, you may slide again: repliest thou, I have slipped, and recovered? trust not that recovery, for fear of backsliding. It is a conceit of men, that if once they have had the bodily Plague, they think that they cannot get it again. Whether this be true or no, experience teacheth: as for the spiritual plague, be not too bold, and venture not too far: for DAVID who was once infected with the plague of murder and of adultery, was afterwards infected with ambition: And thus much for the person infected.  
There followeth in the description of the spiritual plague, 
2 The air which infected the King  the second thing, which is (the air infecting him) or how DAVID got this infection. 1. Chron. 21.1. (Satan stood up, and provoked him,) with the consideration of the time when the king got it, (in the time of peace and prosperity, his heart now being at ease.) Touching the first, as there have been divers opinions concerning the cause of the corporal Plague: some attributing it to the infection of the air, and inward corruption of the humours (out of the book of Nature:) others, to the slaying Angel, out of the book of God. So likewise, diversly some have disputed of the cause of sin, which is the plague of the soul. Some have ascribed it to God, others, to Satan; the third, to man. As for them that root wickedness in heaven, they discern not betwixt the corruption of nature, and the author of nature. True it is, that GOD is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a worker in the works of men, but yet let us not set up a judgement seat in our erroneous fantasies, thereat arraigning God of injustice.  
Thus much I dare say, that as the house wherein SAMSON was, fell to ruin with the very weight of the building, when he withdrew the props, and pillars of the house: and as the removing of the sun from these upper parts of the earth, into the other hemisphere, bringeth darkness upon us: So when the Lord withdraweth his gracious spirit, and that the aid and assistance of God's grace forsaketh a man; the righteous Lord, departing from an unrighteous soul, how can the house but fall? and how can there but darkness succeed? Great and admirable is thy wisdom o Lord! Sin is a poison, & yet as the wisdom of the Physicians is, in using the poison of Serpents: for how harmful a nature soever the poison hath, the Physician tempereth it by degree, & healeth his patient thereby, the poison itself, notwithstanding hurtful, the skill of the Physician commendable, the effect profitable. So the Lord, an excellent Physician handleth sin, the poison of the old Serpent, & from the corrupted will of man, can produce good effects, as appeareth here in the example of DAVID. But I will not enter further into a bottomless sea; let us remain where the lamb may wade without danger of miscarrying. This question is covered with a curtain of sacred secrecy, & therefore the book, that is clasped up, I leave to the lamb and to the blessed Trinity. You fantastic Libertines, that charge that righteous Lord with the conception and birth of so vile a monster: why rub ye your filthiness upon his purity? vessels of clay, dare you thus conceive of your former? Ask but the masters of human wisdom, they will inform you better: God is by no means unjust, saith PLATO. Let those dogs be confounded that bark at the justice of God: 
jam. 1.  I conclude with the Apostle, let no man when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God, for God is not tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man. Others with a right judgement, follow the determination of that wise doctor the Holy Ghost, who can not err, and make Man and Satan, the cause of this spiritual infection. But what need we dispute about the matter; the doctor of truth decideth the question, and himself maketh a Commentary upon this question in few words, Satan stood up and provoked him. For explanation of which Commentary, the saying of AUGUSTINE is excellent and substantial, Deus deserit, diabolus suggerit, homo consentit. The devil worketh by suggestion; man by consenting, God by forsaking. To follow the method of the Physician, as he maketh a double cause of the corporal Plague, an outward and an inward, the infection of the air; and the corruption of the humours in the body: 
The outward cause of the spiritual contagion.  So may we make a double cause of the spiritual plague. First, an outward, (Satan) Secondly, an inward, the flesh, and the corruption within the the soul of man. Satan is the air which doth infect the soul: this air is worse than the infection of the elemental air. For the Satanical air is every where, in all countries, Kingdoms, cities, towns and villages: It compasseth the earth to and fro, Job. 1.7. It infecteth all manner of persons; the Prince and the subject, the Courtier and the Carter, the learned and the ignorant; and he that taketh in preservatives against it, doth often hardly scape it: For DAVID himself hath been infected by it. He walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 1. Pet. 5.8. The infection of the elemental air, hurteth nothing but the body: but the Satanical air, seeketh to hurt man in three things: In his soul, in his body, in his goods. The infection of the elemental air remaineth not always, but this continueth, and hath been from the beginning; this infectious air was in Paradise: the first person infected was EVE, ADAM got it from her, We from ADAM. The bitter root of disobedience, which our forefathers tasted, infected their blood, and the corrupt nutriment thereof converted itself into the whole body of their succeeding lineage. The breasts of EVE, gave no other milk than perverseness to her children: and ADAM (alas) left it for a patrimony to all his posterity: although the Lord had given them a preservative against this Satanical air, namely, his commandment, and had as it were fenced the forbidden tree with a double hedge of a twofold death, yet it was so forcible, that they became infected with the plague of the soul, which plague manifested itself with many devils tokens: disobedience, apostasy, infidelity, pride, ambition, and other more, this air than hath infected DAVID, and poisoned his heart. Some deny that the air doth infect, and affirm that an Angel doth it, I dispute not thereof, but to apply this to our purpose, I may say that an Angel doth infect men with the Plague of the soul, but it is an Angel of darkness. As an Angel of heaven smote the ISRALITES with the bodily pestilence, so an Angel of hell smote DAVID their King with the spiritual pestilence: 
2 The inward cause of it. jam. 1, 14, 15  thus much for the outward cause of this spiritual infection. The inward, is in man, his proneness to this corruption; as the corrupted air cannot infect, except the humours in the body be apt to receive the infection, for the evil and corrupt humours engendered in the body, are a cause of the bodily pestilence: So, although Satan be the outward cause, yet this our spiritual disease riseth from within us. Satan cannot constrain us to receive it, unless our wills should consent to it, and that by the inward corruption of our flesh, we were apt to take it. 
The use   
Out of the consideration of the twofold cause of the spiritual pestilence, learn to make a twofold preservative: First, resist the inward cause, 
1 To resist the inward cause  and as against the inward cause of the bodily infection, the engendering of evil humours, it is good to take heed of disordering himself, either in diet or other unlawful exercises: So to resist the cause of the spiritual plague, which is in man: Be sober and watch. 1. Pet. 5.8. Take heed to yourselves, least at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life. Luc. 21.36. possess your vessels in holiness and honour, and not in the lust of concupiscence. 1. Thes. 4.4. And as NOAH pitched the Ark without and within, that no water should get in: So let us pitch the arks of our souls, that no violent and disordered thoughts rush into them. The men of the world were wont to say (saith BERNARD) that he that keepeth the body, keepeth a good Castle: We say not so (sayeth he) but he that keepeth his soul, keepeth a good Castle. Let thy principal care be to preserve this precious soul from this infection. But alas, how many learn from the school of HYPOCRATES the Physician, and EPICURUS, the swine, to preserve, to physic, and diet their bodies? but as for their souls, they are not once mindful. O ye sons of men, foolish and slow of heart to conceive the rightest things; how long will ye love such vanities? Secondly, 
2 To resist the outward cause  resist the outward cause of this heart-Plague; and seeing that Satan is an infectious air, use to take in spiritual antidotes at all times, and in all places, keep the windows of your eyes shut, and let not the Satanical air of concupiscence enter therein: we dwell (beloved) in infectious places, and shall not we take heed? As to resist the infection of the elemental air, we shun contagigious places, and fly to the purer air: so let us fly the Satanical air by faith and prayer, let us draw near unto God. Jam. 4.8. Resist the devil, & he will fly from you. jam. 4.7, & that, steadfast in the faith. 1. Pet. 5.9. Imitate your own industry, for the preserving, of your souls, as you have done for your bodies: You that in diverse places the former year, have watched to keep out the passengers, that came out of contagious places, and would not suffer them to enter, and to harbour amongst you, for fear of infection: Watch now this year, to keep out Satan, an infectious passenger, who runneth every where in contagious houses. Shut the gate of your heart, suffer him not to lodge in your soul, for he will infect it. It is a precept of a wise Physician: be sober and watch, for your adversary walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1. Pet. 5.8. Ask the Cranes, o sons of men, and they will teach you wisdom, when they flock together (saith PLINY) to feed: one of them useth to feed a far off, and that Crane so singled from the rest, still as he feeds, looks round about him, and observes, if any danger be towards them: if he spy any body draw nigh, than he giveth warning to the rest, and so they save themselves. Shall this policy rest in unreasonable Birds, and shall it not be found in man? shall not our soul's watch, to espy the fraud of Satan, and so to deceive the deceiver? And thus much for the air which infected the king. There followeth the time, 
The time when the king got the Plague.  when the king got this spiritual infection, which was: now having peace and prosperity, his heart being at ease, after his victories, being delivered out of the hands of all his enemies, and out of the hand of SAUL, as appeareth. 2. Sam. 22.1. even than Satan stood up, and tempted him, setting before his eyes, his excellency and glory, his power and victories. Peace, prosperity, & idleness, are as it were a contagious air, which smiteth us with the Plague of the soul. The air which is still and calm, is apt to receive infection, for the wind is aeris verriculum, a broom to purge the air: so the soul which is at her ease, soon getteth the spiritual contagion. As evil and corrupted humours through idleness are engendered in the body: So in peace and prosperity, bad and pernicious humours are engendered in the soul. As the air is a good and pure creature of itself, and yet by the influences, putrefied vapours, evaporation of dead carcases, and divers other things approved by the book of nature, is altered and becometh pernicious to the body: So peace and prosperity (which are the gifts of God, by the corruptions of our own hearts, are abused, and become pernicious to the soul. And as the air hath not always the same force to infect the body: So Satan, the air which infecteth the soul) hath not always the like strength and of efficacy to fulfil his purpose, and to poison the soul. If thou art desirous to know when the Satanical air hath most force; It is in the time of peace and prosperity, when thy heart is at ease, and that thou hast given thyself to security: For he observeth three things; the time, the place, the occasion. Satan dealeth with us, as the Crab with the Oysters, (as AMBROSE observeth) the Crab being an enemy of the Oysters, because he cannot hurt them by reason of the hardness of their shell, he tarrieth till the Sun doth shine, for than they open themselves, and lie still in the Sun, recreating themselves: & then the Crab cometh, and casteth little stones into their shells, and so hurteth them: So likewise, Satan our adversary, perceiving when we are at our ease, and that the sunshine of prosperity doth shine over us: then he cometh, & casteth his poison into our souls. Seeing then that prosperity engendereth corruptions in the soul; 
The use  be not careless of thy health, exercise thyself, to drive away the bad humours, and to retain thy spirituull health. The sound man, if he doth not exercise himself, is subject to diseases: although thou art sound of spirit, yet if thou givest thyself to security, thou shalt fall in the King's sickness. Three exercises are necessary for the health of thy soul, against the gathering of bad humours. The exercise of Prayer; 
3 Three exercises, necessary for the soul.  the exercise of the Word, and the exercise of the Cross. As for the two first, forget them not, as for the third, the Lord himself will not forget, sometimes in due season to lay upon thee. And as the Physicians, in their Treatises of the former year, touching the Plague, bid thee to have a regard in your exercises, ubi, quomodo quando, where, how, when? So, I bid you this year observe these rules in your spiritual exercises, the amplification of which, I leave to your meditations. And thus much for the time.  
The third member of the first part, containeth the King's sickness itself, 
The King's sickness itself.  consisting in the numbering of the people. This fact of DAVID, is the King's sickness, a dangerous disease; I may call it, the heart-plague. As the infection of the elemental air, in the bodily Plague, doth creep unto the heart, and poison the vital spirits: So the infection and poison of Satan, hath crept into his heart, and infected that place with pride. This King's Evil, is more dangerous than that disease, which some have called the king's evil: For the bodily Kings evil can be cured (si credere f● est) if it be true, with corruptible gold: but the spiritual Kings Evil, 
A spiritual Kings evil.  cannot be cured with corruptible gold or silver, (as the Apostle speaketh) but only by the precious blood of the Son of God. This is then a dangerous and grievous wound in a Saint, if I would thrust my fingers into it, & thoroughly handle it: To extenuate the King's evil, three things might be alleged, that it agreeth with the commandment o● God. Exod. 30.12. Secondly with the practice o● the Israelites. Numb. 1.2. Thirdly with Politic prudence: To untie the knot with a word, there is a twofold numbering. First, a spiritual and Ecclesiastical. Ex. 30.12. Secondly a political Num. 1.2. Examine this fact of DAVID at the touchstone of this twofold numbering, and you shall find it is neither of them both: To leave amplyfications, it may be further censured ungodly and unlawful for these three respects. 
David's fault censured ungodly for three respects  First, because he did it not to the glory o● God. Secondly, to the good and welfare of hi● kingdom. Thirdly, for the good of his own● person. This King's Evil I have called the plagu● of the soul, which name, sin justly may bear for these four respects, for the names attributed to it in the book of God, corruptions, sores wounds, spots & such like. Secondly, for comparisons, unto which it is compared unto a leprosy. Levit. 13. A Serpent. Ec. 21. unto Pitch Eccle. 13.1. Thirdly for the medicine appointed to cure it, healing, cleansing, washing. Jere. 4, 14. we wash things that are polluted. Fourthly for the similitude which it hath with the corporal Plague in divers things, as I have already shown and yet will amplify in this King's Evil. As the corporal Plague doth manifest itself with Biles and Carbuncles, yea sometime with five, six, seven, or more: So likewise in this Plague of the soul, wherewith DAVID hath been infected, divers pestilential ulcers are to be seen. And as the Carbuncles, Botches, and, sores of the corporal Plague, are called by the vulgar (Gods-tokens) so give me leave fitly to call the divers sins which are to be seen in this King's Evil, (Devils tokens) To particularise, this plague in DAVID'S soul, doth manifest itself by six pestilential ulcers. The first devils token, 
The devils tokens to be seen in the King's evil.  hath been Pride; for to the numbering of the people, the king hath been moved by the pride of his heart, and seeketh as it were to glory in the arm of the flesh, & in the multitude of the people: As NEBUCHADNEZER in the greatness and magnificency of his royal Babel.  
The second hath been Ambition, which is, as BERNARD speaketh, Secretum venenum, a secret venom: He did seem hereby, to let others know, to what a glory he had brought the kingdom, and over how great a multitude he did reign. Ambition (saith one) hath ever been the Plague of the earth: It hath infected Angels, Saints, heaven and earth. The third devils token, his spiritual Idolatry: for he seemeth by this, to trust too much upon man, from which the Holy Ghost dissuadeth us. Psal. 146. The fourth, is the king's curiosity, his tongue betrayeth him. 2. Sam. 24.2 (that I may know the number of the people) he rendereth no just cause. We are all desirous by nature to attain unto knowledge, saith ARISTOTLE, which is not to be discommended, but our knowledge must be directed to a lawful end and scope, for if it doth consist in the limits of DAVID, that we might only know, it doth degenerate in curiosity, which is, as that hony-father BERNARD speaketh, Primus super biae gradus: the first degree of pride. Her stock of great antiquity, hell her native soil; the old Serpent, the father of this giddish wisdom: o would to God, that we the sons of EVE, were not troubled with this hearts-itch. This infection is very general, spreading itself far and wide. The fift Devils-token is his Disobedience and transgression of the Law; for he hath violated both the Ecclesiastical and political numbering of the people. The first, forgetting the legal condition annexed to the commandment. Exo. 30.12. which was to bring the money to the use of the Tabernacle. The second, for MOSES numbered them to another end. This fift token, amongst the other Plants in the garden of Eden, not far from the goodliest Trees of life & knowledge: grew a bitter root, which our forefathers no sooner tasted, but it infected their whole blood. The sixth & last devils-token, is the king's obstinacy in his purpose. 1. Chro. 21.3.4. In which two things are set down: first, the counsel of JOAB as a physician, showing him the means to prevent the increasing of this poison. vers. 3. Secondly, the obstinacy of the sick patient: vers. 4. Touching the first; as the Physician, when he giveth counsel to the patiented, either to persuade or dissuade, produceth his reasons, and showeth the danger: So JOAB counseling DAVID to fly this Satanical air, produceth two reasons, drawn from the danger: The first respecteth the King's person: 
joabs counsel to divert David of his purpose, with to reasons.  in the first part of the third verse. The second, the king's subjects, in the latter part of the ver. But David, rejecting the Physicians counsel, would follow his own mind & appetite, for the king's word prevailed against JOAB, & so ran wilfully into the plague. Thus I have anatomised the king's evil, & shown, that although at the first view it seemeth nothing, yet the wound being ripped open, there proceedeth thereout great quantity of poison & matter. Satan which stood up against him, hath deceived him, he showed him his great power, his victories, and the multitude of the people: but he covered the filthiness of the sin, and the indignation of the Lord, with the danger which should ensue, being like unto the Panther, of whom it is written, that knowing how beasts fly from him by reason of his ugly head, which frays them; thrusts only his head in some secret corner, whilst they, gazing on his goodly spotted hide, nothing suspecting their approaching end, suddenly he breaketh out, & prayeth upon them. So this foule-headed Panther Satan, perceiving well how much delight men take in worldly pleasures, and in the glory of this world; hideth his deformed head, and the filthiness of sin, setteth forth only his fine coloured skin, that is, the glory and vanity of pleasant, but dangerous delights; whilst in the mean time, they neglecting their enemy, he suddenly entrappeth them. I leave Satan, and return to JOAB, he who before played the Physician, needeth a Physician himself: and obeyeth the appetite of the patiented, which he knew would be hurtful to the head, and to the body, to the king and to the subjects: Ye that seek to bind up the sores and wounds of others, be not careless of your own sores, that to you be not said, Mat. 23. Physician first heal thyself.  

4 The time how long the infection remained, in his soul before he knew of it,  The fourth and last member of the first part, layeth down the time how long this infection remained in the king's soul, before he knew & felt it (nine Months) for at the end of them, than his heart smote him. As the corporal Plague is often a good while in the body, and he that hath it, knoweth nor feeleth it not: so likewise, the spiritual Plague hath often infected many, and they neither feel nor know it, as here we see in DAVID. The Physicians do say, that there be seven kind of Agues or Fevers; a continual Fever, a quotidian, a tertian, a quartan (with which the Lion is sometimes sick) the Fever Hectic, the wandering fever, that keepeth no certain fits; & lastly, that which lasteth but a day. The Plague of the soul (as you see) is not a Fever of one day, it lasted nine Months in DAVID, & he knew it not. This kings evil may be compared unto the continual Fever; we have all of us continually some sparks of pride and ambition in us; the one more, the other less; and principally, the Lions, Princes and great men are troubled with it. Seeing then this is the nature of sin, that it sometimes is not known of us, I will show unto you the signs to know if we be infected with the spiritual Plague. The Physicians have prescribed the former year in their Treatises, touching the corporal Plague, the signs whereby a man may judge of himself, whether he be infected or not, which are many. First, when the outward members are cold, and the inward parts burning hot, when there is pain and heaviness of the head; and a great inclination to sleep: a weariness, heaviness, and difficulty in breathing; a sadness of the mind, a change of countenance, loss of stomach and appetite, immoderate thirst, and often vomiting, a bitterness and dryness of the mouth: the Pulse frequent, the urine troublous: lastly, if there do arise Botches, behind the ears or else where: Give me leave this year, following the same method, to show unto you beloved, certain signs, whereby we may judge if we be infected with the Satanical air.  

Signs to know if we are infected with the spiritual contagion or no.  These are also manifold: First, if our outward members are cold, our ears in the hearing of the word, our mouths to speak and sing the praises of God, our hands to offer the Sacrifices of mercy unto the poor, our feet to enter the Temple, & our inward parts burning hot with the heat of concupiscence, hate, envy, pride and ambition: Further if our heads be heavy with drunkenness, surfeiting, gluttony, and with the cares of this world, if there be in us an inclination to the sleep of sin, and a difficulty to breath good words, deeds or thoughts: an immoderate and desperate sadness of the mind, as there was in SAUL, ACHITOPHEL, & JUDAS: a change of countenance caused by covetousness, anger and envy: loss of appetite to the milk of the word the bread of life, and the righteousness of Christ jesus: a loss of our zeal, and forsaking of our former love. Reu. 2. Further when there is in us an immoderate thirst after the riches, honours and pleasures of this world: a returning to our filthiness and vomit, with the Dog and Swine. 2. Pet. 2.22. A bitterness and unpleasantness in the vns●●uery words of our mouths. If the pulse of our hearts smite us with horror of mind, and make us to break forth in Blasphemies. Lastly if there doth arise, a filthy Botch, in our ears, which stoppeth them & maketh them unwilling to hear the word of God, a hardness of heart, a swelling of pride and envy, and such other like; they are all signs, declaring that we are already infected with the poison of Satan. If this year thou seelest thyself thus infected, immediately seek to cure thyself by the King's medicine. I end this point with the counsel of SALOMON. Pro. cap. 4.23. vers. keep thine heart with all diligence, for thence proceeds the actions of life.  
Let me now beloved of LONDON, 
The application of the first part  hold out the looking-glass, to descry and see therein whether we have not been infected with the King's sickness? The old year is past, and the New is ap-appeared: let us now examine ourselves, and as DAVID hath been busy to number the people, so let us be busy with a better Arithmetic, and number our sins. We may apply to ourselves all the four members of the first part, and to invert the order, let me begin with the last. 
1 The time how long  As DAVID hath had the spiritual infection in his soul, nine months long, and knew it not; for in the end of them, his heart smote him: So we have been a long time infected with the same, and sin hath reigned in the mortal bodies of many: not nine months, but nine years, even since the last plague time; and alas, the most part of us, have as it were not known it; we have took no regard to it; we have been senseless, & not esteemed it, till that now in the end of these nine years and odd, our hearts seeing the hand of God, have begun to smite us, & made us to cry out with DAVID: Lord we have done foolishly, and sinned exceedingly. And what hath been our disease? 
2. Our disease.  alas, the Plague of the soul (for which we have suffered the Plague of the body) yea the King's evil hath been our evil, which hath manifested itself with the devils tokens, & pestilential ulcers of DAVID, and to speak plainly, we have sinned in numbering. This Plague hath reigned not only in the head-city, but in the whole body of the kingdom. 
England's arraignment  If England were arraigned & indicted before the judge of heaven, should it not be found guilty? I appeal first to the court and to the tribe of judah: 
1 The Court.  hath she not these many years had the kings evil, and with DAVID been lifted up in the multitude, glorying in the number and multitude of her riches and treasures, of her stately buildings, and royal Palaces, in the multitude of her followers, & attendants, of her Nobility and Gentility? 
2 London.  Secondly, thou LONDON, tender & delicate, the Mistress of felicity, the Imperial chamber of this kingdom, to whom I may, as ARISTOTLE speaketh of Babylon; give the title of a country, rather than of a city, the Pillar of England, as Troy is called of that part of the world: Hast thou not also had the kings evil? it is too manifest, thou hast gloried in the number and multitude of thy people, in the greatness of thy City, mightiness of thy state, singularity of thy government; in the number of thy merchants, riches, & stately buildings; in the number of thy Temples & Turrets; and as jerusalem, thou didst trust in thine own beauty, because of thy renown. Ez. 16.15. And as Nabucadnezar spoke of his Babel: Is not this great Babel? etc. So your inhabitants of their city; Is not this great LONDON, our city, the like not in Europe? Thus have they swelled in the vanity of their conceit, and said with Laodicea. Re. 3. I am rich and increased with goods, & have need of nothing. Royal Citizens, 
Citizens.  not I, but the king's sickness wherewith you have been infected, giveth you this name: hath not the carbuncle of curiosity, pride, and ambition been seen in your buildings, feasts, attendants? May it not be said of you, as it was said of the merchants of Tyrus. Es. 23. whose merchants are Princes? If our king had entered the city, in triumph, as Constantius the Emperor in the city of Rome, and beheld the companies that should have entertained him; might he not have used that emperors saying, Tot vidi reges quot cives? I have seen as many kings as citizens? Parents, 
Parent's  have you not had the king's evil, have you not gloried in the number and multitude of your children, and set too much your hearts upon them? And not to spare ourselves: We children of the Prophets, we have been infected with the king's sickness. I do appeal unto our two Universities, 
Universities  they have gloried in the number of their Colleges and stately buildings, in the greatness and multitude of their revenues, of their Doctors, learned writers, Scholars and Students. And I dare say, our voice hath been a proud and ambitious voice, despising the foreign Schools, as not to be compared unto us. And it is to be feared, that of them may be said, that which was spoken of Gilead. Hos. 6.8. which was the place where the Priests dwelled, and which should best have been instructed. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity. As for the whole body of the kingdom, not to flatter ourselves, 
4 The whole body.  it hath had the king's evil; alas, our voice hath been insolent and imperious: we have magnified ourselves in the mightiness of our nation, and have gloried ourselves in the number of our swift-sayling-Shippes, in the greatness of our strength and number of our people, that in few hours warning, many thousands we have been able to make ready; ascribing our victories to the strength of our arm, and not to him who teacheth DAVID'S fingers to fight. Psalm. 144. Let me now add this, that a general disease of the whole body hath been defect of charity. The Physicians say, that the body is sick, when that his kindly heat is to l●ttle or when it is to much: Charity to God and our neighbour, is as it were the natural heat of the body of a kingdom; lustful love to the creatures, is an unnatural heat; the first hath been too little in the body of the kingdom; the second too great, and therefore, it hath sorely been sick.  
Lastly I do appeal to the Clergy. 
5. The Clergy.  Many of them have not only had the King's evil, but also have been infected with joabs sickness. Have we not had some (o would to God that there yet were none) that are spiritual Physicians to others, and in the Lord's Temple, produce their reasons (as JOAB did) to dissuade their auditors from the Plague of sin, and yet themselves, that seek to bind up the wounds of others, are careless of their own sores, their notorious sins as ABSALON'S adulteries, even upon the house tops, open to the world, to the great scandal of the church, like to MERCURY'S images, that point the way to others, but themselves stand still and stir not one foot, like to watermen, that look one way but row another: O Physicians heal yourselves, build not an Ark for others, and yourselves be drowned. Tribe of LEVY, I am ashamed to uncover our own nakedness, which hath also been a cause of that deserved pestilence, whose prints and marks are yet to be seen amongst us.  
To apply the last circumstance, we of England have got the Plague of the soul, and the King's evil, 
3 How and when we have got the king's evil.  in such a time as the king got it, in our peace and prosperity, our hearts being at ease, after our victories, Satan hath set before our eyes our excellency, glory, power, victories, & our long peace and prosperity, as a contagious air hath infected us. And because we were become gross and fat (as ISRAEL) we have spurned with the heels Deut. 32.15. It is an opinion, that fat men get sooner the corporal Plague, than the lean & macilent: experience teacheth, that the body of this Realm through his long prosperity being waxed fat & gross, hath got the spiritual plague. There is a disease in the body called a Lethargy or sleepiness, which disease haunts commonly gross and fat men. There hath beloved reigned in our souls a spiritual Lethargy, in us, who were become fat by reason of our halcyonious days: It hath brought us to wanton Babel's estate, and made us tender & delicate. Es. 4.7. or like to the untamed heifer, by reason of our long running in plentiful pastures, we have forgotten to carry the sweet yoke of obedience, and are become so dainty, that we have esteemed more the dinners of the world than the supper of the Lamb: the Garlic & Onions of Egypt, than the milk & honey of the land of promise. Thus have we lost our spiritual appetites. We may speak of ourselves, as PLINY speaketh of a certain Country, that ex siccitate lutum, ex imbre pulverem etc. drought hath caused dirt, and rain hath stirrid up dust among us: for what hath the Sunshine of his mercies but caused us to lie in the mire of our abominations? & what hath the moisture of his graces but even dried up the fountain of grace in us? It is true of us as of Rome, that religio peperit divitias, et filia devoravit matrem, the blessing of the Gospel hath made them wealthy, and the Emperor hath devoured the Mother. Our prosperity hath made us like to the springs in the summer, the more heat abroad, the drier they are; or like unto the Moon, in our fullness we have been farthest from the Sun of righteousness. And yet the Lord, hath all the day long stretched out his hands unto us, & made as long a day as ever he did to JOSVAH, & as long hours of the day, as ever were shadowed upon the Dial of AHAZ, to provoke our repentance: for the 12. hours of the day, he hath given us almost 4. times twelve years: 
Esd. 3.1  why have we them taken these his benefits with the left hand? why have they engendered in our souls the kings evil? The old year then being past and the new year come, considering that this is our estate, let this be o England thy Arithmetic, to number thy sins: Merchant, be not so busy to nummber thy debts, Lawyer thy clients, gentleman thy lands, & husbandman thy cattle, captain thy soldiers, minister thy tithes, as the sins of the old year, that now this new year we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And thus much for the first part.   

The second part, containing the operation, misery, and effect of the King's Evil, which was the Plague of the body.  

Second part  AS the sickness of the patiented, after that he hath followed his own humour and appetite, despising and rejecting the counsel of the Physician, and taking in that which is hurtful for him, maketh him to smart for it, and produceth dangerous effects: so hath it fallen out with DAVID, who being strucken with the Plague of the soul, and infected with the Satanical air; and JOAB as a good Physician having given him counsel how to prevent the increasing of this spiritual infection: yet notwithstanding rejected this his counsel, and followed his own humour, and therefore smarted for it: for this spiritual Kings evil, hath produced the corporal Plague, wherewith the whole body of Israel hath been infected from DAN to Bershebah. In the effect of the King's sickness, three things are to be observed. First, it is propounded: Secondly chosen: 
The division of the second part.  thirdly sent, propounded by the Prophet. Choose by the King, sent by the Lord. In the proposition note the persons propounding, and the thing propounded. The persons propounding, two in number. First the principal, 
1 The proposition.  (the Lord) secondly ●he instrumental, the Prophet GAD, who according to the wise Physician produceth not his own ●easons, but the saying of the Lord the supreme physician. (So saith the Lord) The thing propounded, is a trinity of punishments. Two of them are ●uch fellowe-like companions, that the Graecians ●istinguish them, but by one letter calling the Plague 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the famine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Trinity may be reduced unto a double dichotomy: The first Famine or the sword, and that either the sword of man (which is hostile persecution, or the sword of an Angel, which is the pestilence. The ●econd is DAVID'S dichotomy, which he maketh himself, distinguishing them in two sorts: the ●irst, is a fall into the enemy's hands. The other two, 〈◊〉 fall into God his hands. justly thou sufferest o ●onne of ADAM this trinity of punishments, for the ●hree sorts of sins which are to be found in thee! ●he sin of thought, word, and deed, The Lord lighteth against thee by the hand of man, 
2 The King's cho●se  because ●hou fightest against him by the hand of sin. scarcity of bread there is sometimes in the land, because scarcity of good works in thee is often ●o be found, the infection of the Plague doth annoyed thee in thy body, because the infection ●f sin hath reigned in thy soul. In the second ●ember of the second part, observe, First the King's choice, secondly the reason of his choice; ●n the choice, behold the Kings three virtues: his wisdom, charity, policy; his policy, aiming at the Churches enriching: his charity, aiming at the easiness of death: thirdly, his wisdom, which appeareth in three things: for which hi● choice was better, than either famine or persecution, if we respect first the person of God, secondly the kings, thirdly, his subjects: If the person of God, his glory by this kind of punishment is bette● advanced, and that two manner of ways. First, in regard of the faithful, & people of God: secondly of the infidels and enemies of God. By the faithful, it is advanced in two things; making them to look above, & beneath: above, acknowledging the mighty hand of God: beneath, the weakness and impotency of man: And taketh away a double confidence, first in ourselves, secondly, i● others. In regard of his own person, he chooseth one, first, that was just and reasonable: secondly easiest, thirdly best for his soul: four, one tha● showeth his charity to his people. In regard o● his subjects, it was the best: first for their souls secondly, for their bodies: & that either in regard of the pain, or of their good name: thirdly, fo● the commonweal: four, for the Church. The amplifycations of these, I leave to the meditations of the Readers, and come to the reason o● the King's choice; For thy mercy is great. I will no● dilate every particular. 
The reason of his choice  If you desire a large commentary upon the king's reason: Read the King's Psalms, and in particular, the 103. Psal. Which use as the best interpreter upon it. DAVID uttereth this reason by a double experience, of the mercy of God, and of the cruelty of man; of the latter, he hath also had a double experience, having felt the cruelty and unkindness of the father, and of the son: of the Father in SAUL, of the son, either in IBOSHETH or ABSALON. I omit to show unto you, beloved, the difference, betwixt the merciful hand of God, and the unmerciful hand of man: And I appeal to those kingdoms, Provinces and cities, which have felt this trinity of punishments, propounded unto DAVID, to ask of them, whither it be better to fall into the hands of God, or in the hands of man: & because many can answer by experience, I will only ask it of the Low-Countries, in the name of all they may speak; for they have had the experience of DAVID, & have also felt this trinity of punishments; famine, pestilence, hostile persecution. And note this with me, that with DAVID they have felt the cruelty, unkindness, and barbarous unmercifulness of man. ●n the father and in the son. First, in the father, in that Spanish SAUL, king PHILIP of late memory; have not the Spanish hands destroyed their Cities, burnt their Temples, dispersed their inhabitants; whereof, we strangers in this your kingdom dispersed, living in exile, for the name of Christ jesus, are unto you all eye-witness. I will not amplify the Spanish cruelty, Horresco referrens; 
Psal. 129  only I say that with DAVID, they may speak: From my youth of Israel may say, they have afflicted me: secondly, in the Son, in that Spanish ISBOSHETH, what have they not suffered since the death of the father, by the barbarous hands of his governors? let them now answer, and I doubt not, having DAVID'S experience, that if DAVID'S choice were propounded unto them, they would come to the resolution of DAVID; Let us fall into the hands of God, & not into the hands of men, for thy mercies are great, O Lord. 
3 The execution  The third member of the first part, is the execution, in which I leave to your meditations, four things: First, the effect of the King's evil, a Pestilence: Secondly, the outward cause of that disease, the Lord: thirdly, the inward cause of it, the sin of DAVID, and of his subjects: Fourthly, the patits (Israel.) As for the effect, it was a diminution of people, wherein observe; First, the equity of punishment: Secondly, the truth of that rule observed by the Wise man. Wisd. cap. 11. 13. Wherewith a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished. Experience hereof observe in the effect of the kings evil. DAVID had sinned in the multitude of the people, & therefore DAVID is punished with adiminution of people. The description of the outward cause, delivereth two things; The agent, the instrument. jehovah & his angel. In the agent, note the outward cause of the pestilence. The Phystions and Naturians, out of the book of nature, render a double cause of the Plague; an outward and an inward; 
1 The outward cause of the plagu●  the one without man, the other within man; the one prima causa morbi; the first cause of the disease: the second, proxima, the next: the one, placed without, in the infection of the air: the other within, in the corrupted humours of the body. Let us follow the Physicians method, not as naturians and Galenists, but as Scripturians. If we search the outward cause, out of the book of God; we shall find, that that wise Physician the holy Ghost, maketh also in outward and an inward cause of the Pestilence; one without man, another within man. The first is, the decree, will, & providence of the Lord: the second, the sin of man: the first, is manifested in the plague, three manner of ways, if we respect the disease itself; the persons infected, the time when: In all three, the providence of the Lord worketh, the truth hereof, five, sufficient testimonies do prove; 
Five testimonies proving the outward cause. Deut. 28 jer. 21.5, 6 Esa 38, job 5.18.  first, the name of it, the sword, rod & outstretched hand of the Lord: secondly, the Lords threatenings: thirdly, the removing of it, which is proper to him: Fourthly, the instrument which the Lord useth: fifthly, the choice given to the king. Having found the outward cause, imitate the good Physician; 
Two preservatives  learn thereout to make preservatives and antidotes. Out of the consideration of this will and providence, we may make a double preservative for the time of infection: 
Two preservatives,  One for the unvisited, the other, for the visited. For the first, it is necessary to expel and to resist the poison of immoderate fear. 
1 For the unvisited,  Make it in this manner; take the consideration of the providence of the Lord, without which, nothing can happen, apply this to thy soul, and it will operate, and make thee to say; why should I immoderately apprehend and fear that, which cannot happen and befall unto me without his will, and which I cannot scape against his will? If thou takest in treacle, Mithridate, and other confections of art, to resist the poison of the air, what oughtest thou to do to expel the poison of thy soul? I show you then, beloved here, to make a spiritual treacle, and a heavenly Mithridate against this venom. Secondly, out of this consideration of God's providence; 
2 For the visited  the visited and infected, may learn to make a preservative: which is, Christian patience, necessary to resist and expel out of his soul the poison of impatience, grudging and murmuring. Make it in this manner; take the consideration of God's will, & thus apply it to thy soul, 
Psalms, 39  as DAVID did, Lord because thou didst it, I will be dumb, and not open my mouth, and say as JOAB to ABISHAI his brother. 2, Sam. 10.12. (Let the Lord do that which is good in his eyes) This preservative is first necessary and forcible: Secondly, profitable: thirdly, comfortable: four, tried and experimented. And thus much for the outward cause. THe inward, is the sin of the King, and of his subjects: As the Physicians make the evil and corrupt humour engendered in the body, 
2 The inward cause of the Plague.  the inward cause of the pestilence, out of the book of Nature: So we may make the inward corruptions in the soul, the inward cause of the bodily infection, out of the book of God. To the sin of man, I may attribute four things: First, that it is the inward cause of the infection: Secondly, a just cause, just: First, for God to send it: Secondly for man to suffer it: Thirdly, a tried and experimented cause: for the experience of all ages hath observed sin to be the cause of the pestilence. First ●ut of the Church. Secondly in they Church. Out of the Church, this hath been observed by a double experience. First, by the experience of Historiographers: Secondly, Physician. In ●he Church, two things do prove it: First, the sins for which he doth threaten to send it: Secondly, the sins for which he hath sent it. Here might set before your eyes a cloud of witnesses, and make a Christian Chronicle of example's: but because I am loath to repeat that which others have done already, I you ●o their writings, and to the book of God. Fourthly, sin is the cause of Physical cause: he cause both of the outward and inward ●ause, rendereth by the Physician, a cause of the infection of the air, and of the corruption of the humours in the body. Out of the consideration of the inward cause, learn to make physic and preservatives for the time of the plague, 
preservatives to be made out of the consideration of the inward cause  against the plague, & that, both for the visited & unvisited.  
Two preservatives may be made out of this consideration: The first, to remove the poison of impatience: the second, to remove the cause of the pestilence. If the filthy Botch & Carbuncle of impatience & grudging, doth arise in thy soul, seeing the hand of God, then take this consideration, & apply it in this manner to thy soul; that which the Lord hath sent to me, it is for my sins and iniquities; why art thou then disquieted, o my soul; learn to judge aright of this his chastisement, and say with the Prophet Mich. 7.9. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. This physic is both profitable and comfortable; profitable to humble thee, & to teach thee the knowledge of thyself, to make thee use the poor suitors phrase; Lord, I suffer nothing but th● which infinitely more I have deserved: take away O Lord the trespass of thy servant. Secondly comfortable, for it setteth before our eyes th● admirable goodness and mercy of the Lord and moveth us to speak in this manner; I hau● infinitely more deserved, o Lord, by my transgression (& yet so great is thy mercy, that th● art contented to send me an affliction, which toucheth only the skin) a corporal plague, & a temporal chastisement. O inequal proportion! the creature hath offended her creator, a silly earthworm, the majesty of heaven, and yet for our infinite sins, he sendeth unto us but temporal chastisements. Thy mercies, o Lord, overcome thy judgements, & herein I perceive the truth of thy promise. Os. 11.9. I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath. Be not then disamied, o my soul, seeing that the Lord doth not punish thee, according to thy desert, and the quality of thy sin: this is a testimony unto thee, that thy sins are remitted, & that this present rod, is but a fatherly correction. The Lord then visiting thee with the rod of DAVID, doth aid thee with a double aid: The first is, with the aid of correction, and discipline: The second is, with the aid of comfort: By the first, he doth exercise thee without, by the second, he doth assure the within; by the first he bridleth thy insolency, by the second he encourageth thy pusillaminity: by the first he maketh thee more advised for the future, by the second, more devotions. The second preservative, 
The second preservative,  is to remove the cause, that the effect may cease, and seeing sin is the inward cause, fly from it as from a Serpent. Ecc. 21. GALENS' counsel is, that of all remedies the best is to shun the infected air, & to departed in time to the purer air. But with GALENS' leave, seeing sin is the cause of Physical causes, & that it infecteth the air, the best remedy of all (according to the counsel of the whole college of the spiritual Physicians) is to fly from the infectious & contagious air of this world: But I leave to amplify this, because I purpose to speak more of it, in the king's medicine.  

4 The patients  The last member of the second part, are the patients who have felt the effect of the King's evil. (ISRAEL) that is the subjects of DAVID, In which observe, First the (circumstance of the time how long it lasted; secondly of the place, from Dan to Bershebah; thirdly of the number, seventy thousand. The Lord in all ages hath sought to reclaim the sons of men from the kings evil, by sundry corrections, & amongst the rest, with the Pestilence, which is the Lords besom, he hath swept away not scutcheon, but hundredth thousands, and that in divers places. First without the church, secondly within the church: Again, in the Church, either in the true, or in the false church. Further, some have been universal, some national and provincial, some have been of a long, some of a short continuance, so that this rod may be called the flying book. Zach. 5. Hear I might also make a large Chronicle of examples out of the book of God, the monuments of the church, and the writings of men: but because others have amplified this at large, I refer you to their Chronicles, being as clouds of witnesses. Now me thinks I hear an objection against the justice of God, for the cleared of these patients; These Israelites had not sinned, ergo unjustly visited. The antecedent is deigned, the interpreters upon the first verse of 2. Sam. 24. (And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against ISRAEL) observe divers sins for than which the Lords anger was provoked, among the rest: first their security, and wantonness, after their peace, victories, & prosperity: secondly the rebellion & disobedience of some against their sacred Prince DAVID, in the time of ABNER, SEBAH, ABSALON, and the rest, the which sins he hath deferred to punish in due season, with the sin of DAVID. And thus much for the second part, the effect of the King's evil.  
Let us now beloved of LONDON, look homeward a little, 
The application of the second part.  and is it were out of the Looking-glass of this example, by way of reflection. If we hold out the glass, we shall descry, that justly we have felt the effect of the kings evil. The old year being past, and the New appeared, let us apply to ourselves the members of the second part, to invert the order. Let me begin with the last, as the subjects of DAVID, after they had been infected with the Plague of the soul; and that DAVID now nine Months and twenty days long had not regarded his sin, have been the Lords patients, and have felt the effect of the King's evil, a general pestilence: So likewise the subjects of our DAVID, after that they have now these nine years & more, been infected with the Plague of the soul, not regarding their sores, and the counsel of the spiritual Physicians, have justly also been the Lords patients, and felt the former year, the effect of their spiritual contagion, a general pestilence, almost through the whole body of the kingdom. The inward cause of this effect, hath been twofold: First, we have been infected with the infection of DAVID, and secondly, of his subjects. As for the first, the Lords Prophets, as spiritual physicians, have a long time (as JOAB did to DAVID) showed unto us the means how to prevent the increasing of our spiritual contagion: they have produced their reasons, setting before us the danger which should redound both to our own persons, and to others. But alas, great hath been our obstinacy, we have as bad patients followed our own humours, rejected the counsel of the spiritual physicians, and our pride, ambition, spiritual idolatry, curiosity, and disobedience, have previled against them, and therefore the Lord hath sent a pestilence in England, & there died not yet (I am persuaded) seventy thousand. If in the second place, I set before our eyes, DAVID'S subjects, as a looking glass, therein (alas) we may descry the bleamishes of our faces; First, they had a famine. 
2. Sa. 21.1.  But the Lord removed that in his mercy, and gave them peace and prosperity, and yet they waxed wanton and insolent. 
1592.  Since the last pestilence, there hath been a dearth in England, in the days of ELIZABETH, but the Lord hath taken it away in his mercy, and given plenty and choice, store of earthly treasures: we have since seen and tasted how friendly the Lord is, Psal. 34. his mercies have been multiplied upon us, even like unto the dew of Hermon, that watered the dry earth, that gaped for it. His blessings both Temporal and spiritual have been as two hands to draw us home to him, and yet we have been like to DAVID'S subjects. As for their second sin, shall I be so bold to accuse some thereof? Not I, but the experience and evente of the former year, doth Preach it to the whole Kingdom. The Land hath given us a gracious DAVID, a man after Gods own heart, and as I may speak, a man after our own heart; and yet, behold, as some malcontented Israelites, have sought DAVID'S ruin, an envious SEBAH, an ambitious ABSALON, 
A note out of the 2 Sam 2, agreeing with that which hath happened the form's year  a falsehearted ACHITOPHEL a seditious ABNER: so some have been envious with Satan, of our DAVID'S felicity. And note this with me, which I have observed out of the second book of Sam. the 2 chap. that as in the first year of king DAVID'S reign, DAVID being but newly crowned king of Israel, even then behold, there was found a seditious ABNER, and ASAHEL, and an ISBOSHETH, which rose up against DAVID: So in the first year of the reign of our DAVID, even then, he being but newly crowned king of England, as DAVID was king of Israel: behold, some ABNERS', Asahel's, and Isbosheth's against their sacred and anointed Prince. But let this be our comfort, in the tenth verse of that Chapter, that the house of judah hath followed DAVID, the company of the true Professors and Confessors of God, and that ABNER and his adherents are fallen before the servants of DAVID. Seeing then we are guilty all of the first sin, and some of the second: the Lord hath dealt justly with us, as with the subjects of DAVID, sending unto us (as he did to them) after a famine, or a dearth, a pestilence: So that the wrath of the Lord, having been again kindled against us, no body needeth to make an objection against his justice for our innocency, as it might have been done for ISRAEL. As there hath been a time for the Reign of the spiritual Plague, so hath there been a time for the Reign of the corporal Plague.  
Let us now farther unfold the flying book, that with jerusalem Eze. 16. we may bear our own shame. The order calleth me now to the application of the two l●st members, which will stores us with some singular meditations: observe with me beloved of Lonndon, in the entry of this New-yeare, 
Note the things following, The two preacher● of the last year  that the Lord hath used the former year, two kind of Preachers to move us to repentance. First a Preacher of anger and justice, summoning us by his smart-Preacher: Secondly, a Preacher of mercy. So that the old year hath preached both; mercy and justice hath kissed each other. The first Preacher is his justice, which he hath shown in two things, crossing us two manner of ways. First with the rod of DAVID; Secondly with contraries. First the Lord hath chastised us, as it were by Retaliation, a like Plague for the like offence, according to the rule of the wise man, 
1 Gods smart Preacher.  wherewith a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished, & hath sent a diminution of people. England, thou hast had the experience of DAVID: thou hast gloried in the number of the people, and hast long been busy with a vain Arithmetic, in the numbering of thy riches, prosperity, houses etc., and therefore the Lord hath punished thee, with a diminution of people; and hath teached thee another Arithmetic: Thou hast been busy with addition & multiplication, and the Lord hath been busy with Substraction and division. He hath taken away thousands and ten thousands; and hath by the weekly Bills, taught us to number three things: First our sins, & for them, Secondly the diminution of the people, & thereby thirdly to number our days: Further because ordinary magistrates had not done their duty, behold he hath sent an extraordinary Magistrate from heaven to reform us, fear him rich & poor, honourable & contemptible, this hath been the Lord chief justice. Parents 
Parents.  you have also had experience of this, because some of you have gloried in the number of your children, loving them too much & setting your hearts upon them, the Lord hath taken them away, and made whole families desolate. Parents & masters, 
Masters.  you should have been little magistrates to your families which you should have purged, but for wan● of this duty he hath sent another Magistrate, 
Magistrates,  which hath purged than, & because you had deformed & not reform yourselves, he hath sē● his Reformer. Leu. 26. Merchants 
Merchants.  because you have been more busy to pay the debts of me●, then to pay a debt which you own to God▪ (which is repentance) which he hath long, required by his servants the Prophets; therefore he hath sent his Sergjants and Pursuivants to warn and arrest you. The Lord hath among the rest, three Sergjants, age, sickness, and death● by the second he hath warned some; of you, & by the third he hath arrested some: you that ar● not yet arrested by death, pay this year the debts which you own to God, before you pay the debt which you own nature, Husbandmen, 
Husbandmen  because you have been more careful, to gather your fruits, and to fill your barns, and that your fig tree hath produced evil fruit, and your sins filled the measure of iniquity, therefore your teeth have been justly set on edge, & the Lord hath filled full the cup of his wrath and given unto us his deadly wine to drink. The harvest was come, and because our sins were ripe, he hath sent a sickle from heaven to cut them down; and this hath mowens many thousands. Gentlemen, 
Gentlemen  some of you have, gloried in the number and multitude of our lands, but what hath this availed? for the Lord hath given to some of you, so much measure of ground, to the length & breadth of your bodies, as hath only served to bury them in, or so many handfuls of dust, as your bodies go into, after their consumption. SOCRATES' carried ALCIBIADES, bragging of his lands, to a Map of the world, & bade him demonstrate where his land lay; he could not espy it, for Athens itself, was but a small thing.  
The Lord hath told you the former year and yet telleth, and showeth you this year, where your Land lieth; so much measure of ground, to the length & breadth of your bodies, as may serve to bury them in. This is my earth, and his earth, & your earth, & therefore if ye will glory, glory in the Lord: For why art thou proud o earth & ashes? Ruffianly Swaggerers and Cavaliers, you that have contemned the Lord and spoken with Rabsacs' proud and high words: alas a little Carbuncle, and a little spot in the skin, hath cast down, some of the proudest of you all: and as MOSES smote the hard rock with his rod, so the Lord hath smitten some of your rocky hearts with the rod of his vengeance: and because your damnable oaths, 
Blasphemers  have as it were whipped and tormented the patience of God, they have also received a scourge for which they called for.  
Worldlings, 
Worldlings.  you had not been a long time at rest, the cares of this world had too much molested you; and as the clock can never stand still from running, so long as the Peases and Plummets hang thereat; even so, having infiniten cares hanging upon your minds as weights upon the Clock, you have had no rest; and therefore the Lord hath sent one to make you rest for a time; and hath made you MARIES instead of MARTHA, that ye might not be troubled about many things but remember that ●●e thing which is necessary: The Lord grant, that in your weekly fastings through the whole Land, you have been MARIES, and sat at the feet of jesus with humility, devotion, and reverence. Scholars, children of the Prophets, Clergy men, and also all ye inhabitants of this kingdom, that hath been the subject, a long time of your discourses, but your profit, benefices, pleasures, the glory of this world, & in the beginning of the former year, of the triumphs of this land, even from Dan to Bershebah, from Dover to Saint Davies: From Berwick to the Mount, court, city: & therefore the Lord hath given us justly another subject to discourse upon, a subject to speak of our sin, our creator, our permanent city, our misery, and our mortality. If he had not offered us this subject, we should have forgotten him. O what a happy time than hath it been for the soul! who hath not discoursed of this subject, prepared and ordered his house? The New-year being come, forget not this subject, think not as the Emperor OTHO did, that it is a part of dastardy to speak of death. Astronomers, 
Astronomers.  because you have been more busy to behold the Eclipses of the Sun and of the Moon, than the Eclipse in your own souls: the world like unto the Moon in inconstancy, being betwixt you and the Sun of righteousness Christ jesus, therefore justly the Lord sent the tempest of the Pestilence, to take away the love of this world, to remove this moon, that ye might behold this amiable Sun. Further, we were as it were all asleep, and therefore he hath justly awaked us, & made the whole country to stir: For lo, the Citizens have fled: the Court hath broken up, the Universities have removed. Poormen, 
Poormen  there hath been in some of you, a famine and want of good works, and therefore there hath been for a time, as it were a famine and want of God's mercy. Martiall-men, 
Martial-men  you have been fighters against God. Act, 5. and therefore the Lord of Hosts, hath sent his soldiers, his Angels, and his arrows against you in the Land. Noblemen, 
Noblemen.  because ye have been busier to hunt your Deeres; & also after the honours, pleasures and riches of this life, than after the living God, therefore justly the Lord hath sent his Hunter in the Land (as it is called. Psal. 91.3) to hunt & slay us; who hath catched some walking, some feeding, some sporting, some sleeping, as the experience of the former year doth witness. But to leave generals, I come to thee, o LONDON in particular; 
An apostrophe to London.  thou hast suffered the heaviest brunt. If the Nations that pass by the city, ask as they did of jerusalem. Jer. 22. Wherefore hath the Lord done this to this great city▪ What answer can we give, but that answer jerem. 22. Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God. The mightiness of thy state, multitude of thy people, hau● not been able to keep out the Lords Pursuivant nor to drive back the gunshot of God's displeasure. Alas, what hath been thy greatness compared unto the greatness of jehovah? th● number and height of thy proud Turrets, could not threaten heaven: for the closer they have pressed to the seat of God, the nearer they have lain to his lightning. Thou hast triumphed in thy braveries, and therefore the Lord hath the former year triumphed over thee in his justice; and of thee, o LONDON, of whom it might have been said, as it was of TYRUS, whose river hath been as the Harvest of thy revenues, and a Mart of the Nations of thee: we have had occasion to say. Esa. 23. 
Esa. 23.  Is this that glorious city of yours, whose Merchants are Princes, and her chapmen, the Nobles: the Lord of Hosts hath stained the pride of thy glory.  
To come unto particulars; London, thou hast heard the former year, a sorrowful music, which hath sounded in thy ears day and night; But what hast thou heard, that thou hast not deserved? Thou hadst brought over thy time in worldly merriments; dedespysing the harp of DAVID, Moreover, thou hast had a continual alarum of Bells, they were the Trumpets of jehovah: thy sins caused that alarum, and they have been a witness, that the Lord had taken in your City, and that you were not able to keep him out.  
The Lords spiritual Trumpets, which have sounded in our ears: you have not heard, 
Es. 58.2  but contemned, and therefore he hath made the very Bells his Preachers, to be reproaches to us of our obstinacy; and because we have not heard the Bells of the Pulpit, he hath made us to hear the Bells of the steeple. What marvel, if there have been heard within our walls continual kneels and ringing of Bells, seeing there hath been heard the continual Bells of our tongues, which by their oaths and blasphemies have dishonoured the Lord of heaven. I do appeal to the children in thy streets, o Lord, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, from whence thy glory should have proceeded. Psal. 8.2: from thence hath sprung that which hath dishonoured thee. If the filthy Plays, with the blast of a Trumpet, have sooner called thither thousands, than an hours tolling of a Bell, bring one hundred to the Sermon: what marvel that tolling of Bell's hath been heard for another purpose? Citizens, you had not purged your streets from the plague of sin, and therefore the Lord hath sent his heavenly Besom to sweep away multitudes; you had not taken away corruption within, & therefore he placed corruption without. You have been too busy to adorn your houses, neglecting the house of the Lord, and therefore, he hath made them desolate, many forsaking them, so that Nettles and Thistles might have grown in your Palaces. Esd. 30.20. Fraud, oppression, and stealing had walked up and down, your streets, and therefore justly that flying book Zach. 5. hath entered into your houses, and taken hold of the stone and timber thereof. LONDON, thou hast had occasion to say, Zach. 5. I see a flying book, thou hast seen it, for it hath entered your houses, and remained in the midst of them. Alas, we have all mourned and sighed for the great number, that the pestilence hath increased weekly, above three thousand: but what marvel, seeing there is none of us, in whom have not reigned above three thousand sins? The increasing voice then of the Pestilence, hath reproached unto us the increase of our sins. The unsatiable mouth of the grave hath craved still more and more, and never thought it had enough, and spared not to swallow up our sweetest comforts. Had we not deserved that by our covetousness? our hearts had been as unsatiable graves, still crying for more, as SALOMON speaketh. Remember Londoners, how that some of your inhabitants have ruffled in their royall-like garments, and that therefore they have been adorned with a winding-sheet; others gloried in their buildings, and therefore the Lord hath made Coffens and Graves for their habitations: some in the multitude of their train and attendants, and therefore have had other attendants; the very worms of the earth to attend upon them, and to eat them up. Learn hereby, beloved of LONDON, on the one side, that greatness of sins can shake the foundations of the greatest cities: If their heads stood amongst the stars, iniquity, would bring them down, multitudes of offences will consume multitudes of men: 
jer. 49.  although the streets were sown with the seed of man, yet, that they shall be so scarce, that a child may tell them. On the other side, learn your mortality, & to number your days, that you may apply your hearts to wisdom. Psal. 90. The end of those royal citizens, whom CONSTANTIVS entering Rome, called reges, Kings: was death. The Emperor ask of HORMISDA, master of his works, what he thought of them? answered that he took not pleasure in any thing, but in learning one lesson, which was, that men also died in Rome. This is also your end, (royal citizens) and therefore with HORMISDA, take pleasure this New-yeare, to learn one lesson, that men die also in London.  
I have further observed four things the former year, 
Four things to be observed in the former year  wherewith I will acquaint you, beloved of LONDON; in the entry of the New-year, which are as it were, four Preachers to Preach unto us the doctrine of Repentance. The old year, hath been a year of wonders; as fitly I may term it: Witness the strange alterations, like unto the variable estate of the Moon. As King AHASHVEROSH, called to mind out of the book of Records, and the Chronicles, the things forepast: Even so call to your minds, out of the book of your memories, and the Chronicle of the former year, the things which then have happened. The Lord hath visited us the former year at diverse times, with four visitations; In the beginning, in the midst, in the end. Two of them are visitations of sorrow, two of joy: Two of them have been Funerals, two have been deliverances and Coronations. Two have concerned a Prince, two a Princely City: These have been diversly intermingled, sorrow and joy have followed and kissed each other; Sorrow hath begun the year, joy hath ended it; both joy and sorrow have walked in the midst.  
To particularise; 
1 A visitation of sorrow with the funerals of a Noble Princess.  The first hath been a visitation of sorrow, and the funerals of a Prince in the beginning of the year: the Lord first visiting with sickness, and afterwards taking away that Noble Princess of famous memory; that worthy instrument of God's glory, by whose sacred Sceptre the faithful Protestant (aswell we strangers, as the natural inhabitants) have found a secure and fertile nursery. At that time, o the sighs of the righteous! o the complaints of the godly! o the fear & doubting of many! Spemque metumque inter dubij, some fearing, some hoping. 
2 Chro. 35  Then as JOSIAS was mourned for by all JUDAH and jerusalem, and JEREMY mourned for JOSIAS, & all singing men and singing women: Even so all the companies, and Orders of the Realm, the Princes and the prophets plentifully watered their cheeks, even from the honourable counsellor to him that grindeth at the Mill. This began a little to move us, as it were, to taste the medicine of repentance: for the death of a good Prince is one of the Lords Preachers, & to make many at that time to pray unto the Lord, that he would be mindful of Zion, and not permit us to fall again in the superstitions of the Antichrist. This part of the tragedy ended, behold, there followed the second alteration, the visitation of joy and mercy: the proclamation of a new Prince, and afterward his joyful Coronation. At that time, o the admirable joy, even from Dan to Bershebah, 
2 A visitation of joy with the Proclamation and Coronation of a new Prince.  from th'one part of the land to the other; for this heavenly gift, of a noble, renowned, godly, Religious, virtuous, wise & learned Prince, a man after Gods own heart, and (unfeignedly I may speak) a man after our own heart, long desired and wished for in the hearts of the Godly subjects & true professors. Sorrow in the first visitation, was as it were a heavy stone upon our hearts, but in the second visitation he hath as it were sent an Angel from heaven, to speak to the whole Kingdom: Fear not. In the first, the whole land was as it were laid down in the bed of sorrow, but by the second, there arose a new Sun, whose beams were comfortable to the whole land. This then hath been another of the Lords Preach●rs. But hath this moved us, either to continue or to go forward in the ways of the Lord? alas, we have not altered the colour or hair of our heads, nor added one inch to our stature since all these things have been accomplished among us: our hearts have been as the adamant, that the impiession of God's graces have not entered. And therefore there followed the third visitation, of sorrow & lamentation, the deluge of the Pestilence, the second Funeral. The funerals of whole families, and the funerals of a Princely City, which was as it were going to her grave, if the Lord in his mercy had not commanded his Angel to put up his sword into the scabbard: this was an other kind of Preacher. The consideration of the second visitation, 
3 A new visitation of sorrow, with the funerals of a princely city.  had made us to say in our hearts with DAVID in his prosperity. Psa. 30. I shall never be moved. The Pestilence of security did begin to reign among us, I do appeal unto the words & speeches of the inhabitants which then were used in the Land; and therefore the Lord came, and mingled our joy with sorrow, & sprinkled a little salt over the joy of the country, and by a mortality, he did put us in mind of our mortality. As Christ showed unto PETER, and the rest upon the Mountain, when they were in the midst of their joy; and that PETER said, Let us make here three tabernacles: as he showed I say to them, MOSES and ELIAS, which were dead men, Even so in the midst of our joy and glory, when we were saying, It is good to be here, and to make our tabernacles here: even than he showed unto us MOSES and ELIAS, and sent us a mortality. It was usual amongst the Egyptians, that in the midst of their feasts, & solemnities, a resemblance of death, all trembling and shaking, was brought and carried round about, to make them remember it, & to learn sobriety. Even so, in the midst of our solemnities, for the joy of a new Prince, death hath been carried round about the Land, that we should not wax to wanton, and forget the Lord. It is storied that when the Emperors were crowned, the sepulchres of dead men were showed unto them, to make them mindful of death: even so, when our King the former year was Crowned, the Lord hath shown unto him, and to us, the sepulchres of dead men, and by the continual alarum of Bells, put us in mind of death: which mindfulness, as CASSiANVS an ancient writer speaketh, is a general restraint from evil Let this Preacher, beloved of London teach you, that as JOSEPH of Arimathea, had a sepulchre in the midst of his beautiful garden; even so you ought in the midst your prosperity & felicity, to be mindful of your mortal being. The fourth & last visitation in the end of the year, hath been a visitation of joy, a deliverance from the Pestilemce; & as it were a second Coronation, 
A new visitation of joy with a second Coronation.  a Coronation of your city; the Lord compassing it round about with joyful deliverance, Ps. 32. 
Ps. 103.4  & crowning it with his accustomed kindness, with mercy & compassion. But of this more at large in King DAVID'S sacrificing.  
To proceed, I told you beloved before, that the Lord by the smart-Preacher of his justice and anger, hath crossed us two manner of ways: First punishing us as it were by Retaliation, for our glorying in the number and multitude, with a diminution. Secondly, by contraries: 
2 The second thing, where in the Lord hath crossed us, namely, by contraries.  The first hitherto I have amplified; Now followeth the second; observe them with me, how wonderfully the Lord the former year by the deluge of the Pestilence hath in divers things crossed our expectation: First, which we had spoken: Secondly, expected: Thirdly, begun. First, we had said and expected, 
1 Increase of people was expected.  that the number and multitudes of people should have been augmented, both in the city, and in the Land: and behold, there hath been a just contrary, it hath been diminished in both, o how many thousands have been buried! How have the Church-yeardes been filled up, that scarce there was no place? hath not the Lord shown the truth of that threatening? jer. 7.32. They shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place? Secondly, we had said and expected, that multitudes against the Coronation would come, both in the city and in the Land: and behold a contrary, multitudes have departed out of Both; some leaving the city, others the Land. Thirdly, we had expected, that even our streets should have been filled with joys and triumphs, 
3 Triumphs  & that therein we should have shown the signs thereof: and behold a contrary, they have been filled with sorrow, mourning, weeping & howling, for the funerals which have walked along them. These have been the triumphs of LONDON; We expected in our streets the sound of the Trumpets, 
The triumphs of the last year  and the sweet harmony of Music to welcome our Prince; and behold, in steed of them, we have heard a contrary music; the continual kneels of Bells to welcome death: we expected shows of triumphs, & behold, other shows we have seen, the funerals of dead men, who were gone to triumph in heaven. We had begun to build towards heaven, almost as high as the builders of Babel: every one for highest and finest, o the great preparations and diligence in their building and erecting? But behold, a sudden alteration, a stay of their work; where some had set up, others pluck down: and as the builders of Babel have been dispersed, even so ours have been scattered: Some are dead, and some yet left alive: The Lord hath sent some of them, from their downe-beds, to their dust-beds. And as the arrow came suddenly from JEHV his bow, and stroke JORAM even in his Chariot. 2. Reg. 9.28. even so, the Pestilence, the Lords flying arrow, Psal. 91. hath struck some, even in the midst of their triumph: he changed our glory into shame. Hos. 4.7. and fulfilled that threatening by the Prophet, jer. 7.34. I will cause to cease from the cities of judah, and from the streets of jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness. So that with HESECHIAS Esa. 38.17. Thou hast, o London had occasion to say: Behold, for felicity I had bitter grief, but it was thy pleasure to deliver my soul from the pit of corruption. Fourthly, we had expected profit, 
Profit  and that the traffic should have flourished, moreover, that now we should have adventured, where before many kept themselves close and durst not. How many had brought up great store of precious wares, thinking that never they had had such a time: and yet behold a contrary, the traffic, both of the mother-city, & of the daughters, of the head and of the members, hath been slack, doings little or none, no adventuring, little paying; wares esteemed better than debts, and every one keeping close: so that we have had occasion to use the saying of the Prophet jere. 8.15. We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of health, and beheld troubles. Further we expected that our shops should have been open in that joyful time, which were furnished with great riches against the future triumph, thinking to reap great profit, and behold a contrary, many have been locked up, by reason of a double departure, of some out of the city, of others out of this world. The Lord hath taken away from us our markets and fairs the greatest stays of the common wealth, and from thee o London that renowned BARTHOLEMEW fair, and the sports thereof, wrestling and Shooting: and instead of them, there have been wrestling against death, & the Lords Angels, shooting off the Lords arrows. Psal. 91. The reason of this, all hath been because the Lord would have us profit not by our commodities, but by his chastisements. It is reported that the mountains which are full of golden mines, that they are commonly barren and unfruitful: we by reason of our riches were unfruitful and barren in good works, & therefore the Lord by his rod would make us fruitful, and to reap profit for our souls. Lastly, many had made preparations against the future triumph, to adorn themselves, and to meet their Prince: and behold a contrary, some of them have been adorned with a shrouding sheet, and so are gone to meet another Prince in another kingdom, to triumph eternally.  
It hath fallen out o London with thee and thy inhabitants, as with the Emperor SALADINUS, after he had gotten great victories, and had triumphed; fell sick & had nothing carried before him to his grave then a shrouding sheet: & what else have had many of your inhabitants? Thus then beloved, the Lord hath spiced your great joys conceived in the beginning of the year, with sorrow and bitterness. If you would know the reason; that you should not forget either the Lord or yourselves, for if you had surfeited of pleasure, and received to much good, it would have been as an introduction to worse to come. When tidings was brought to PHILIP of Macedon. First that PARMENIO got the victory over his enemies, Secondly ALEXANDER his son was borne, And thirdly his Chariots won the prize at Olympus all in one day, he called upon fortune to do him some little hurt, & to spice his joys with bitterness, that they should not make him forget himself. Even so o England, seeing that thou hast first obtained a virtuous Prince, a wonder of the world, secondly victories over thy enemies of Ireland, & thirdly abundance of Corn and fruits of the earth, and that all in one year; it hath been good, that the Lord hath done thee some little hurt, and spiced thy joys with bitterness, that thou shouldest not forget thyself. That the Lord then, hath thus crossed our expectations by contraries; to what shall we ascribe it, but to this, that we have crossed his expectation by our sins? I may use the Apostles saying. 1. Cor. 11. For this many among you are sick, & many are dead. The Lord of Hosts hath dealt with thee, o England as TAMBURLAINE the Great, in his besieging of cities. First, he erected white Tents, in token of mercy, if they would render themselves. Secondly, if they remained obstinate, he erected red Tents, in sign of blood. Thirdly, when that prevailed no, he erected black tents, in sign of death. Even so, the Monarch of the world hath first erected among us, the white Tents of mercy, by the preaching of the Gospel. Secondly, because we rendered not up our hearts, he hath erected up his red tents, threatening us with an enemy without, and an enemy within. Lastly, because this hath not availed, he hath erected the last year his black rents, sending among us mortality; the funerals have walked up and down our streets, with mourning and lamenting; the parents for the children, the children for the parents: Let then the remainders repent, lest they all likewise perish. And thus much for the first Preacher of the former year, the lords smart-preacher in his anger and in his justice.  
There followeth now the second Preacher, The Preacher of mercy, which the Lord, whose mercies are infinite, hath manifested in three things: 
2 The second Preacher of the former year, the preacher of mercy manifested in three things.  in the giving of a Prince, in the fruits of the earth; in the very Plague itself. First, by the gift of an honourable plant, which his right hand itself hath planted among us: although I have once already mentioned it before, yet I would not esteem it a tautology to repeat it twenty and twenty times more; unto this benefit he hath added another: The preserving of him, by his holy Angels, his majesties safest guard. First, 
1 In the gift of a Prince.  from the snare of the hunter, and the noisome pestilence. Secondly, from intended treason, against his sacred person. Seeing the Lord hath given us a worthy instrument of his glory, to beat down the walls of that Rom●sh JERICHO: Satan would feign hinder it; and thereby showeth that he hath no greater enemy in the world, than our most Christian Prince. Satan (to use the words of AUGUSTINE) the former time was as a Lion, for than he raised open persecution against the Church: And now he playeth the subtle serpent, and privily lieth in wait. But although they all should stand up as a huge mountain against our ZOROBABEL, 
Zac. 4.7,  yet shall they be made, I hope, a plain as the prophet speaketh. The second token of his mercy, hath been the blessing of a fruitful year; the abundance of corn, 
2 In the blessing of a plentiful year.  which the distilling dew of heaven hath comforted; the sheaves whereof have filled the mower's hands, and the gleaners lap. The heavens have dropped their fatness, and the earth hath made the hearts of many to leap for joy, and the barns as it were to enlarge themselves for the receipt of this blessed plenty. This mercy of the former year, is a Preacher, preaching unto you, beloved of England, (the 8. verse of the 34. Psalm) Taste and see how gracious the Lord is. The third token of his mercy, doth appear in the very Pestilence itself; the Lord having shown mercy (as the Prophet speaketh) in the midst of his justice. 
3 In the Pestilence itself, as appeareth in four things.  If this seemeth unto you a paradox, I will prove and manifest it in four things: in regard of the time, of the number, of the place, of the kind of punishment: his mercy towards us, rising up by four degrees, like the water in EZECHIEL. cap. 4.7. which at the first time came but to the ankles; the second time, to the knees; the third, to his loins; the fourth time, was a deep river. First the time preacheth his mercy, 
1 In regard of the time and that.  for our continual sins, without continual repentance have deserved a continual Plague: but the continuance of this rod hath notwithstanding not been among us: The mercy of the Lord towards us, in regard of the time, doth appear in two things, before he cometh, and when h● is come. First, before he cometh, 
1 Before he cometh  his great patience and long sufferance; he cometh leisurely, but every nine or ten years once, where as he might yearly visit us, if he would deal with us justly, according to our sins. 
2 When he is come.  Secondly, when he is come, the short continuance of the Pestilence, seven or eight Months at the most: The Lord turning the storm to calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Psal. 107.29, o admirable lenity and fatherly kindness! thus dealeth he not with other Nations: Go but unto your neighbours, & they will preach unto you God's mercy towards you. Ask the Pagans, and they will tell it you: witness that Plague begun, Anno 540. which lasted fifty years tormenting them. Secondly, the number preacheth unto you God's mercy. Our infinite sins had deserved, that millions and millions, should have been swept away, and yet there hath been but a gleaning of few. If you reply, and set before me, 
2 In regard of the number.  the greatness of the former Plague, which seemeth to take away this mercy, which I amplify: Ask but of DAVID, and he himself will open God's mercy towards you. What is the number of thirty seven thousand, in the space of a year, in regard of seventy thousand in three days? Go further, and ask the Nations, which knew not God, & they will lay it open to you. What is the number of 37. thousand, in regard of 2000 which died every day in the time of VESPASIAN, of 5000. every day, and sometime of 10000 in the time of JUSTINIAN; of a hundredth thousand in the city of Rome: Anno 1521. Thou, o little kingdom of Bohemia, which hast lost, Anno 1577. 300000. mayest Preach unto this kingdom, the Lords mercy towards her. O Graecia, thou hast in such manner been consumed, that there were almost none to bury thy dead; 
Euseb. lib. 9 Cap. 7, 8  and yet thou, o England, hast had not only some to bury thy dead, but to accompany them decently and honourably to the grave. It is then the lords mercy only, that we have not all been consumed. Lam. 3. O that thou couldst, o England, yet perceive thy present happiness, and prevent a future horror!  

3 In regard of the place  Thirdly, the diverse places unvisited in this kingdom, do Preach this mercy: The Plague of the soul which had reigned in every place, had deserved that the Plague of the body should have reigned also in every corner. The Lord might have sent his Angel, even from Dan to Bershebah, to strike not only the head with some of the members, but altogether, and yet he hath not: for although this Pestilence, hath been more general than others, yet many have been exempted. Both DAVID and other nations do Preach unto thee, o England, this admirable mercy. Remember the 15. Provinces of the Roman Empire, wasted away in a short time by this smart-whippe. In Egypt (Exod. 12.30. there was no house where there was not one dead: And yet behold, there have been many houses, I say, not in England, but in London itself, which have escaped. To what shall we ascribe this, but to the great mercy of the Lord?  
Fourthly, the kind of punishment, wherewith we have been visited, 
4 In regard of the punishment itself, and that in two respects  preacheth also the Lords mercy to England; and that in two things. First, that he hath not sent unto us, the whole Trinity of chastisements, propounded unto DAVID. Secondly, In that he hath not sent the heaviest of them three. First, our sins did deserve them all three together: 
1 Of the trinity, sending but one.  the famine and scarcity of good works: famine and scarcity of bread; our fight against the Lord; the sword of the enemy; the infection of the soul; the infection of the body. But the Lord who is merciful, hath called back his anger, and not stirred up all his wrath. Psal. 78.38. The Low-countries may Preach the Lords mercy towards England. They have sometimes felt at one time the trinity of punishments; and the former years, both war and Pestilence; we in the mean time, feeling but the rod of DAVID; We did, I confess, expect a heavier judgement, we looked for nothing else, but bloodshedding, and fight for a crown: & behold, we have nothing but joy, peace, prosperity, and joyful ringing for a Crown. This our joy in the mean time being spysed with a little bitterness.  
Secondly, he hath not only visited us with one of the three; 
2 Sending not the heaviest.  but also with the sweetest and the best; using not the rod of revenge, but the scourge of correction. And although our sins had deserved the heaviest; yet he hath shown to us that mercy which he showed to DAVID, not suffering us to fall into the hands of men. If he had sent us famine, it would have made many to have mortgaged their Lands to PHARAOS': Gen. 47.20. to have left the kingdom Gen. 12. Famine (as the Proverb is) is an evil counsellor: when hunger had griped us, it would have egged men to thefts, murders, deceits: Many would have lived upon the air, and their own moisture, and so consumed away, and in doing nothing, to use the saying of AUGUSTINE, have come to nothing. Mothers, you may be Preachers of God's mercy: if he had sent a famine, alas, the tongue of the sucking child, had cleaved to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children had asked bread, & no man should have broken it unto them. And to use further the words of JEREMY (the hands of the pitiful woman would have sodden their own children,) as they did in the siege of jerusalem. 
jam. 4.10.  If he had sent us hostile persecution, Alas, the unmerciful soldier would have laid open your hedges, leaviled your houses with the ground, & emptied you & yours of all their possessions. Where had been your cities, your wives, your daughters? where your temples, your Prophets, yea, where your religion? they would have displayed the banner, and set up the ensign of the Romish-beast, & erected the signs of their abominations. They would have blasphemed the God of Israel, and said; are these the Christians, where is their God? But now, beloved, they all remain in their flower & prime, & the rod of DAVID hath not hindered us to enter the temple, nor the exercises of religion: we see our signs and our prophets; we enter into the house of the Lord, with liberty of conscience, there to behold her beauty. Psal. 27. and to adore the God of Israel in the spirit and truth. We strangers, 
An apostrophe to strangers.  may also be preachers, o Lord, of thy mercy, in the midst of thy justice. It is true, thou hast much diminished the number of thy little flock collected in this Kingdom; yet better hath it been for them (that are exiled here for the name of thy Son, & for the testimony of thy eternal truth) to have fallen in thy hands, then in the hands of men, of whose barbarous cruelty, both they & their forefathers have had experience. and although they are buried, in their exile, yet thou hast transported them in their heavenly father-land. Thou which hast brought this vain, out of the Romish Egypt, & planted it in this land, as in another Canaan, make it fruitful, return we beseech thee, and now visit it in thy mercy, and we will not go back from thee but call upon thy name. I return to thee o London, preach thou also the Lords mercy, he hath not undone or dissolved thy composition, nor covered thee with brambles, he hath not utterly destroyed thee, as Babylon; The great Niniveh, Troy, jerusalem, and the rest, of which we may truly say, O iam periere ruina, the very ruins of them are gone to ruin: thou standest yet, and I hope, shalt flourish as much as thou ever didst, if the former judgement move thee to repentance. I will conclude with a paradox. Mercy we had desired the former year, and mercy he hath also shown the former year, 
A paradox, the truth, whereof the event of the former year hath manifested.  yea by the sending of the Plague. The Lord hath heard our prayers. If this seem strange to you beloved, I will expound the paradox. In the beginning of the year, when that Noble Princess Elizabeth of famous memory, fell sick; during her disease, we mourned, sighed and lamented: We were heavy and much troubled, many righteous souls prayed unto the Lord, and in their prayers desired two things of the Lord: first, that if she should come to die, that he would not suffer them to fall into the hands of men; Secondly, that he would be merciful to Zion, and not disperse and scatter them, but gather & keep together his church: and behold the Lord hath heard our prayers, he hath not suffered us to fall into the hands of men, he hath sent a pestilence, by which we are fallen into his hands: for what is the Plague but a fall into God his hands, according to the definition of DAVID. Further he hath not dispersed, but rather called and gathered many of us unto himself: for what is death else, but a gathering unto our fathers, & a departure unto God? The Lord hath called many of his children from School, from the School of this world, where they had learned no good; he hath called them to that heavenly university. Many had desired to see the triumphs of the city, but the Lord in his mercy hath made them to see a better triumph in that permanent City and heavenly jerusalem. Many had desired to see the Coronation of their new Prince, but the Lord in hss mercy hath made them to see a better Coronation, the Coronation of the Prince of glory, & of the true SALOMON Christ jesus; yea he hath made many the royal priesthood. Apo. 1. Thus then beloved of LONDON, I have amplified unto you the mercy of the Lord, which hath only stayed the Angel's sword, or else, it would have gone forward. There is no comparison betwixt the mercy of God and the mercy of men: It is reported that MARCELLUS, after that his soldiers had conquered SIRACUSA, not without the great slaughter of many, was so compassionate over them, that he went up to the highest Tower in the Castle, & with tears lamented the ruin and overthrow thereof. Whatsoever may be said of MARCELLUS for his clemency over those he had slain, yet there is no comparison to be made betwixt him, & the Emperor of heaven and earth: he hath had from the high tower of heaven, compassion over the City: It hath repent him, he hath beheld her ruins: If mercy had not been before him, and grace behind him, (so great is our sin) the whole City might have been destroyed. And thus much for the second Preacher of the former year, and also of the second part of this new yeres-gift.   

The third part, containing the King's Medicine itself, with the ingredients thereof.  
AS an expert Physician, first showeth the disease itself, with the cause and danger thereof; and then prescribeth to his patient, Physic, to cure him, and the order of his diet Even so having shown beloved of London, the disease itself, the King's evil with the effect thereof, give me leave now to prescribe the Physic against the King's evil. And as the Physician hitting upon the right humour and cause of the disease, can with happier success apply his Physic: So we knowing the cause, both of the spiritual and corporal infection, shall the better be able to find out the right medicine. It is the desire of all sickemen to know a good medicine, which hath been known most to prevail, best to remove, and soon to cure the person diseased. This he learneth, to know out of the book of nature, the best physicians, the cause of the disease, and the experience of others: & if there be a medicine which is much used and commended, every one is desirous to have it, and to know the ingredients thereof. As this is the desire of the diseased in regard of the body, so it ought also to be the desire of every Christian in regard of his soul.  
This he shall learn to know out of the book of God, the cause of the disease, the spiritual Physicians, and the experience of others. If we desire one for to cure the plague of the soul & the effect thereof, which is commended and hath been used, and tried by experience: behold, I set one before you, the King's medicine, DAVID'S repentance, so called, because a King of Israel took it in, both in the Plague, and after the Plague. As for the bodily king's medicine, & other human confections of art, they are of no force to cure the spiritual contagion. For the treacle, and to use the words of the Lord, Ierm. 8.22, the Balm of Gilead, and their Physicians, cannot help or recover our health; and therefore the Lord reproacheth them. jer. 46.11. Go up unto Gilead, and take balm, o Virgin, the daughter of Egypt, in vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou shalt have no health.  
Seeing that the confections of men, are of so little force, there is no better than this king's medicine, which is better worth than all the balm of Gilead. If ye are desirous to know, where the ingredients of this Physic do grow; ye shall find them growing in the garden of this Scripture now in hand. As the Lord (saith ORIGEN) hath prepared Physic for the body, out of the herbs which grow in the fields and gardens: even so he hath ordained Physic for the soul, whose ingredients he hath sown in the garden of the Scripture, of this Physic Christ jesus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the supreme Physiti●n.  
That we might then orderly proceed in this orderly repentance of king DAVID, 
The ingredients of the King's medicine ar● set down.  who hath been skilful in the art of repentance, I will set forth a lively Anatomy of a repentant sinner, whose footsteps we ought to follow step by step.  
In this spiritual king; Medicine, I observe five things: First the patients, or the persons which took it in, verse 28. and 16. The King and the Elders of Israel.  
Secondly, the ingredients of this Physic and the parts whereof it is compounded, which are three in number. The first ingredient, is the knowledge and feeling of the King's disease. vers. 10, And his heart smote him. The second is, his desire of spiritual life and health, in the same verse: Take away the trespass of thy servant: The third is, the herb of patience. vers. 14. the king grudged not, but said, Let us fall into the hands of the Lord.  
Thirdly, the patient's behaviour, and the manner how the king took it in, which is set down in three things: First, the discovery and laying open of his sore unto the Physician. 2. Sam. 24.10. I have sinned exceedingly, and I have done very foolishly. The second is, his bodily prostrating of himself, with the Elders upon their faces. 1. Chron. 21.16. Thirdly, an humble clothing of himself, with the Elders in Sackcloth, in the same verse of the Chapter.  
Fourthly, the time when he took in this medicine, and the cause moving him to use this receipt: which was, when he saw that he was infected with the Plague of the soul: 2. Sam. 24.10. Then, etc. and that he perceived the effect and danger thereof, the bodily pestilence, 2. Sam. 24.17.  
Fiftly, the operation of the King's medicine, which is, the ceasing of the Plague. 2. Sam. 24, 25. With the behaviour of the patiented DAVID now being healed; his sacrificing unto the Lord. 1. Chron. 21.28. This is the Anatomy of the King's medicine: of which in order.  

I. The patients or persons, which took in the King's Medicine.  
THe persons which used this Physic, are the King and the Elders; honourable persons, the chiefest of the kingdom: Patients which were diseased, infected with the spiritual contagion. Kings and Princes, mortal Gods, Potentates of the earth, and ye the elders of the people: Hear is a Looking-glass for you; come down from your thrones, and the height of your glory; be not ashamed with a virtuous, Prince, to take in a royal medicine. Let not the maxims of that unpure Atheist MACHIAVELLI, that malapert and pelting Towne-Clearke of Florence, infect your souls, who among the rest of his filthiness, blusheth not to spew out this poison, that Kings and Princes need not make any account of godliness, and that it is sufficient to make only an outward show of it.  
The practice of DAVID, and the Elders, do show the contrary; going before you, whose footsteps follow step by step. As the Physicians prescribing a medicine, show the reasons, which ought to move the patients to take it in: Even so let me, o Princes and Elders of the people, with the prescription of this royal medicine; show you also the causes, which ought to persuade you to the taking in of this Physic.  
The reasons are five in number. First, 
Five reasons to move great men to take in this Physic.  the consideration of your disease, & the multitude of your sins: Princes, you are most of all troubled with the kings evil, and the greatest sins commonly reign among the greatest.  
Secondly, the prescription of the whole College of the spiritual Physicians. God the Father commandeth it. jerem. 13.18. Say unto the king & to the Queen, humble yourselves.  
Thirdly, the example and practice of great men, with the success thereof, DAVID MANASSES, EZECHIAS, and the rest.  
Fourthly, the danger in which you cast yourselves, if it be neglected. The justice of the highest God, fearing no power, prevented by no policy, stayed by no bribes. He spareth not the Prince for his Sceptre, the high Cedar Tree for his height, the strong Oak for his strength; The green Laurel for his greenness. The flying book. Zach. 5. is a large book, which noteth, that none of what place or calling soever, can be exempted from God's judgement. Tophet is prepared of old, it is even prepared for the King; he hath made it deep and large. Es. 30.33. The Lord hath a razor. Es. 7.20 (by which his judgements are meant) and by this he will shave, not only the hair of the feet, but of the head, and the beard also. The Lord hath also raging floods, that come up, not to the loins only, and the middle, but even to the chin and the neck. Es. 8.8. The Frogs could not be kept out of PHARAOH his bedchamber, nor from the Couch where he lay. Exod. 8.3. The Lord is not like the little fishermen, that spread their Nets for the smaller fish, because they cannot take the grand Leviathan of the Sea, and the Whale with an hook; or pierce his jaws with an angle. Job. 40.21. For he is able to take the Dragon and Crocodile of the rivers with an Hook, and cause the fish to cleave to his scales. Fiftly, to be an example to your subjects, for Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis: As the Brook doth follow the nature of the fountain, and the sea the air; even so the people is the shadow of the Prince. You ought then to be as one saith, carbo & lampas, a coal burning unto yourselves, and a lamp shining unto others. As the ointment ran down from the head of AARON, by the beard, to the very boarders of the garment: so the sweet ointment of good works ought to come and descend from the King, the head of the people, by the counsel and elders of the people, to the meanest soul in the Land. True is the saying, that the repentance of a king, is as it were, the repentance of a whole kingdom: And thus much for the patients which ought to take it in.   

TWO The ingredients of the King's medicine, and the parts whereof it is compounded.  
THe first ingredient and part of the King's medicine, 
Knowledge of sin,  is the feeling of his disease and knowledge of his sin, for his heart smote him. This was then an inward sense and feeling in the heart of DAVID. The Physicians in their practice of Physic, prescribe two maaner of remedies; some to be taken inwardly, as Pills and medicines: some to be applied outwardly, as plasters, and such like: In this spiritual King's medicine, there are ingredients which must be taken inwardly: whereof the first is, this inward knowledge of our sin. Many excellent herbs are the ingredients of the bodily King's Midicine: of which the first is Sage of virtue. Surely this knowledge of our sin, is an herb which hath singular virtue, as shall appear. Follow herein the King in the taking in of this medicine; let there be in thy soul, an inward knowledge, detestation and sorrow for thy sin. In this knowledge, observe two things: First the quality of it: Secondly, the necessity of it. Knowledge must ever go before the face of repentance, and must be accompanied with three things: First, of the person offended; 
The quality of this knowledge in three things.  his name, majesty, greatness: Secondly, of the person offending; his baseness, mortality, and corruption. Thirdly, of the nature of thy disease; not of the distinctions of sin, and of her proper names, but of their number and weight: How many, how grievous, how far they extend to the annoyance of the earth, provocation of heaven, breach of Christian charity. In this manner use the king's medicine; convert thy sin before reason, examine it with judgement and understanding: consider what an infinite majesty it offendeth; what infinite plagues it bringeth; enter into the closet of thy conscience; turn over the books of thy accounts, cast thy reckonings, set down the sums; and as DAVID numbered the people to know them: even so number thy sins (as far as possible is) that thou mayest attain to this knowledge. Set down, Jmprimis, for abusing of God's creatures; for spiritual Idolatry; for blaspheming and swearing Item, for profaning of the Sabbath. Item, for disobedience to parents & magistrates. Item, for hate, envy: Jtem, for adultery & unclean lusts. Iten, for stealing & oppression. Item, for lying & slandering. Item, for the 4. sins of Sodom. Alas, the total sum is the breach of the whole law; the sum is greater than the number of the people, which JOAB brought to DAVID.  
Now that thou mayst not forget to take in this ingredient, 
The reasons for which we ought not to forget this ingredient.  there are three reasons to persuade thee. First, it is the counsel of the whole college of the spiritual Physicians; of God the father. jer. 3.13. know thine iniquity, for thou hast rebelled against the Lord thy God. And Ez. 16.2. cause the people to remember their sin. Of God the holy Ghost. Re. 2. Remember from whence thou art fallen, & repent. It is the counsel of MOSES, 
Deut. 9  that they should remember their sin. Secondly, the practice of others, & the success thereof. 
Psal. 51.3  DAVID took it in, in this manner: I know mine iniquities, & my sin is ever before me, Jonas forgot it not: 
jonas 1.12  I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. The Prodigal son was mindful of it; for he came to himself, 
Luc. 25.17.  & said I will go to my father, & say I have sinned. Third-the necessity of it; for this knowledge is profitable for the curing & healing of thy sores; It is a good sign when the patiented doth feel his sore and his grief: it is the first degree and stop unto corporal health; yea, the proverb goeth; that to know the cause of his disease, is to have his wound half cured: Even so, it is a good sign, to know the disease of our souls: it is the first step to attain unto spiritual health. The first degree of felicity, is not to offend: The second is, having offended, to know the offence. And although thy offence be great, yet God saith, NAIANZENE, is more merciful, than man can be sinful, if man will be sorrowful. The very heathen-man himself, calleth them fools that know not their faults, and reputeth their danger great. SENECA, reporting of HARPASTES a fool, who knew not that she was blind, and therefore entreated her guide to go forth of doors, because the house was dark; compareth such as know not their faults unto this HARPASTES, and calleth them fools.  
Further, this knowledge, maketh us to go unto the Physician, and to seek a remedy, for the curing of our disease; as the Israelites being stung by the fiery Serpents, fled to the Brazen Serpent. We are all infected with the Plague of sin, and yet there is a great difference in the patients. Some see it not at all: Some see it too much: Some feel it and fear it; Some, neither feel nor fear it. Of these four sorts, the third sort is only careful to seek a remedy. Happy is the sinner, whose heart doth begin to smite with DAVID. They that are smitten with the corporal Plague, feel pain at the heart; which often is a sign of death: But, if being smitten with the spiritual Plague, our hearts do begin once to feel it, and to smite us, it is a sign of life. The heart is the fountain of life; the first thing that liveth, and the last thing that dieth: As it is first in corporal life, so let it be first in the spiritual life. The heart is like an instrument, if it be in tune and well strung, it makes a sweet melody. As in the repentance of Nineveh, when the King began to arise from his throne, the rest followed. So in the repentance of DAVID, after that his heart (which sits in the body as a King in his throne, and hath all the inferior parts at command) began to arise, the rest of his members followed him; his mouth confessed, his hands put off the royal garment, and sacrificed unto the Lord. The heart is like unto a clock, if the balance thereof stir, all the other instruments and weights follow in a good course: But if that stand still, every one of the rest go out of order: Even so, if our hearts move and smite us, if they stir and step forward, all the rest will follow: but if the heart stay, the whole body is apt to receive any corruption. The ship is a great vessel, but if the rudder be well guided, the whole body thereof is directed without hazard. So, if the heart go aright, it goeth not alone. This is then a profitatable knowledge, it is a key that openeth the door to the closet, where all our books of accounts do lie: which is in the heart. It is a looking glass, or the eye of the soul, whereby she seethe herself, 
The excellency of this knowledge.  & looketh into her whole estate. It is a spiritual hammer, to break the stony hardness of our hearts. This knowledge surpasseth all human knowledge. What is it by Arithmetical account, to know the division of the least fractions, and not to know that the multitude of our sins, do make a division betwixt God and us. What is it by Geometrical practice? to measure the longitude of the most spacious prospects, and not to measure the height of our sins, which ascend as high as heaven? What is it to have the knowledge of Music, and not to know that for want of good government; we lead a life all out of tune? What is it with the Astronomer, to know the motion of the heavens, and to be ignorant that our hearts lie buried in the earth? With the Naturalist, to know the cause & the effects of every thing; and not to know the effect and cause of our disease? With the Historian, to know what others have done, & to neglect the true knowledge of ourselves? With the Lawer, to prescribe many Laws, and not to know the Law of God which teacheth us the knowledge of our sins. Let us therefore have this knowledge, this detestation & sorrow for our sins: this heavenly dew of devotion never fale, but the sun of righteousness draws it up, and upon whose face soever it drops, it makes the same most amiable in the sight of God. And thus much for the first part and ingredient of the King's medicine.  
The second part and ingredient, is his desire of health and spiritual life: 
The second ingredient, desire of health.  Take away the trespass of thy servant. Which words deliver two things: First the desire itself: Secondly, the Physician of whom he doth desire it (the Lord) his desire is, remission of sin, a healing of the Plague of the soul; & that the Lord as a merciful & skilful Surgeon, would take away those pestilential Carbuncles & devils-tokens which were risen in his soul. Among other ingredients of the bodily king's medicine: the second herb, is herb-grace, very excellent against the bodily infection. Instead of this, there is another thing which we may call God's grace, or Christ's grace, which is excellent to cure the infection of the soul. This necessary Herb we see is here in the spiritual King's medicine; for DAVID sueth for the grace of God, to cure his evil. He had lost the health of the soul, yea, it was like dead. For sin is, first the death of ourselves; Secondly, the death of Christ. Thirdly, on the other side, it is the life of death: And four, the life of the Devil. And therefore DAVID prayeth his Physician, to restore unto him both health and life. Further, as the king had this desire, so he had also a steadfast hope, faith and confidence in the mercy of the Lord; he did not presume or despair, but bele●ued that his health should be restored, & that his Physician was able to do it. This his faith he expresseth in this his petition, by two things: First, by the name which he giveth to his Physician, 
David's faith and hope of mercy.  calling him (Lord) Secondly, by the name which he giveth to himself being the patiented, calling himself (his servant) of thy servant. Imitate the king, in the taking in of this medicine of repentance. Having obtained the knowledge of thy disease; have a desire of spiritual life and health: And secondly, let thy desire be mingled with DAVID'S hope & steadfast confidence in the mercies of God. First, desire this health, and the curing of this sore above all other things: desire not this life, as much as the spiritual life: for alas, this life, as AUGUSTINE speaketh, is a continual weakness, which followeth us to our death. The heathen man, SOCRATES could say, he liveth not; who mindeth nothing but this life: for is this a life, where the house is but clay? the breathe a vapour or smoke, the body a body of death, our garment corruption? As the womb of the earth doth breed us, so the womb of the earth must again receive us. There is a threefold life: the life of the body, the life of the soul, and the life of glory. If we will obtain the last, we must seek to get the second, for as concerning the life of the body, think not saith Augustine, that in this life thou hast properly health: immortality shall be our true and perpect health. If we escape the Plague of the body, and retain the corporal life, and that our souls in the mean time want this life and health of the spirit, alas we may esteem ourselves but Dead. The Grecian Ladies, count their age and the beginning of their life, from the time of their Marriage, not from the day of their Birth: and if they be demanded how old they be, they begin to reckon from their Marriage, for then only, say they we begin to live: Even so, we may esteem the beginning of our life (not from the day of our birth and corporal life) for it is but a shadow which passeth and perisheth, but from the day, that we (as spiritual Virgins) have been Married with Christ jesus, and by the virtue thereof, have begun to live this spiritual life. Sin is an unsupportable burden: who would not therefore with DAVID pray; Lord take it away? Blessed are they whose sins are bound up in a bundle, and drawn into a narrow room. Secondly, let thy desire be mingled with faith, and a steadfast persuasion, that thy sore shall be healed. Let the persuasion of the graciousness & kindness of the Lord enter into your heart: for a man without this hope is without his best advocate, the God of DAVID is yet the Lord, and thou which art infected with the infection of DAVID, art his servant. This medicine will heal thy malady: throw not your blood in the air with JULIAN: spill it not upon the ground with SAUL: sacrifice it not upon a Ladder with JUDAS: the Lord doth open heaven, and you shut it not, he nailed the writings upon the Cross, and you renew them not.  
He that hath not this hope he denieth three things saith AUGUSTINE, the truth, the mercy, and the power of the Lord. The knowledge of sin is needful, but not sufficient, for we need a double eye, one eye in ourselves and in our sin, the other on Christ and his merits. DAVID hath had this double eye, and being conducted by mercy and faith, he leapt out from the hothouse of desperation. As we need a double eye, so we need a double virtue; fear and love: love to look upon God's mercy, fear to look upon his justice, the first, to stay us from desperation, the second from presumption. These two support our faith as the two Lions supported salomon's Throne. As we need these two virtues, so let us take heed from these two extremities, our hope is placed betwixt these two. As in a balance, if there be any odds in the scales, we take out that which is the heavier, and put in that which is the lighter, till there be egalitie: Even so we must way ourselves, that we be not too heavy for our sins, despairing, nor too light for Christ's mercy presuming: these two are Serpents which infect the souls of many, tread upon the heads of both. The Surgeon doth promise help to thy sore, and shalst thou the patiented thrust thy nails into it, and answer him nay, but it shall not be healed? let us therefore as Christian Soldiers keep this helmet and this buckler, and then although we should die, yet shall we live. It is storied of EPAMINONDAS who being stricken through with a Spear, and his blood saying him, asked if his Target were safe, and whether the enemy were put to the flight? and understanding all to be answerable to his hearrs desire; said, my fellows in arms, it is not an end of my life that is now come, but a better beginning. Even so although we be stricken with the Plague, and that our life now faileth us, this is no great loss, if the Target of our faith be safe, for not an end of our life is come, but a better beginning, namely of the life of glory. o ye fainting and declining consciences! set the Pillars of hope and faith under you, sail not upon the dangerous rock of desperation, let the breath & wind of faith and hope stop that wretched course, cut the throat of desperation, which hath cut the throat of many. JUDAS (saith JEROME) offended more in despairing, 
The reasons why we ought to mingle in this medicine this confidence.  than in betraying. If now you are desirous to know the causes, for which we ought to mingle in this king's medicine, this confidence & Christ's grace: they are three in number. The first is, the counsel of the spiritual Physicians: Christ jesus prescribeth it, Repent and believe. Secondly, the practice of others, and their success; DAVID, EZECHIAS the Prodigal son, & the Publican took it in this manner. Thirdly, the necessity of it, to avoid the increasing of the spiritual contagion, and the death of the soul. As it is not sufficient to the sick-man, to know that he s sick, except there be a desire in him of health: even so it is not enough, to know that we are infected with the contagion of the soul, unless there be in us the desire of DAVID, take away the trespass of thy servant. This desire is health itself; thus is it not in the diseases of the body: thy desire cannot procure thee thy health. If ●hen we have taken in the king's medicine of t●e former year, because we were desirous of life: Let us not from henceforth, forget this ingredient of this spiritual king's medicine, for the life and health of the spirit. And so much for the desire itself.  

Th' K●●gs Physician.  Th●re followeth the Physician, of whom he desireth this health. (Lord) This is the King's Physician, who healeth all our infirmities, as the king himself doth speak of him. Psal. 103.3. In this Physician, all needful qualities are found, and there is nothing wanting in him which serveth for our healing. First, 
His qualities  if ye are desirous to have a wise and a skilful Physician, such one is this Lord, the author of all wisdom, who knoweth whereof we are made. Ps. 103.14. and the greatness of our disease, and also the way to cure it. Some Physicians are unskilful in their profession, such as PLINY speaketh of: Experimenta per mortes agunt; they kill men to get experience. Secondly, if ye desire to have a faithful and trusty one, such is also this Lord, in whose hands you may trust all that you have: this faithfulness is often wanting in the earthly Physicians: some will lie to their patients, make them careless, extenuate the heaviness of their disease; of whom may be said, that of the Psalm 146. Put not your trust in the sons of m●n. Thirdly, if you desire one who is powerful and able to cure thee, such a one is this Physician, 
Es. 43.  his name doth prove his power: and although our sins were as crimson, he is able to make them white as Snow. Es. 1.18. This power is wanting in the bodily Physician: for it is only this Physician, who must bless the means. Fourthly, if you lack one who is willing, such a one is also the Lord: his goodness and his promise do prove his willingness, as a father hath compassion in his children, so hath the Lord compassion on us. Ps. 103. Willingness, is often wanting in the bodily Physician in the time of the Plague. Fiftly, if you desire one that will cost you nothing, go to this Physician, he will ask thee nothing, but repentance. jerem. 3.22. Return and I will heal your rebellions. Sixtly, if you desire one which is near, and whom you may have at all times; such a one is the Lord, who as DAVID speaketh, is near unto them that are of a contrite heart. Psa. 34.18. The consideration of these six qualities, aught to move us to use no other Physician, than this Lord: As long as we are in this infectious world, we shall need him; for we cannot ourselves take away our trespasses: As RACHEL'S cattle could not drink of the waters of the Brook, Gen. 27. before JACOB had rolled away the stone that covered it: even so we cannot drink in this King's medicine, and of the waters of repentance, unless this Physician, who is the God of JACOB, doth himself remove the stony hardness of our hearts. There hath been a disease in this Land, called the Queen's evil, the which she was able to cure: But as for the King's evil, nobody can cure it, but the King of heaven, who is this Physician. Let us make therefore much of this Physician. It is reported that SOCRATES never needeed a physician in his life time; but as for us, we shall need this Physician continually, and therefore as we honour the bodily Physician, so let us give to this Physician the honour which is due to him. If the weak consciences object their unworthiness, & therefore dare not presume to go unto this Physician: Let them not fear, this Lord is also the Lord jesus, who biddeth us to come to him Mat. 11. Come unto me, all ye that are weary and laden, and I will ease you: His blood will purge our consciences from dead works. Heb. 9.14. He is a Physician for every diseased soul; the plaster and very purgation itself. For Christ's sake, the son of this Lord, we shall be heard. The story of THEMISTOCLES is not unfitly applied, who having offended PHILIP king of Macedon, takes up his young son ALEXANDER in his arms, and so comes to ask mercy; if not for his own sake, yet for his sons sake whom he did present unto him: Even so, we that have offended the King of heaven, we crave pardon for our sins; not in the confidence of our own worthiness, but for the name of Christ jesus the King's son: He is that adoriferous Hyssop in the fifty one Psalm. Purge me o Lord with Hyssop. AUGUSTINE sayeth, that Hyssop hath force to purge the inward parts: Even so, this spiritual Hyssop, the heart & the soul of man; his blood, as SAVARANOIA speaketh is as a precious balsam in our wounds: Unto whom sweet BERNARD consenteth: I do acknowledge the greatness of my danger, but the son of God is slain, that he might cure and heal my wounds, by the gretious balsam of his blood.  
A Physician said to CONSTANTINE the Emperor, that there was no means to cure his leprosy; but by bathing of himself in the blood of a child: to whom he answered, I would rather always be sick, then to get my health by such a remedy. As for us, beloved, we need not use such an answer; a child is borne unto us, Es. 9 In whose blood we may wash the leprosy and plague of our sin. For by his stripes (saith the Prophet) we are healed, Es. 51.5. In which few words is described, the sick-man's cure in four things: The Phsition curing the sick patiented; the Physic curing; the operation of the Physic. Before I end this point, 
Many not contented with king David's Physician.  let me let before your eyes a company of bewitched Idolaters, who err both in the medicine, and the Physician. The justiciaries run to their works; The Votaries to their vows: the superstitious, to the Pope, and to Saint SEBASTION, using not the Prayer of DAVID, Lord take away the trespass of thy servant, but, Sancte SUDARI, ora pro nobis, & sudarium Christi liberet nos a pest & morte tristi. O holy NAPKIN, pray for us, and deliver us from the Pestilence, and evil death. But let the Pope promise health by his pardons, Bulls and indulgences, they are but even a potion of rank poison, prepared by the Devil his Apothecary.  
This is a counterfeit physic which cannot purge: This Physician hath deceived his Patients, and hath wrought no more cure on the souls of men, than ELISHA his staff did recover the SUNAMITES child when GEHEZI laid it upon the face thereof. 2. Reg- 4-3- The Pope's patients are sick still, for all the Pope's drugs, and still will be, as the SUNAMITES child was dead till ELISHA came.  
I see another sort, who wander up and down, 
The pilgrim.  and run far and wide to seek Physicians, the one to Spain, the other to Italy, the third to jerusalem. Alas, why go ye not to DAVID'S Physician who is near, and whom ye may have at all times? As the travailer that hath been round about the world, is not therefore the nearer heaven; even so, when ye shall have compassed all the world, ye shall not be the nearer to Christ the true Physician. As the Dove than found no rest, till she returned to the Ark, even so you shall find no rest for your distressed consciences till you return to Christ jesus. As for us, with the lame and the halt in the Gospel, we will cry to Christ alone, O JESV the son of DAVID have mercy upon us. 
Luk. 17.13.  And thus much for king DAVID'S Physician.  
Now followeth the third ingredient of the king's medicine, 
The third ingredient, which is the herb of patience.  the herb of patience. 2. Sam. 24.14 Let us fall into the hands of the Lord. DAVID hearing the will of the Lord by the Prophet GAD, that the Lord would send a Pestilence in Israel, he murmureth and grudgeth not, but received patiently the hand of God. First, he doth not allege or produce any thing, in regard of his sin, to excuse and extenuate the same; Secondly, in regard of the punishment propounded, to aggravate it: but possessing his soul in patience, he breaketh forth into these words; Let us fall into the hands of God. Imitate and follow the king in the taking in of the king's medicine, if the Lord visit thee with the rod of David, or with any other calamity. The third herb of the king's medicine for the body, are Bramble leaves. In stead of these, take the herb of patience, so called in every man's mouth: for as the common proverb is, Patience is a good herb, but it groweth not in every man's garden, As for the bramble, leave him out, 
Three reasons to urge the use of it.  for he exalted himself above the other trees. jud. 9.15. Three things ought to move us to use this excellent herb. First, it is prescribed by the college of the spiritual Physicians. Christ himself commandeth the use thereof. Luk. 21.19. Possess your souls with patience. DAVID the King Psalm 37.7. Wait patiently upon the Lord. Secondly, the practice of others, the renowned patriarchs, the blessed Prophets, the religious Kings, the holy Apostles, 
The effects of it.  the godly troop of Martyrs have used it. Thirdly, the excellent effects, qualities, properties, and operations of this herb: The first is, to prevent and to preserve us from the poison and contagion of immoderate fear of death, sickness, or of any other calamity. The second is, when thou art visited to expel the venom and poison of impatience from thy mouth, and thy heart. The sick man, although he throweth off his clothes, and tosseth himself from side to side in the bed for mitigation of pains, is not thereby helped, the sickness still remaineth, this is the only herb to ease him. If the carbuncle and filthy botch of impatience breaketh forth, here is a plaster to cure the wound. It will draw forth the venom, and make us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. 1. Pet. 5.6. Patience, is alumna dei, the daughter of GOD, saith TERTULLIAN: for want of which, many are like birds in lime or snares, which the more they strive to escape, the more they are limed & snared. As the herbs then of the bodily king's medicine, are used both before infection & after infection: even so the herb of patience is good both for the unvisited to prevent, and for the visited to expel. Thirdly, this herb will ease and mollify thy pain: plasters are used to sweeten, mollify, and mitigate the pain, even so the plaster of patience will make us to overcome all our troubles. The heathens have acknowledged this; for one saith, He that endureth patiently, overcometh his pain. This than will make us to say with DAVID, Lord because thou didst it, I am dumb. It filleth the heart with comfort & spiritual joy. Fourthly, it doth strengthen us. Prou. 16.32. Fiftly, it will heal, and make us perfect in Christ jesus. jam. 1.4. It moveth the Lord to pity and mercy. jam. 5.11. Sixtly, it is good cheap, it will not cost gold or silver, only pray for it, and the King's Physician will give it you. seven, it is an universal remedy, for all manner of men, for all diseases, and at all times, not only for the time of Plague, but for the time of famine, war and poverty. PLINY saith, that the earth Para cureth all manner of wounds; this property may better be attributed to Christian patience. If the patiented reply, that the herb of patience is not like unto the herbs of the bodily king's medicine, for they are to be found in every man's Garden, and so is not this; I can give him no other answer but this, Let him pray for it, and he shall obtain it. As for impatience, seeing that it is borne of the Devil, as TERTULLIAN speaketh, to him let us leave this plant which the hand of the Lord never planted, and to his malcontented Imps, who never learned how the links of that heavenly chain are fastened one to another, 
Rom. 5  that tribulation bringeth patience, patience experience, experience hope. They break the chain at the first link. Let us Christians hang upon the chain, and climb to heaven by it, through the merits of Christ's death and passion, whereof the last link consisteth. Let us not ill entreat the Lords Ambassadors. DAVID took it not well when the AMONITES ill entreated his Ambassadors: afflictions are Gods Ambassadors; to repine or grudge against them, is to entreat them ill. I end with the words of AUGUSTINE; Let us not regard so much what part we have in the whip, but what place in the Testament. And thus much for the three parts and ingredients of the King's Medicine.    

The third part, containing the Patient's behaviour, and the manner how David took in this medicine.  
KING DAVID'S behaviour is set down in three things, whereof of the first is, that he discovered and laid open his sore unto his Physician, with an humble confession. 2. Sam. 24.10. I have sinned exceedingly, and I have done very foolishly. In which discovery, I discover three things; First, the patiented of the person discovering, (DAVID the King) noted in this word (I). Secondly, his sore or disease, noted in two words (sinned and foolishly). Thirdly, the Physician to whom he doth discover it (unto the lord)  

The patiented discovering.  As for the patiented, it is DAVID, who confesseth that he was infected, he maketh an immediate confession, and casteth forth the impostumated matter of a dissembling conscience, which being concealed, had been present death. And although a king, yet he forgetteth his glory, setteth affection aside, writeth, as it were, his fault in his brow, and pointeth with his finger at his transgression. Imitate the King's behaviour in thy spiritual disease, o sinful son of ADAM. Cover it not with some defence as ADAM his nakedness, strangle it not within thy bones in a sullen and melancholic passion. Two things hinder sometimes the diseased to discover their disease, fear and shame. Let not these be impediments. Be not ashamed to confess thy sins. Eccl. 4.26. Fellow not the infected with the corporal plague, who sometimes plucketh down the bill or defaceth the red cross of his door, either for shame or temporal profit. Secondly, fear not; it is a sign and argument of life: and as the first argument of life which the widows son of Naim gave was this, he began to speak; so in this spiritual resuscitation from the death of the soul, the first token of our recovery is, that we begin to speak with DAVID, I have sinned exceedingly. If thou repliest, this is also the voice of CAIN, of the MOABITE, Egyptian and Elamite: the answer is, Confession is oris et cordis of the mouth and of the heart: the first was only in the Edomite, let both be in the Christian.  

Six reasons urging confession.  Let me according to the manner of the bodily Physician, show unto you the reasons which ought to persuade you to this discovery of your sores, the which are six in number. First, the nature of your disease, that is of sin, doth require it: as long as it is hidden, it biteth as a Scorpion which we hide in our bosom. Wounds the closer they are kept, the greater torture they bring, saith GREGORY. sins not confessed bring, saith AUGUSTINE condemnation upon us. Secondly, the counsel of the spiritual Physicians command it, Eccl. 4-24. and of the rest, whose prescriptions read in the book of God. Thirdly, the practice of the faithful and their success: this is the voice of JOB, 
Psal. 32.5.  EZRA, DANIEL, and the rest. Fourthly, the curing of your disease doth ask it, for this is a means to have it healed. Pro. 28.13. He that hideth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth them shall have mercy. O how available, saith AMBROSE, are three syllables? peccavi is but three syllables, but the flame of an hearty sacrifice ascendeth therein into heaven, and fetcheth down three thousand blessings. Fiftly, the end and purpose of the Lord, the supreme Physician, for which he doth send thee corporal afflictions; which is, that thou shouldest confess. As the malefactor is put upon the torture that he should discover the truth: even so the Lord in the sending of corporal afflictions, doth, as it were, put us upon the torture, that we seeing our members either in regard of our own persons, or of our children and friends, as it were stretched out by the greatness of the pains, might be enforced to cry peccavi: lord I have done foolishly. Frustrate not therefore the purpose of the Physician. Sixtly, the readiness and willingness of God king David's Physician to heal our souls if we discover them, aught to persuade us. 1. joh. 1-9. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Being thus instructed and guided by these six reasons, follow the prescription of the bodily physicians for the healing of thy spiritual sore: as they counsel in the time of the infection, to empty in the morning the body of all superfluities and excrements, and to take heed the body be not costive at any time: even so empty thyself daily, by a confession of thy sins, of thy superfluities and filthy excrements, take heed thy soul be not costive at any time by keeping in of thy sins.  
There are 3. sorts of bad patients 
3. Sorts of bad patients.  which are infected with the plague of the soul, whose behaviour follow not. The first translate their sins on others, being infected with the infection of their great grandfather Adam Gen. 2-12. It was indeed a woman of his own choosing, even the concupiscence of his heart. O how many are strangers unto themselves, 
Some translate it on others.  covering their filthiness with the fig leaves of their own devices, showing thereby from what house they come. This translation of faults was a lesson learned in Paradyse when the first rudiments and catechism of rebellion was delivered. The second sort hide and deny them, 
Some hide & deny it.  being infected with the contagion of Cain Gen. 4-9. buinding them with cursing, and will never yield the victory thereunto, till as the sun from out the clouds, so truth hath made her a way by main force from out their dissimulations. Fellow them not, knock at the breast of your consciences, break up those iron and heavy gates which bar up your sins. The 3. sort, excuse and extenuate them, infected with the infection of Saul. 1. 
Some excuse and extenuate  Sam. 13. and 1. Sam. 15. some colouring it with pretence, some with good intention, I meant it well, some with the happy event, it succeeeded well. These 3. sorts are like to some which are infected with the plague of the body; some, as it is known by experience, have denied their disease, others to keep it secret have coloured it with some other disease, yea some have plucked down the bills from their doors and defaced the red cross, that their houses might not be known for infected: even so, do many which are infected with the plague of the soul. Happy is therefore that conscience, to conclude with the saying of BERNARD, Wherein truth and mercy meet together; The truth of him that confesseth, and the mercy of him that pardoneth. And thus much for the person discovering.  
In the second place, 
2. The nature of his disease.  having discovered that he was infected, now he disciphereth his disease, and describeth the nature of it, giving unto it two names, First, the name of sin, 2. of foolishness. I have sinned and done foolishly. As for the first, as the physicians, in one word, do often render a whole definition of a disease; So the Holy Ghost 1. john. 3.4. in one word expresseth the nature of sin, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is the breach of the law.  
And so DAVID, as a good physician, giveth unto his disease, her proper and individual name, cloaking it not with the name of virtue. Imitate the King, and give unto the child, as the proverb is, the right name. Further he expresseth the right nature of the plague of the soul, calling it foolishness. The nature of some diseases is such, 
The unmasked plague.  that as the physicians affirm, and experience teacheth, they make the diseased mad and frantic: this is the nature of the spiritual contagion, it is a spiritual frenzy and madness; and the sinners infected therewith, what are they but fools, frantics & mad men? That this is the nature of sin, the plague of the soul, is proved by 3. arguments, First, this is the conclusion and determination of the whole college of the spiritual physicians, 
Three arguments proving the nature of sin.  of the blessed trinity, who attributeth this name to the covetous Luc. 12. to the Atheist Ps. 14.1. to the careless wise man jerem 8-8-9-Es. 56-10-to the stiff-necked Deut. 32. Ps. 38.5. to the ignorant Tit. 3. Wisdom, who is able to judge of fools, giveth this name Pro-1. O ye foolish, how long will ye love foolishness? Secondly, it is proved by the name of the medicine which is appointed to heal this plague, the medicine of repentance: both the greek and the hebrew name do prove it. First the greek name, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which implieth as much, as to become wise or better advised after the fact. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then, or repentance, is a forsaking of our former follies which before we had frequented. Secondly the hebrew name Theschouba, which signifieth a returning, because sinners as fools and mad men, have run out of the way, but by repentance they return back from the devil, the world, themselves, to God, the church, themselves. Thirdly by their actions. What are the actions of the drunkard, of the angry man, of the swaggering swearer, yea of the vain dancer, as Cicero a heathen doth witness, but the actions of fools and mad men? Of him that casteth himself with a set purpose into the fire or water what do we judge, but that he is either a fool or a mad man? What doth the obstinate sinner else, but cast himself into the fire? This is then the nature of sin, the plague of the soul, by the judgement of the best physicians who could not err.  
Touching the nature of this disease, 
The judgement of bad physicians touching sin.  there is another judgement and determination, the judgement of bad physicians, of the devil, the flesh, and the worldling. The devil is crafty in mincing sin, the flesh and the worldling disguise them under the habit of virtues, cloaking them with that honourable name. Pride is, by the judgement of this college, cleanliness and handsomeness. The painting of faces, frizling of hair, comely ornaments. Malice, envy, and revenge, manhood. Gluttony and rioting, good fellowship. Fornication, a trick of youth. Bribery, the taking of their fees and their duty, Simony, gratitude and thankfulness. Drunkenness, merriness. Covetousness, parsimony and good husbandry. Prodigality, liberality. Oppression, justice. The dingthrift a great housekeeper. The worldling, a wise man and a good politician. The good preacher, a railer, the dumbdogge a good fellow. The swaggering swearer, a fine gentleman. The zealous man a precisian. Thus we see that sins, having gotten a livery of their master the devil and stolen the cloak of virtue, do jet it, and brave it up and down, like fiddlers and players, under noble men's coats: which, when their coats are taken away, are but rogues by statute: and so sins when their coloured cloaks ate taken away, are most foul and ugly devils by the word of God. The three aforesaid physicians, are like unto some of those which are appointed in the time of the plague to judge whither it be the sickness or no, after the departure of the infected; some being corrupted by bribes and money, do often judge, that it is not the plague, and that there appear no signs, cloaking it with some other disease: even so the worldlings corrupted and blinded by the Devil and the flesh, do judge of the plague of the soul. But as there is a punishment ordained by the magistrate for those corrupted judges, even so there is a punishment appointed by the magistrate of heaven, 
Prou. 28.13.  for them that seek patronage and defence for their sins, that they might as LACTANTIUS saith, seem to sin honestly. O ye foolish sons of men, your eyes are blinded with partiality, yet the eye lids of the Lord shall try you, his righteous and flaming countenance shall soundly examine your actions, uncover the faces of your iniquities, and call them by their proper names. ALCAEUS took a mole in the body, for a grace, yet was it a blemish: even so although ye esteem your sins ornaments of gentility, yet are they but blemishes both of the body and soul. Think nor that these fig leaves shall keep gods judgements from you. But as for you o ye righteous souls, despise the judgement of the scorning Michols of this age, and with DAVID and MARY be more zealous: for you have chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from you, And thus much for the nature of his sore.  
There followeth the Surgeon or physician to whom he discovered his sore 
3. The physician to whom David discovereth his sore.  (unto the lord) not unto his friend, or to the priest, but unto the best physician both in heaven and earth. Imitate the King, and use for this purpose, no other Surgeon than King david's. The sons of men if they be of any ability, in their corporal diseases, are desirous to have the king's Surgeon and physician, because they persuade themselves of their wisdom and experience, and yet they may err; to whom then shall we discover our spiritual sores but unto the lord the king's physician who can not err, and whom we may have at all times? The superstitious Papists, bankrupt of all sense, are not contented with the King's surgeon, they must have unskilful surgeons who have no power to heal their own sores, nor the sores of others. Behold how the silly people run to lay open their sores unto the priests, and substitutes appointed by that proud prelate of the seven hilled city with his purple cardinals and horned bishops. As the Paracelsian physic sometimes killeth the body: even so this Antichristian medicine the soul. But I purpose not to stir the filthy dunghill of the auricular confession. The more we stir a dunghill, the more it stinketh, and therefore I will not infect your senses therewith. But as for you o proud Romanistes, great and intolerable is your arrogancy to hear the confessions of other men's sins. Are you Christians? The very Heathens do detest this arrogancy. Lysander could not abide it, for having asked counsel in Samothracia of the oracle, and being willed by the Priest and keeper thereof to tell the greatest sin that ever he committed, asked, whether he should do it at his bidding, or at the commandment of the gods: when it was told him, it was the will of the gods, he willed the priest to stand apart and said, he would tell it the gods. Wherefore let that be abandoned far from the school of Christ, which the very Heathen by reason did not admit.  

2. The second thing wherein the king's behaviour is set down.  The second thing, whereby the patient's behaviour in this his disease is declared, is his bodily prostrating of himself with the elders of Israel, upon their faces.  
Behold, DAVID forgetteth not his first foundation, that as he was bred of the earth, so to earth he must return. They fall not, to lie on a heap of violets and roses as the Libarites were wont to do, or upon a couch beautified and decked with the tapestry of Egypt, but upon the earth, and they which before were kings of the earth, are now as it were worms of the earth, and the dunghills are their thrones. 
1. The use, first in regard of Princes.  Imitate and follow the King and the elders of Israel, both Princes and subjects. Princes be first and foremost in humility and in the service of God. It is not the sword, the sceptre and the rob, which maketh magistrates: be not lawless Caracalla, to give laws, and to receive none. Be a rule both to others and to yourselves. Let not the golden cup of honour make you drunk and drive you from all sense of your earthliness and mortality, but with DAVID and the Elders prostrate yourselves before the throne of God. Subjects, think not, that it becometh only the chariots, 
2. In regard of subjects.  and chairs of estate to stoop before him, who rideth upon the Cherubins, but that also, it becometh us all, from the highest to the lowest, to fall down and kneel before the lord our maker. Let us therefore all be low before the footstool of his excellency, and with all submission, both of body and spirit, acknowledge his hand and power over us. Let us abate our proud spirits, cast down our Lordelie looks, cover our faces for the shame of our sins, and present ourselves unto him in all those humble behavioures, which the consideration of his majesty and our misery can possibly frame, degrading and discountenauncing ourselves in the eyes of our God. The King's medicine for the body, prescribeth against the corporal infection, Elder-leaves: in stead of them, in this spiritual King's medicine against the spiritual infection, take the examples of Elders, following the Elders of Israel. By this prostrating of themselves, they have shown three things; First, their sorrow for their sins. secondly, the inward humility of their hearts. thirdly, their wisdom. The first doth produce the second, for as a bladder if it bee-prickt, all the wind and emptiness voideth out of it: 
1. Sorrow.  even so our hearts which are puffed up with the wind of pride and ambition, if they be once pricked with sorrow for their sins, the wind of pride emptieth itself, and humility of heart succeed. Which humility of heart is a necessary ingredient in this King's medicine. To this spiritual prostrating of our souls, 
2. Humility.  four arguments must persuade us, first the counsel of the spiritual physicians 1. Pet. 5-5. james. 4. 7-10. 2. Chron. 7.14. Secondly, experience of the success of this physic. thirdly, the consideration of God's person and of our own: we are but creatures taken from the dust, he the creator, whose majesty the Angels adore, the devils fear, the heavens obey. We but earth, earth by creation, earth by continuance, earth by resolution, thou comest earth, saith one, thou remainest earth, thou returnest earth, shall not we then prostrate ourselves before that Lord: we, for whose sakes the prince of glory hath prostrated himself upon his face to cure the plague of our souls? fourthly, the necessity of it; as long as the poison of pride remaineth, thy wound cannot be healed. As certain serpents then, before they drink, spew out all their poison; even so before we can drink in the spiritual king's medicine, we must spew out and cast forth the poison of pride and ambition. thirdly, DAVID by this prostrating, hath shown his wisdom, 
3. Wisdom.  and that in the choice of the medicine, for he chooseth a fit plaster and medicine for his wound: his sore was pride, the plaster which he chose, was humility, which was a contrary, whereby David showed himself a good physician & practitioner: he had exalted himself, & therefore by a contrary he seeketh to heal his sore, for he abaseth and prostrateth himself. It is a maxim approved by the bodily physicians. Contraria contrarijs curantur, Contraries are helped by their contraries, this is a common and true principle, the physicians do use to take natural remedies from the contrary. If the sickness is caused by reason of too much cold and moisture, the remedy must be gathered naturally from the contrary, heat and drought: if nature wax to cold, it must be helped with heat, if it be too hot, it must be cooled, if it be too moist it must be dried, if too dry, it must be moistened. As this is a maxim in physic, so it holdeth in divinity, 
Gal. de temp.  for the king hath used this order. Fellow herein the king, and the order of this medicine, be such a practitioner as David in the curing of thy spiritual sores. Cure contraries by contraries, If thou art infected with pride, cure it with humility, if with impatience, heal it by patience, heal distrustfulness with faith, covetousness with liberality, drunkenness with sobriety, uncleanness with chastity, unmercifulness with mercy. If thy nature be too cold in love, help it with the heat of love, if too hot in anger, passions, and concupiscence, cool it with meekness. If too dry in good works, moisten it with the dew of the spirit. If thy pride, security, wantonness and other more have caused a corporal plague, heal it by the contraries. The counsel of Chrysostome is, alluding to the policy of the wise men in returning into their country another way, Hast thou come saith he by the way of adultery? Go back by the way of chastity. Camest thou by the way of covetousness? Go back by the way of mercy. But if thou return the same way thou camest, thou art still under the kingdom of Herode. There are two motives to move us to follow this wisdom and method 
2. motives to persuade us to follow this method.  of David. First, the practice of others, and their success. This method of healing followed DAVID. The Ninivites had sinned by pride and gluttony, and they fall to sackcloth and fasting. Zacheus had been infected with unmercifulness, covetousness and extortion, and therefore he seeketh to remove them by a contrary, namely liberality Luke 19 secondly the name of the kings medicine, that is, of repentance, doth admonish us thereunto, both the Hebrew and the Greek name: the Hebrew signifying a returning, implieth, that sin which is a spiritual plague, is a going from God, a falling from labour to idleness, from humility to pride, from temperance to riot, from mercy to oppression, from justice to violence: and therefore, that repentance which is the medicine, aught to be a foregoing of these vices, and a returning to their contrary virtues. The Greek name, which implieth as much as to become wise, teacheth the same order of curing, foolishness by wisdom.  
The third and last thing which manifesteth the sick man's behaviour, 
The 3. thing wherein is declared the patientes behaviour.  is the humble clothing of himself in sackcloth 1. Chron. 21-16. with the Elders of Israel. This clothing implieth two things, a putting off, and a putting on. A putting off of the royal garment, and kingly ornaments, and a putting on of a vesture, made not for ostentation but for humiliation, the indument of the penitent and of the sorrowful. A King forgetteth the wardrobe of the kingdom, and goeth to the beggars press, sackcloth is as it were a diadem to his head, he to whom the knee was bowed, the head uncovered, the body prostrated, putteth away his crown, his sceptre, and his Majesty. The Elders wind their bodies in sack, and are as corpses made ready for the burial, and fit to lie in the ground, then to live and breath upon the face of the earth. This is then the habit and livery wherein they go unto the Lord. This humble clothing, with the outward prostrating, are not godliness and repentance itself, but gestures and behavioures setting it forth, arguments and outward professions of their inward contrition, outward signs of an inward cause from whence they proceed, adminicles and helps to their effectual prayers which they powered forth. Fasting and sackcloth saith JEROME, are the armour of repentance, she cometh not to God with a full belly, nor in gorgeous attire of silver, gold or needle work, but with the thinnest face, and coarsest apparel that she can provide. Follow the king and the Elders in the taking in of this king's medicine of repentance, 
The use  both Princes and Subjects. Princes, 
in regard of princes.  in a public calamity, esteem the Robes of your Majesty for a time, as burdens to your backs with DAVID, as unseemly to be worn as ever the botch or scab was to the Egyptians. Let your counterfeited ornaments be ashamed at his presence, who is clothed with glory and honour. Psal. 104.1. Arise, prostrate yourselves, do obeisance to the Lord of Lords, whose throne is the heavens, and all the thrones of the earth but his footestooles. Subjects, this belongeth principally to you; 
Of subjects.  If we will take in this present year, the King's medicine for the soul, there are robes and indumentes which we must put off, & others which we must put on. 
The Christians putting off, and putting on, fit for this new year.  The robes which we must put off; are diverse: first, the old man, cast off saith the Ap. Eph. 4.23 the old man, which is corrupt through the deceivable lusts. The second indument, is lying. Merchants, put away this rob, & as the Ap. exhorteth, Cast off lying, and speak every man truth unto his neighbour. Zeph. 4-25. The third sort of indumentes, 
Garments to put off.  which with the old year we must put off to take in this medicine, are according to the counsel of the Apostle, Col. 3.8. put ye away, wrath, anger, cursed speaking, and filthy speaking out of your mouth. The fourth is hate, for as love is the livery of a christian as Tertullian termeth it, so hate and envy is the badge and livery of Satan, an ornament of the prince of darkness. The fift is hypocrisy and dissimulation 1. Pet. 2-1. Lay aside all guile and dissimulation. The sixth the robes of curiosity, vanity and pride, and fashion not yourselves like unto this world. Rom. 12-2. Wives (it is the Apostles precept 1. Pet. 3.3.) be subject to your husbands, and let not your appareling be outward, as with broided hair, and gold put about, or in putting on of apparel. Sick men, which are to take in medicines for their bodily health, & which are cast down upon their beds, take no care for the adorning and attiring of their bodies, neither do take pride in their apparel, but clothe themselves as patientes and sick men: even so, seeing we are infected and sick of the plague of sin, and that we are to take in this medicine for to recover our spiritual health, shall we busy ourselves to adorn and trim up these mortal bodies, and take delight in these outward ornaments? Alas, sin and shame were the first tailors that shaped ADAM'S garments, and the garments on our backs, they are signs that we are sick with the plague of the soul. For as the bill and red cross upon the door, is a token, that that house is infected with the Plague: even so the garments upon our backs, are as a bill and red cross, showing that the houses of our hearts, with our whole body, are infected with the plague of sin. Should he not be accounted foolish, who should glory himself of the red cross upon his door? It is maintained by the vulgar experience, that the bodily plague doth, or can lie & stick in the apparel; and by this means, that others are infected: whether this be true or no I can not affirm. But this is certain, that there is a plague which lieth and sticketh in the apparel, the plague of strange fashions, of curiosity, vanity and pride, which plague infecteth others. It is also maintained, that the plague can be brought out of other countries in the apparel, wares and merchandises: whether this also be true, I will not dispute: but this we may affirm, that the plague of pride, curiosity, vanity, and strange fashions is brought out of other countries into England; as out of Italy, Spain, and France, and so infecteth us Englishmen. If we shun the garment which is suspected of bodily infection, shall not we fly from the enduements which are stained with the spiritual contagion? Let us not then give countenance by them unto our beggary: alas what is their nature, they are but the painting of a grave, or whiting of a rotten wall, the cover and case to a lump of mortal flesh, they make us honourable in the sight of men, but work no reverence or estimation before the Lord of Hosts. And yet, good God, how are we degenerated from our father ADAM! When God made apparel for man, he made it but of the skins of beasts, but now this fashion is quite out of fashion, we rob all the creatures of the world to adorn us, by taking from some their wool, from some their skins, from others their fur, & from some their very excrements; & rather than we will be unfurnished of any thing, we will not stick to dive into the very bottom of the sea for precious stones. O how many are there of those fools of which Bias speaketh, He that wasteth much to follow every fashion, may be called the Mercer's friend, the Tailor's fool, and his own foe. Many do err in the taking in of this King's medicine, and bring other guises and shows in repentance; but as for us, there must be in us not david's jewish putting on, but his penitent putting off. Lusty gallants, if ye will take in the king's medicine for this year, you must put off your Absalon's hair; painted jesabels', you can not take it in, with your painted faces, open breasts, monstrous verdingales, long staring ruffs, ruffianly locks. Dainty dames, if you will use this medicine, you must not gird yourselves so strait to be fine and small, but you must gird and pinch the loins of your minds. Royal citizens, 
Luke. 12.  if you will take in this royal medicine, you must put off your princely furniture, your wanton disdainful & superfluous sails of pride, wherein ye esteem not warmth, but the colour and die, wearing them for their price more than necessity. They are, as AUGUSTUS the Emperor of Rome termeth them, vexillum superbiae nidusque luxuriae the banner of pride, & nest of riotousness. The cause of God's anger against us, and which hath brought many to shame and beggary, hath it not been their back and their belly? Let us therefore crush these vipers, and not suffer them any longer to live amongst us. This excess hath been one of the two daughters of the horseleech, which hath sucked the blood of the whole land, and consumed in vain the substance of many: and therefore let us cross it in our repentance. And as BENADAD. 1. Reg. 20. having received an overthrow of an hundred thousand footmen, upon that misery wherewith he and his servants were touched, his servants said, we have heard that the Kings of ISRAEL are merciful kings, let us put on sackcloth and ropes about our heads, and go to the king of Israel &c: even so o England, having received the former year an overthrow of many thousands by the Lord's Angel, and knowing that the God of Israel is a merciful God, leave your princelike furniture, go unto him, that you may receive mercy. To conclude this point, whensoever we see the Lord is angry, let us imitate ABIGAIL. 1● Sam. 25. who perceiving David to be angry, arose and went to meet him with a present to appease his wrath, and laded her asses with two bottles of wine, and frails of raisins: even so let us lad our bodies and sinful carcases, which we have used as Asses to bear the huge burden of our sins, with fasting, sackcloth, & mourning, which are the armour of repentance. Le● our eyes be as two bottles of wine to carry with us; the tears whereof we may drink to comfort us in the assurance of God's mercy: le● us present our broken and contrite hearts, the which he will receive kindly at our hands, and lay his sword down, and bid us to return in peace unto our houses. And thus much for the Robes of the old year, which we must pu● off. 
2 The garments for this new year, which we must put on.   
There follow the robes and garments of the new year which we must put on, to take in orderly this King's medicine. These are also manifold and manifest. The first is, the new man▪ fit for this new year. Put on the new man, saith the Apostle, which is after God created in righteousness and holiness. Eph. 4.24. And be ye changed by the renewing of your mind. Rom. 12.2. The second is charity, mercy, and kindness. Col. 3.12. Put on the bowels of mercy, kindness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing and forgiving one another. Hear are costly robes (rich men) to be worn and put on, the old year being past. The third ornament is sobriety; gird up the loins of your mind, & be sober. 1. Pet. 1.13. This is an ornament for you that look upon the wine how pleasant it is in the glass. Prou. 23. If you will drink this medicine, you must not give yourselves to the o●her. The fourth is peace, and have your feet ●hod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Ephe. 6. This is your garment, you that are of ●he quarreling humour, and sow strife among ●our brethren. The fifth ornament to put on, is ●rueth and verity. Merchants, this is your new ●eares garment, have your loins girded about with verity. Ephe. 6.14. The sixth garment is humility; This is your new years garment, ●roud men, put on humbleness of mind. Col. 3. ●2. it is a royal garment. If then ye will take in ●his royal medicine, forget not David's garment, 〈◊〉 simple araiment in the eyes of the world, but precious in the eyes of God. It is an universal ●mament, both for the Prince and the beggar. It is a boldness & great arrogancy for a subject, how highsoever he be, to be equal to the prince in his garments: princely garments become princes, but as for this ornament, it is no boldness at all to be equal unto a King. The seventh, is righteousness or a good conscience. judges and magistrates, let this be yours, have the breast plate of righteousness. Ephe. 6.14 The eight, is shamefastness and modesty; women, this is your new years garment. 1. Tim. 2, 9 Array yourselves in comely apparel, with shamefastness and modesty. The ninth, is holiness and righteousness; as this is every man's garment, so more particularly it ought to be your new years garment, O tribe of Levi, o ye Prophets of the Lord. Psal. 132.9. Let thy Priests be clothed with righteousness. As upon AARON'S garment when he entered the Sanctuary, there was written, Codesh Codesh, holiness, holiness: even so ye that stand in the Lord's Temple, have this holiness written in your hearts. The tenth, is the wedding garment, Math. 22. which is Faith This is an ornament for those to put on, who the former year have unreverently approached to the King's feast. The last garment, is Chris● jesus; This is the Christians garment: Put ye● on the Lord jesus Christ. Rom. 13.14. This is tha● white raiment, which covereth our nakedness Apoc. 3.18. If we desire a precious garment one which is not heavy but light, one in fashion, one pleasant to God, put on this Lord jesus. As JACOB having put on the garment of his eldest brother, received the blessing: even so, if we put on this garment and approach unto the Lord our Physician with it, we shall receive the blessing of our father in heaven, and the health of our souls. These are then the garments to put on. The colours of our garment are two, red and white; his red colour it hath from the blood of Christ, 
Reu. 7.14.  by which it is sanctified: his white colour, from the splendour and brightness of the holy Ghost, in regard of a holy life which shineth before the world Reu. 7.13. Let us then, beloved, be careful to get these garments, if we will drink this spiritual King's medicine. The Heathens being invited, had for their banquets, and went to their feasts, with white garments, which they called vestes coenatorias, which were also used among the jews, as PHILO writeth; and they which wore them, were called Candidati: the Lord doth invite us this year to the King's feast, which is repentance, and that by a joyful deliverance, as he invited us the former year by his smart-Preacher. Ought we not then to have the white garment of integrity to put on? The former year, men have aired and perfumed their apparel with divers scents and odoriferous confections to resist the poison and infection of the air, let us this year perfume them with the sweet sent of humility, modesty, comeliness, to expel and resist the poison and infection of curiosity, pride and vanity. Let us then, beloved, with these Elders, in this life be clothed with the penitential garment, that in the life to come we may put on those white robes Reu. 7.13. wherewith the Saints and Elders were adorned: let us not seek to be as the glowworms, to shine here only beneath, that hereafter we may shine above as the stars in the firmament. And thus much for the garments to put on.  
Before I proceed, I will show you yet one thing; The King's medicine against the bodily infection must be taken in, fasting, 
The spiritual King's medicine, is to be taken in, fasting.  as you may see in the medicine itself, prefixed before the treatise, & as the practice of the former year doth also witness: Even so this spiritual King's medicine of repentance against the spiritual Plague must be taken in, fasting. There is a twofold fast; First, a corporal and an outward; Secondly, a spiritual and an inward. As for David & the Elders of Israel, whither they have fasted or no, it is not here expressed; but yet it may be believed that they have. As for you, beloved of London, first you have taken in the King's medicine for the body, fasting. Secondly, you have also begun to take in this spiritual King's medicine fasting; witness the weekly fastings of the former year. Being now come unto the new year, see that you continue in the inward and spiritual fast: as for the outward it is only necessary in the time of public calamity, when either any present judgement would be removed, or any good cause promoted: but without the inward and spiritual, this spiritual King's medicine cannot be taken in: use it then not for the space of 9 days together, but for the space of thy whole life. Forget not so much to forsake ordinary food, as to imprison and shut up your bodies from the vanities and pleasures of this life; pull down the strength and pride thereof. The honour of a fast, to use the words of Chrisostome, is not abstinence from meats, but avoidance of sin. Dost thou fast? show me thy fasting by thy works. If thou askest what kind of works? If thou seest a poor man, take mercy on him, if thine enemy, reconcile thyself. If thy friend deserving praise, envy him not. If a beautiful woman, make a covenant with thine eyes. For what availeth it, saith Augustin, to empty thy belly of food, and to fill thy soul with sins, to be pale for fasting and to be blue and pale for hate and envy; to drink no wine, and to be drunk with the poison of anger; to abstain from things which are lawful, and to do things which are unlawful? Fellow then, beloved, the counsel of Chrisostome and Bernard, who both jump together: Let not only thy mouth and thy bowels fast, but thine eyes, thine ears, thy feet, thy hands, and all thy bodily members. Let thy hands fast from robbery, thy feet from bearing thee to unlawful spectacles, thine ears from sucking in slanderous tales, thine eyes from receiving in wantonness. And to show you out of the mouth of God himself, what manner of fast you ought to use this new year; Lose the bands of wickedness, 
Es. 58.  take off the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, deal thy bread to the hungry, and cover the naked. As there hath been the former year, a general fast through the whole land, so there ought this year to be this inward and spiritual through the whole Kingdom, from the honourable Counsellor, to him that grindeth at the Mill. This is the great general fast, and a Lent of abstinence which we all must keep. And thus much for the patient's behaviour, and also the third part of the King's Medicine.   

¶ The fourth part, containing the time when the King took in this Medicine, and the cause moving him thereunto.  
THE time when he took it in, was; first, when he saw that he had gotten the spiritual infection by the numbering of the people; and secondly, when he saw the danger and effect thereof, a pestilence in Israel. The cause moving him to take it in, was, to heal his disease & to remove the effect thereof. Ver. 8.16- The consideration of both, delivereth unto us, a portraiture of a wise Physician & of a wise patiented; the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of David. The wisdom of God the Physician, 
Use. The wisdom of God the Physician.  doth appear in the diversity of means, which he knoweth to use for to cure sin & to move the sons of men to take in this spiritual King's medicine of repentance. This Physician had before given unto DAVID, peace, prosperity, and victories over his enemies, and now seeing him anew infected with a dangerous disease, he sendeth a general pestilence in Israel. Before, he came with his benefits, and now with his judgements. As the expert Physician, useth first soft and lenitive remedies, and if they avail not, than he cometh to his sharp and biting corrosives: even so the Lord, useth first the soft and lenitive remedies of his commandments, promises and benefits, and then the biting corrosives of his judgements. Some he healeth by honey, some by gall, some by salt, some by meal, some by sweet, some by sour. He hath a storehouse full of remedies, and the bread of judgement to breed good blood in us. The Lord, as Clemens Alexandrinus speaketh, is like unto an expert physician, he hath sundry kinds and varieties, and showeth the changes of his notes, he both pitieth and chasteneth, entreateth and threateneth, and by threatening best admonisheth, by speaking roughly soon persuadeth. When the rails of the law kept not the Israelits in the pasture of the word, the Lord appointed the hedge of thorny discipline. And even so at this present, such as he cannot draw to come in the fold of salvation by the whistle of the word, he compelleth them to come in by the dog & hook of discipline & correction. If the blessings of Mount Garizzim do not move us, 
Deut. 27.  than the cursings of Mount Ebal must come upon us. If we take no pleasure in the beauty of Mount Zion, than the thunderings & lightnings of Sinai must put us in fear. As this showeth the wisdom of God, so it declareth the success of his wisdom, 
The success of his wisdom.  in DAVID his patient; the Lords corrosives have wrought in his soul: for seeing the hand of the Lord, he began to take in the medicine of repentance. The Lords corrosives have many virtues. 
The use of afflictions.  First, they make us to esteem, honour & make much of the Lord, King David's Physician. Secondly, they make us to attain unto the knowledge of our disease: bind Manasses with chains, pull the King of Babylon from his throne, & they will know themselves: thirdly, they make us to seek for a remedy against our sore. Fourthly, they prevent & keep our souls from falling into more grievous diseases. Fiftly, they serve as a purge to purge us from the corrupted humours of the soul. The want of these five things had been a long time among us, and therefore king David's Physician hath the former year used his corrosives. We should have fallen into a deadly Lethargy of sin, & therefore he hath prevented it, that we might, as the Proverb is, with the  child dread the fire. As jonathan shot arrows to give DAVID warning, even so the Lord hath shot off his arrows Ps. 9 to give us warning. The Plague, o London, hath been a writing scroll upon your flesh, engraven in your skin to teach you obedience, as the Leprosy unto Miryam. It hath been as I. Baptist to send you unto Christ. It hath been as a medicine sent from heaven; the King of heavens medicine, to heal the sores of the land & to remove the spiritual plague. Sickness, as Basil saith, upon the 25. Psalm, is unto many a salutiferous medicine, and life itself. As we pluck back or stay our horses, if either they gallop too fast, or go out of the way: so the Lord, because we were as wild horses, hath kerbed our bits, & straightened the rains of our unbridled affections. As the Lord's corrosives have had good success in DAVID, so they have wrought in us. We had been like unto joab. 2. Sa. 14.29. As Absalon sent for him the first time by his servants, but would not come; and the second time, & yet would not come to him, and therefore sent the third time his servants to set joabs fields on fire, & then he arose and came: even so the Lord had sent at diverse times his servants, the Prophets, to will us to come to him, but because we remained obstinate, he sent, the former year, other servants, namely, his Angels, to kindle our houses with the fire of pestilence, and that made us to arise, to go unto the Lord with fasting; that made us to cry out, Lord have mercy upon us; Christ have mercy upon us. When the waters of the flood came upon the face of the earth, down went stately Turrets & Towers; but as the waters rose, so the Ark rose still higher & higher; In like sort, when the waters of afflictions arise, as the flood of the pestilence did the former year, down goes the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the vanities of the world; as they did also in some sort, the last year: pray God it may continued. But the Ark of the soul riseth as these waters rise, higher and higher towards heaven, as also they did the old year. As your afflictions then, beloved, have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so have they also been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, both sufferings and instructions. Interpret them aright, let them put a sensible and lively feeling into your souls: receive them not as an horse or mule, that taketh the branding of an hot Iron, which they presently forget. Bene pungeris si compungeris, saith that honey father BERNARD, It is a happy pricking of the body, that maketh a pricking in the heart. This kind of affliction, as it is reported, moved some of the Heathens, to become Christians: for in the reign of Edward the third, there fell a Plague in the East Indies, which lasted seven years, which moved many of them to become Christians. How much more then, ought it to make us, deformed Christians, to become reform and good Christians. If then tribulation come, receive it with thanks, keep it with patience, digest it in hope, apply it with wisdom, bury it in meditation, & it shall end in glory and peace.  
Further, 
The portraiture of a wise patiented.  observe the wisdom of David the patiented, in the taking in of this medicine: he differreth not to take it in, but as soon as he perceived, that he had gotten the spiritual contagion, & that the effect thereof was spread through the land, behold, his heart smiteth, he confesseth, prostrateth himself. Fellow the wisdom of David, o sons of Adam; let not the opportunity slip, let both the time & cause persuade you. As medicines for the body must be taken in, 
Six motives to persuade us to this wisdom.  in due season; even so the King's medicine for the soul. Six motives ought to persuade us not to differ the ●aking in of it, in due season; First the counsel of the whole college of the spiritual Physicians. Heb. 3.13. Eccle. 12.1. 
Es. 55.6. Ec. 5.7.  joel. 2.12. Eccl. 38.9. Secondly, the uncertainty of the hour of death. The experience of the former year hath showed the truth of that Proverb; As many days, as many lives. They who one day carried the dead bodies to the graves, were themselves on the morrow carried by others. Thirdly, the dangers which ensue, 
Three dangers.  if it be not taken in, in due season; the dangers are three in number. First, delay doth cast our own persons in danger, both body and soul; the body in the danger of the fire of the Plague: the soul of the fire of hell: both of the fire of God's heavy indignation. To quench this threefold fire, we must take in the King's medicine in due season. Secondly, we cast others in danger; do we not see, that our little children, do, as it were, suffer with us, and help to bear the punishment of our delay and procrastination? Thirdly, delay increaseth our disease; and lastly, maketh it incurable. It fareth with the plague of sin, as with a tempest upon the sea, in which there are first little waves; afterwards, greater volumes of waters: and then, perhaps, surges mounting up as high as heaven. Or it is like unto the breeds of serpents, first an egg, 2. a cockatrice, thirdly a serpent. To prevent this increasing take in the King's medicine betimes. Ancient wounds saith JEROME, are not cured in haste, the plaster must lie long upon them; even so our old festered sins can not be done away with a days repentance. The snow ball the more it is rolled, the greater it waxeth; the more sins we commit, the more walls of brass we build up betwixt God and us: so that at last, our cries can not have passage unto him, nor his mercies unto us. The longer the blow be in fetching, the heavier will the wound be when it cometh. And the deeper the arrow be drawn in the bow the deeper it pierceth when it is let flee. Sin creepeth forth like a canker, if in time it be not medicined. As of the sickness of the body, so of the soul there are critical days, known to God, whereby he doth guess, whether we be in likelihood to recover health, and to hearken to the wholesome counsels of his law or not. If then the lord take his time to give us over to ourselves and the malignity of our diseases, we may say too late as sometime Christ, of jerusalem, O that we had known the things that belong to our peace, but now they are hid from us. As I will not promise, so I dare not presume saith AUSTIN, of evening repenters: to make all out of doubt, the best course is to repent betimes. The fourth motive, are the impediments which will hinder us to take in the King's medicine, if we slip the opportunity, & the first handsel of time. If it be differed to old age, or to sickness, two impediments will be in the way, outward, and inward: First, outward impediments, thy wife & children environing thee, thy friends whispering in thine ears to make thy Will, and to remember such and such a friend; so that repentance being differred, will be either nulla, vel ficta, vel difficilis, either none at all, or counterfeit, or very hard. The other impediments, will be, the multitude of thy sins, fear of death, the terror of the law, the objections of Satan, the accusations of thy conscience. True is the saying of AMBROSE, nulla seria penitentia est nimis sera, sed rarò tam sera est seria. No serious repentance is too late: but yet seldom, a late repentance is a serious repentance. Young men, take in betimes the King's medicine, spend not the strength, sap, and greenness of your youth, season your green vessels with the liquor of God's spirit, and offer unto him the maidenhead of your youth. Old men, take it also in due season, differre it not, to the hour of death: for if you do, you tread upon ye, which if it be melted with a little heat of God's anger, alas you shall sink into the gulf of destruction. Young age trust not to old age, thou leanest upon a brittle staff, which when it breaks, the splinters and shivers thereof will wound thee. Both of you, offer not the dregs of your life unto god, least ye drink the dregs of his anger. The common saying is true, vita brevis, ars longa, life is short, and the art of salvation requireth a long time of learning. fiftly, your own diligence, beloved of London, in the taking in of the bodily King's medicine in due season, for the preservation of your bodies, aught to put you in mind of the care and diligence which you ought to have for your souls. You have not differred to take in preservatives till the infection had won the vital parts: let the health of your souls be dearer unto you, than the health of your bodies. If these five move you not, go then ye foolish sons of men, to the very beasts, ask of them, as JOB speaketh, 
cap. 13.  and they will tell it you: Even the stork in the air knoweth her appointed times, the turtle, the crane and the swallows observe the time of their coming. jerem. 8.7. If not the wisdom of man, then, let the wisdom of beasts persuade you. And yet why should not the wisdom of men move men? Doth not the husbandman observe the time of sowing, the mariner watch his tides, the smith strike his iron while it is hot, the merchant take ship while the wind serveth? & shall not you then that are patients take in physic before it is too late? I will conclude the fourth part of this discourse; As JEROME having read the life and death of HILARION who after he had lived religiously, died mo●● christianly, said, well, HILARION shall be th● champion, whom I will follow: even so, having now read and heard the repentance o● DAVID, let us say, Well, DAVID shall be ou● champion whom we will follow.   

The fift part, containing the operation of the king's medicine, with King DAVID'S sacrificing.  
THe fift and last part of thi● discourse, 
1. The operation of the king's medicine.  brancheth itself in two branches: the first containeth the operation o● the king's medicine 2. Sam. 24 25. which is, the ceasing o● the plague. The second, the behaviour of the patiented, DAVID, now being healed, and having felt the operation of this medicine; which is▪ his sacrificing unto the lord 1. Chron. 21.28, in these words, At that time when DAVID saw that the Lord had heard him, than he sacrificed.  
The operation of the king's medicine, showeth that it is a healing medicine, he taketh it in against the plague, and behold the plague ceaseth. This operation hath manifested itself, in two things: First, 
Manifested in two things.  in the curing of the plague of the soul, for DAVID'S sin hath been pardoned. Secondly, in the removing of the effect thereof, for the plague of the body ceased. The operation then of this physic, commendeth unto us the king's medicine. If it be taken in with all her ingredientes, and in that manner that DAVID took it in, it hath the virtue to cure a double plague, of the soul and of the body. This doth king DAVID'S physician witness, himself, in that excellent testimony worthy to be noted 2. Chron. 7.14; If my people among whom my name is called upon, do humble themselves, pray, seek my presence, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I be merciful to their sins, (here is the curing of ●he first plague). And I will heal their land (here is the healing of the second plague). This medicine than is better, than they which are prescribed in the book of nature by Galen, Hypocra●es, and the rest: it is also better than the balm of Gilead which could not avail. jerem. 46.11. To persuade you to the taking in of this King's medicine, 
A commendation of the king's medicine.  not only the operation of it, bu● diverse other arguments are able to commend it unto you. The first argument of praise, may b● taken from the author 
1. From the author.  thereof: not mortal man, but the blessed Trinity, hath first prescribed and invented this physic, & the whole college o● the blessed patriarchs, prophets, Apostles hau● taught the manner how to take it in, for us tha● are unexperienced. A medicine, having an expert and skilful author, hath great force to persuade▪ The second, from the persons which have used i● 
2. From the persons which have used it.  & taken it in: not only mean men, but also honourable persons, Kings, princes & Magistrates, patriarchs & prophets, Apostles & martyrs. Medicines used by honourable persons, are esteemed & much made of, because we persuade ourselves that they will spare no cost. 
3. Her names.  Thirdly, the honourable names which are given unto it in the book● of God, do much commend it, being called glory and a joyful crown. Ec. 1.11. honourabl● wisdom, Ec. 1.14. and diverse others which will not specify. The very name of the king's medicine hath persuaded many the former yeer● to use the same above others. The ancientness & antiquity of it, 
4. Antiquity.  doth minister the 4. argument o● commendation: for it was ordained in paradise God the first preacher and physician of ou● souls preached repentance in paradise, he● showed them their sins and gave them th● promise. The 5. argument of praise, is the universality 
5. Universality.  of it, it is good for all manner of persons: which universality is wanting in the corporal medicines, some being not good for old men, some for young men, some not good for children, some for women: but this is good for all men, and therefore it is prescribed universally, to Princes jerem. 13. to rich men 1. Tim. 6. to poor men, to old men, to young men Ec. 12.1. to virgins, to married women Ec. 1.15. to the barren, to them that are with child, to soldiers Luke. 3. for captains Acts 10. for ministers, for scholars, it is a Prophet's medicine. And behold, o physicians, here is a medicine for physicians. Parents, use it yourselves, give it in to your children, and Masters to your servants, that the infection of this world annoy them not. 6. it is profitable, 
6. Profitable.  it will cost you nothing, yet it hath excellent operations: medicines which cost little or nothing, & yet have singular virtue, are much esteemed. Many have spent almost their whole substance in physic, for the curing of heir bodies: this shall not need, if you use this medicine; the Doctors, to teach you the manner to take it in, shall also cost you nothing. Poor men, here is another King's medicine for you, which will not waste your substance. Seventhly, 
7. Delectable.  the pleasantness of it hath no little force to add somewhat to the commendation of it. Corporal medicines are often unpleasant, unsavoury, bitter, the sick man sometime will not take them in, for they cannot abide them: but this is delectable, for it is nothing else but love, it is compounded of love & all manner of virtues. What is there more delectable then to love God, and to take our delight in his law Psal. 1. and therewithal to adorn ourselves with all manner of virtues? Shall not that be pleasant unto us, which voideth the filthiness of sin that maketh us stinking in the sight of God? The patiented doth often tremble against the time that he must take in his medicine, but this rejoiceth the sinner: for the fear of the Lord Ec. 1.12 maketh a merry heart, 
8. Sufficient.  and giveth gladness and joy. eightly, the sufficiency of it may be an other argument of praise. I do not dislike the medicines that natural physic doth prescribe, but they are not sufficient for their imperfection sake: but this is a perfect medicine, for the fear of the lord giveth peace and perfect health Ec. 1.22. Ninthly, it is an experimented 
9 Experimented.  medicine, the continual practice of others since the beginning of the world doth commend it. The operation of it, experience hath proved. Her operations are admirable, it cureth a double plague, it giveth long life Ec. 1.12.22. It maketh wise Ec. 1.15. Yea it is a remedy against a secret ill. The plague is called by some a secret il, wherein learned physicians have professed ignorance. And yet behold, here is a medicine appointed by God himself, which is able to remove it. Let these 9 arguments of commendation commend unto you, this new year, this King's medicine and the use thereof. And thus much for the operation of the King's medicine.  
There followeth the action and behaviour of the patiented now being healed, 
2. King david's sacrificing.  having felt the operation of this medicine: namely his sacrificing unto the Lord. This his sacrificing emptieth itself into these particulars, First, the person sacrificing (DAVID) secondly the person to whom, (unto the Lord) thirdly the thing sacrificed, (burnt offerings and peace offerings) Fourthly the place where, (in the threshing floor of ORNAN the jebusite) fiftly the time when (when he saw that the Lord had heard him 1. Chron. 21.28) sixtly and lastly, the success of his sacrificing (the Lord answered him by fire from heaven v. 26). This action of DAVID, was religious, reasonable, just, and acceptable to God. Sacrifices are of two sorts, jewish and evangelical. But I purpose not to enter the large field of sacrifices, and to number their kinds, describe their lineaments, their antiquity, their soul, their ends. I leave the jewish to the jews. The evangelical sacrifices, are also of two sorts, the sacrifice of Christ, and the sacrifice of a Christian. In the sacifice of Christ, observe these particulars, according to the method of DAVID'S sacrifice. 1 the person sacrificing, Christ the true DAVID, 
Christ's sacrificing.  the king of the jews: for that did he once, when he offered up himself Heb. 7.27. Secondly as DAVID offered unto the Lord, so Christ the true DAVID offered unto the father. 3 the thing sacrificed, his own body, In the end of the world hath he appeared once to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26. Fourthly, the place where, jerusalem. And as the altar was built in the threshing floor of a jebusite, even so Christ our altar hath been erected among the gentiles. Fiftly, the time when; In the end of the world Heb. 9.26. under Pontius Pilate. sixtly, the persons for whom, for the true Israelites, and all the faithful. 7 As David offered for the ceasing of the corporal plague; even so the true David Christ jesus offered for the ceasing and removing of the spiritual plague. Heb. 10.12.14. by the virtue of whose sacrifice, it is only removed. As for the sin of David, whole Israel smarted; so for the sin of Adam whole mankind. 8 The altar whereupon the true David offered, was the cross. 9 The success of it, the anger of the Lord hath been appeased towards the sons of men. And as he answered David by fire, so he hath answered the sacrifice of the true David by the fire of his love, and he hath consumed our sins by the sacred fire of his mercy, and the Angels have put up the sword in the scabbard, that is they are become our friends. 10 As David hath been touched with the knowledge of his sin: even so the true David hath been touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and in all things tempted in like sort, yet without sin Heb. 4.15. eleventhly, as David desired the health of his soul, even so the true David hath wished for the health of our souls, and hath said as David, Lord take away the trespasses of thy servants. 12 As David humbled and prostrated himself upon the earth: even so the true David hath humbled himself, and is become obedient unto death. Phil. 2.8 he hath prostrated himself upon the earth Mat. 26.13 As David desired to have the punishment of the people transferred upon his own person, Let thine hand be against me, etc. So the true David hath indeed borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows, he hath been wounded for our transgressions, broken for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Es. 53.45. 14 As David hath prayed for the people, even so Christ for us. john 14. 15 lastly as David hath clothed himself with a vile indument, putting on sackcloth: even so Christ the Prince of glory, hath taken to him a mortal body, the indument of our flesh, & he who was in the form of god hath taken the form of a servant. Phil. 2.6. The difference 
The difference.  betwixt David and Christ, are these, 1. DAVID died not for the sins of his people, but christ suffered death for them. 2. DAVID was a sinner, Christ not Heb. 9.14. Thirdly, with DAVID the Elders prostrated themselves, but with Christ neither Saint or Angel. 4. DAVID prayed not only for his people, but for himself that his sore might be healed, Christ only for the people. And thus much for Christ's sacrifice which we can not offer.  

2. The Christians Sacrifices, which are 4. in number, to be offered unto God this new year.  Now seeing the Lord hath heard our prayers, and that we are healed, we ought this new year to offer up Sacrifices unto the Lord as DAVID did, not the jewish, but the Christian Sacrifices, which are 4. in number, Repentance, thanksgiving, mercy, and our children. These 4. must be the Mercuries or messengers, to publish abroad through the whole land our repentance, these must be the proclamations & audible sermons to preach the duty of our deliverance.  
Offer first, the sacrifice of repentance, 
1. The Sacrifice of repentance.  called the sacrifices of righteousness Psal. 51.19. which branch themselves in many little branches. First, offer up yourselves, both body and soul Rom. 12.1. I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye give up your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. Secondly your obedience, Ec. 35.1. for who so keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough, and he that holdeth fast the commandments offereth an offering of salvation. This is better than sacrifice, for he that offereth sacrifice, offereth the flesh of a beast, but he that obeyeth offereth his own will as a quick and reasonable sacrifice. Make then the use which DAVID made of god's mercy and deliverance Ps. 105.45. keep his statutes and observe his laws. Thirdly, your hearts, Prou. 23. My son give me your heart. This is a Christian sacrifice, this mite he requireth for the duty of our deliverance. As Naaman being purged from his leprosy, returned from the waters, & would offer a present unto ELISHA, 2. Reg. 5.15. Even so o London being purged from thy contagion, offer up unto the Lord, both rich and poor the precious gift of your whole heart. Christ our physician desireth no other fee or reward of us then our hearts. Fourthly, offer up an humble and contrite spirit, for the sacrifice of God, are a contrite spirit; a contrite and broken heart, o god thou wilt not despise. Ps. 51.17. you need not then o son of ADAM saith AUSTIN, to seek without thee a beast to slaughter, you have one within thee: for a sacrifice pleasing unto God is a contrite spirit. Let therefore the bountifulness of God lead us to repentance Rom. 2.4 and move us to vow unto his majesty the continual sacrifice of a better life. After the sweet rain and dew of God's blessing received, bring forth good fruit, and not briars and brambles Heb. 6.6.7. London thou mayest say with DAVID Psal. 116.1. I love the lord because he hath heard my voice and my prayers, when the snares of death compassed me: and therefore o lord because thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, I will walk before thee in the land of the living. London, hear the voice of Christ unto thee joh. 5.14. Behold thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.  
And as the Ruler and all his household joh. 4.53. believed, after that Christ had healed his daughter: even so o Rulers of London, political, ecclesiastical, Economical, after that Christ hath healed you, believe and show your faith by your works with your whole families. Frame your affections to love him for his goodness, to honour him for his greatness, to rejoice in him for his mercies. God, to use the words of Lactantius, desireth not the sacrifice of a dumb beast or of death, but the sacrifice of man and life, wherein there is no need either of garlands, or of fillets of beasts, but such things alone as proceed from the inward man: the altar for which offerings is the heart, whereon offer unto god righteousness, patience, faith, innocency, chastity and abstinence. We have promised the former year in our affliction these sacrifices, let us now perform them, and not be like unto Pharaoes' butler, promising joseph when he was in his affliction that he would remember him, but being freed forgot him. Gen 40. If you have not, make with the new year new vows, vow yourselves, I say not in the world a virgin, but a virgin to Christ. Vow yourselves I say not in the world a pilgrim, to go with the papist from place to place, but a pilgrim to Christ. Vow yourselves I say not as the Friar in the world a beggar, but a beggar to Christ. And so much for the first kind of sacrifice.  
The second sort of Sacrifices, to be offered this new year, 
2. Sacrifices of mercy and liberality to the poor.  are the sacrifices of mercy and liberality, which are to be offered unto the poor. To distribute forget not, for with such sacrifices god is pleased. Heb. 13.16. these are excellent Sacrifices Ec. 35.2. They are an odour that smelleth sweet, & a sacrifice acceptable to god, Phil. 4.8. Show thereby your love & your fidelity, to god, to Christ, to your neighbour. As Zacheus, after that Christ had looked upon him with the eye of mercy, & that salvation was come to his house, waxed liberal to the poor; Even so o London, after that Christ hath now looked upon thee with the eye of his mercy, & that salvation is also come to thy house, be like unto Zacheus, & principally you rich men be ready to distribute & communicate 1. Tim. 6.18. that the poor may say of you for your well doing, as the Licaonians said of Paul & Barnabas Act 14.12, for their heavenvly speaking, the gods are come down to us in the shape of men: for by mercy we com● near unto god. The necessity doth urge this kind of sacrifice, the pestilence with want of doings, hath eaten & consumed up that, which in a long time they had gathered. The former year the fat kine have eaten up the lean, but now let the lean feed upon the fat. Gen. 41.4. The common saying is, that after a pestilence cometh a famine: surely I think this is verified among the poorer sort. You then that are rich take somewhat from your bellies & backs, & sacrifice it as a new years gift to your poor brethren, and honour the lord with your riches, & with the first fruits of your increase Pro. 3.9. The mariners cast out their corn in the tempest to save their ship: let us to invert the order, the tempest being past, cast out our corn to save others. As that wife of the son of the Prophet, after the death of her husband, entreated assistance of Elisha. 2. King. 4.1. So, many after the death of their husbands, without doubt, do crave assistance of you. 
1. Sam. 20.7.  As Samuel then said to Saul when thou seest these signs come upon thee, do as occasion shall serve; even so I, to you beloved of London, seeing you see these signs come upon you, fit your ability to opportunity, & do as occasion now serveth. Ask the Hearts and they will teach you, they help one another to pass the sea or the river, & help to carry one another's burden as AUGUSTINE reporteth; the tempest of the plague hath made many poor & weary, let us therefore help one another through the river and sea of this world, & as the Apostle exhorteth, Bear ye one another's burden Gal. 6.2. As those of Athens, had a Temple of mercy in their city, into the which none might enter, but they which had been merciful; & the greatest ignominy which could be done to a citizen of Athens, was to reproach him, that yet he had not entered that Temple, and therefore every one did strive to enter; even so, beloved of London, erect this year, among you, a Temple of mercy; let the poor be that Temple, enter therein by the works of mercy, esteem it the greatest ignominy, that one should reproach to a citizen of London, that he hath not entered the Temple of mercy.  
Augustus Caesar thought that day ill spent, in which he had not helped some poor person: even so, esteem the old year ill spent, you that have not shown works of mercy; and now begin the new year well. The Papists sacrifice unto dead and dumb Idols, but you do sacrifice to the lively images of God, & to those whose wont nimbleness of their fingers, and agility of their bodies life-stealing age hath taken away. And as DAVID after the death of saul's son, asked, if there were any left alive of the house of Saul, that I may do him good, for jonathans' sake? When he called to mind the benefits which jonathan, the King's son, had bestowed upon him, honouring him with his bow, his love, and preserving him from the wrath of his father, he was moved to mercy: even so, beloved of London, and you the Elders of the people, calling to mind the mercy and love which a King's son, Christ jesus, hath showed to you, preserving you from the wrath of his father, and removing the noisome Pestilence; say as DAVID did, in the beginning of this year, after the death of so many, Is there any left alive of the poorer sort, that I may do good to them, for Christ jesus sake, who hath delivered us? You that have already the old year sacrificed, let not your goodness & mercy go backward, like the shadow upon Ahaz Dial. You that have not, let not your hearts be like to the clay, waxing harder & harder; let them be as wax, and let them melt upon your brethren. Let the benefit of your deliverance be as a sun to melt them. Oh how fair a thing is mercy in the time of anguish! It is like a cloud of rain that cometh in the time of a drought Eccle. 35.19. And thus much for the second sort of Sacrifice.  
The third kind of sacrifice, to be offered this new year, is the sacrifice of thanksgiving, 
3 The sacrifice of thanksgiving.  which is to be offered unto the Lord, according to the direction of the holy Ghost. Psal. 50.14 Offer unto God praise, and pay thy vows unto the most high: for he that offereth praise, shall glorify me. These are the calves of our lips. Hos. 14.3. And seeing the Lord hath taken away our iniquity, and received us graciously, Hos. 14.3, Let us therefore offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of the lips which confess his name. Hebr. 13.15. Let us return kindness for kindness. DAVID, Ps. 170. setteth down 4. kinds of men, which are most indebted to GOD, for deliverance from perils. One of them, are such that are freed from a mortal sickness. London, thou art in the compass of one of these, & therefore you the remainders, confess before the Lord his loving kindness, and his wonderful works before the sons of men, offer the sacrifices of praise, and deliver his works with rejoicing. Psalm. 107.21.22. Exalt him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the Elders, Vers. 32. We have tasted the never stinting stream of his mercies, what shall we then render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us? Let us take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord, pay our vows unto him, even now in the presence of all his people Psalm. 116.12. The Leper, being cleansed by Christ, returned with speed to give GOD praise: LONDON, thou art now cleansed, and with HEZECHIAH hast received health, and therefore say with the King, Esd. 38 20, The Lord was ready to save me, therefore we will sing my song, all the days of our life, in the house of the lord. If the Israelits have bowed themselves and worshipped Exod. 12.27, because the Angel had spared them, ought not th● remainders in all dutiful manner extol the glorious name of the Lord? Israel being past th● red sea, hath song unto the Lord Exod. 15. an● shalt not thou, o London, having now passed those waters which were entered even to you● soul Psal. 96, say with MOSES, The Lord i● my praise, and he is become my salvation, I will prepare him a Tabernacle, and exalt him▪ O that men would therefore praise the Lord fo● his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Psal. 107. Nature itself doth teach thee, o London, this kind o● sacrifice, it hath imprinted a thankful affection in brute beasts, and impressed it in senseless creatures. One horse claweth another, as it is in the Proverb, in token of mutual thankfulness. The earth, receiving rain from the clouds whereby her thirst is quenched, returneth vapours unto the clouds again, and so requireth the former benefit. The streaming Fountains and running rivers, receiving water from the Sea, send their waters again into the Sea, in sign of gratitude. The boughs and branches of trees, in spring-time, sucking their sap from the root, send it again in the fall of the leaf, into the root to nourish it in winter season. If nature hath engraffed this affection in senseless creatures, how much more ought reason, guided by divine knowledge, lead thee, o London, unto the due consideration of this necessary duty. A●as, we had not deserved to receive such a benefit and speedy deliverance: we may then say with DAVID, Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be this honour Psal. 115. To what shall we ascribe it, but to his great mercy? The Lord may answer unto us, as Alexander the great, unto a certain poor man, unto whom he had given two talents, the poor man astonished with the greatness of the gift, using these words; Most princely Sir, I am not worthy to receive so much: to whom Alexander replied; I do not respect, good man, what thou art meet to receive, but what beseems me, so great a Potentate, for to give: even so, God hath not regarded what we, most unworthy creatures, were worthy to receive, but what did become his mercy to bestow and give. The greatness of his mercy then, doth require, that we should sing the praises of God in the highest measure. The cunning physician, will not only stretch forth his strings that they may be heard; but sometimes so, that they may be heard in the highest measure; Such musicans and singers of God's mercy we ought to be; this is the measure we must keep this year upon the Harp of David. If we consider what cloudy days have gone over our heads, and in how fair sunshine we are set again, have we not occasion to say with David, Psalm. 92, It is a good thing to praise the Lord, to sing unto his name, and to declare his loving kindness? O let us then with the best members and instruments we have, bodies and spirits, which the fingers of GOD have harmonically composed, praise the name of the Lord. Let us not take without giving, as unprofitable ground drinketh and devoureth seed without restoring. Let us imitate Noah after the Flood, in one thing, and in another leave him. As Noah. Gen. 8.20. after that the flood was ceased, built an Altar, and offered unto the Lord: so let us after the deluge of the Pestilence, offer unto the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving, that the Lord may speak unto us, as he said to Noah; Increase now again upon the earth and replenish it. But yet let us take heed to surfeit with Noah, and forget the flood; let the former judgement, which hath as a sword been shaken at us for our sin, terrify the whole Land. Let us not be like to the nine Lepers, who being cleansed, forgot him that cured them. Little will he yield which will not yield thanks, which makes us nothing the poorer. We ought then to stir up ourselves, and with David to speak; Awake my tongue, I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. Psalm. 57.8. And as Deborah stirred up herself; Up Deborah up, arise and sing a song. jud. 5.12: even so, O London, stir up thyself; up London up, arise, sing a song upon the Harp of DAVID, Psalm. 103 My soul, praise thou the Lord, and all that which is within me, his holy name; My soul, praise thou the Lord, and forget not all his benefits; let us every where offer up this sacrifice publicly in the congregation, in our streets, in our houses, let us fill our meetings and conferences, with this heavenly harmony, and sweet sounding melody. Provoke one another, citizens', to praise the Lord for his miraculous deliverance. Up ye families, up ye parents, up ye children, up every particular soul, whom the lord by the shadowing wings of his mercy hath preserved. Ministers, preach it in your Temples, sing it in your streets; rich men, writ it upon your door posts, paint it upon your walls, cut with an Adamant upon the tables of your hearts. You need such remembrances: for memory, as SENECA writeth, is most delicate, tender, and brittle, and soon forgetteth a benefit. Citizens, neither eat or drink without this condiment to it; The Lord be praised for our deliverance. Dainty Dames, let the frontlet's beteene your eyes, the bracelets upon your arms, and the guards upon your garments, be thanksgiving. 24. Elders of the city, sing with the 24. Elders Revel. 4.10. Praise, honour, and glory, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne. It is he only, not our prudence, our physicians, the cold or the frost; but as the Prophet speaketh, Salvation is the Lords. Here is an excellent posy and Epiphoneme. Beloved of London, I have a suit unto you, if you do erect your triumphant arches, against the entry of him, of whom we may say, as the Israelites did of David, Psalm. 118. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, forget not among the rest, to adorn them with Posies, preaching the Lords mercies in this your deliverance, and to write this; Salvation is the Lords: writ it in the Calendar of God's deliverances, and leave a Chronicle of it to all posterity. As for the new year, let the accustomed Lord of misrule, and your unlawful sports be banished, and bring it over in the praises of him who hath delivered you. Show your spiritual devotions in the openest places, as David built an Altar in the threshing floor of Araunah. Lastly, offer up this sacrifice not only for yourselves, like unto the Athenians, who would offer sacrifice, only for their own city, and their neighbours of Chios, but for the whole body; for the father, for the mother, for the daughters. And thus much for the third kind of sacrifice.  

4 Our children.  The fourth and last kind of sacrifice, are our children, which must be offered up this new year, unto the Lord. This concerneth you, o Christian parents. Many have offered them a long while, some to Satan, teaching them the language of Satan; to swear, lie, and blaspheeme; some to the world and the pride thereof, bringing them up in all voluptuousness & delicious fare; others to theft, oppression, and deceit: for which, the Lord's anger hath been provoked, and hath also been a part of our deserved pestilence. Bring them therefore better up, than you have done; and as the wise man exhorteth Ec. 7.23. If thou have sons, instruct them and hold their neck from their youth. If thou have daughters, keep their bodies. Worthy is the saying of Ferus, Let us learn to offer up our children unto the Lord, non occidendo etc. not murdering and slaying them, as they did the beasts in the law, but bringing them up in the fear of God, and accustoming them to religious exercises, for this is a sacrifice acceptable to God. Parents, seek rather to leave your children honest then wealthy (for which preposterous care, Crates the Theban would deride many, if he lived) that your children watch not for your death, as the Eagles for a carcase. Families are the fountains of all commonweals; purge the fountains that the streams may be clean. And as the Israelites, after that the slaying Angel was departed, and had spared their children, Exo. 13, offered & sanctified unto the Lord, all the first borne: even so, the lords slaying Angel being departed, let us offer & sanctify unto the lord not only our first borne, but all the progeny, by good instructions & wholesome admonitions, keeping them from the infection of this world. Further, as you must sanctify them, so forget not the sacrifice of good job, to sacrifice & offer your prayers also for them. job. 1.5. showing thereby, your religious care for them. These are then the four kinds of sacrifices; the sacrifice of the heart, of the mouth, of the hand, of the womb, which this new year we must offer up unto the lord in the ceasing of the Pestilence. Differre not to offer them, but as Abraham rose up early in the morning, in the beginning of the day to sacrifice his son: even so, beloved of London rise up early to offer them in the very morning & beginning of the year.  

A new years gift for England, to bestow upon the Lord.  And thus, I have absolved the King's Medicine. Now because it is the manner, that one friend bestoweth a new years gift upon another; give me leave, beloved of England, to show unto you, out of the whole frame of the precedent discourse, a new yeares-gift to bestow upon the best friend we have. If ye are desirous to know it, it is the repentance of King DAVID: unto the bestowing of which, three reasons ought to persuade us. First, the relics of the King's evil, and of the spiritual Plague, which yet remain in us; that it may serve as a medicine to heal them. Secondly, the prints, marks, and relics of the corporal Plague, which in some places yet are to be seen; that it may serve, as a spiritual weapon to chase and drive them from among us. Thirdly, the decreasing of the pestilence in the mother city, from whence the other members receive their maintenance, as the senses and nerves of the body from the head: that seeing the Lord hath answered repentance with repentance, we may again return repentance for repentance. Holy and commendable hath been your zeal and diligence, Reverend Elders of the English Israel, that ye have sanctified a fast, blown the trumpet in Zion, called a solemn assembly, gathered the Elders and all the inhabitants of the Land into the house of the Lord. joel. 1.14. Great hath also been your obedience, blessed inhabitants of this Land, that ye have all come together, mourned together, fasted and cried together, and (the Lord grant) repent together. Behold therefore the blessed fruits of your zeal, diligence and obedience; the wrath of the Lord appeased, his hand hath not been shortened, that he could not help, neither his goodness abated, that he would not hear. Wisd 11. And to use the words of that honey Father BERNAD, you have found honey in the Lion, mercy in the fearful God of heaven. I find that verified among us, which Socrates found in the Lacedæmonians; who perceiving that, in certain wars between the Athenians and them, the Athenians offered much gold unto their Idols, and yet departed still beaten out of the field, asked the Oracle, what might be the cause of it. It was answered, that the prayers of the Lacedæmonians prevailed more than the gold of the Athenians: Even so I may say, that the prayers of the Church of England have prevailed more, than the gold of the Papists, and more than if we had presented, with the wisemen, gold, Incense, and Myrrh, Math. 2, and that for these, the Lords Angel is departed. This mercy and bountifulness of the Lord, doth call us all this new year unto repentance.  

1 The tribe of judah.  First, it doth appeal unto you, o Royal Court, o tribe of judah, in honour, degree, and dignity the first; as you offer unto the Prince a new yeares-gift, so forget not to offer this present to the Prince of Heaven. Do homage unto the King of Heaven, who rideth upon the wings of the Cherubins, bow the necks of your souls before the throne of his majesty, put on the royal garment of King DAVID, and take in this year a King's medicine for the soul; a royal medicine becometh a royal Court. Honourable Counsellors, meditate the law of the most high, and use King David's counsellors, Psalm. 119.24. Great men, let your wills not be inordinate: and having the reigns of dominion in your hands, proclaim not with Nero; My authority giveth me licence to do all things: govern by law and not by lust. Noble peers, take heed of the sin of Zimri, Numb. 25.14. Possess you vessels in holiness and honour, and not in the lust of concupiscence, 1. Thessa. 4. You that are in high places, be patiented of injuries, forget nothing but injuries as Caesar; esteem with Theodosius a Christian Emperor, that ye have received a benefit, as often as ye are entreated to forgive: or say with Marcus Cato, unto him that smote him, being now desirous to make amends, I remember not that I was smitten. For as Lactantius speaketh, Ira mortalium debet esse mortalis, the anger of mortal men must be mortal. You that have adorned and embossed your speeches with oaths, come out of this humour, esteem them not the humour of gentility, nor an ornament to your discourses; change blasphemies into prayers, and let your tongues be bells to sound the praises of him who hath delivered us. Let not the voluptuous pamper themselves more in carnal delights, nor sport themselves with sin, as Samson with Dalilah; let them shake it off, and not account this world a silver shrine. Painted Dames, be contented with the natural colour of your Creator. Altogether be not senseless at the former stroke of God's hammer, but spend your time in the royal pastime of King David.  

2 The tribe of Levy.  Secondly, the bountifulness of the Lord, doth appeal unto you, o tribe of Levi. Give unto the Lord this new years gift. Prophets, take in this year a Prophet's medicine. Reverend fathers and Elders, prostrate yourselves with DAVID and the Elders of Israel; and, as the holy Ghost exhorteth you, Act. 20.28, Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. You the other Prophets, be unreprovable, watching, sober, modest, harborous, apt to teach, not given to wine or filthy lucre. 1. Tim. 3.2. Unto you that are in the office of Archippus, Col. 4.17, it is also said; Take heed to the ministery that thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. It is a work, not a play, onus non honos, a burden, not an honour; a service, not a vacancy. You that should guide others to the Land of promise come not short yourselves. We that build arks for others, let us not be drowned ourselves. We that are the Lords Seers, let us not be blind, we that are the Lords Criers, let us not be dumb and tongue-tied: and because sin is impudent and cannot blush, let us from henceforward arm ourselves, not with the spear, but with the zeal of Phinees: for the gentle spirit of Eli is not sufficient to mend children past grace; let us not put honey into the sacrifice in stead of salt, but be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of thunder.  
You the two Universities, 
3 The two Universities.  obtain in this rank the third place, unto you also the Lords bountifulness doth appeal: give unto him this excellent new yeares-gift children of the Prophets, take one another by the hand ye two sisters, and say with DAVID, we have also done foolishly, O Lord. Let the King's medicine come among you, take it in against the king's evil. Your schools have been broken up the former year: the new year being come, break the strength of sin, that the Lords Angel disperse you not again. You that should be fountains and wellsprings of good life to others, be not dried up, that if men seek for the water of life at your hands, they return not with an empty pitcher: or else, as job speaketh, 13.4, You are Physicians of no value. Send forth skilful Bezaleels and aholiab's, filled with the spirit of Wisdom, and understanding, to work with all the wisehearted, all manner of workmanship for the service of the Lords Sanctuary, for the uniting of the Saints, and for the edification of the mystical body of Christ jesus, that from you the two heads (as the precious ointment from the head of Aaron was derived unto the very skirts of his garments) many precious ointments may be derived to all the members of the Kingdom. Lastly, because the harvest is great, suffer yourselves to be thrust into the harvest.  
Fourthly, it appealeth to you that obtain the fourth place, 
4 Magistrates and judges.  and who are the political Elders, the judges and magistrates. Present unto the magistrate and judge of heaven and earth this new years gift, and take also in the King's medicine for this present year. You have ordained and prescribed the former year, good orders for the staying of the bodily infection; show now your diligence to prescribe good orders for the staying of the spiritual infection. Be rather desirous of the maintenance of good laws, and reformation of manners, then of honour; prefer the weal-public, before your private good, take heed of the spiritual Plague. First, be not lovers of gifts, which blind the eyes. Deut. 18.21. Secondly, differre and delay not to give judgement in the righteous cause, and if ye can do your neighbour good to day, say not to him, come to morrow, Proverb. 3.28. View yourselves in job, that right pattern of a good judge, job. 31. Let your sentence be to the oppressed as the comfortable rain to the thirsty ground job. 29.23. Thirdly, have not respect of people in judgement Deut. 1.17. hear the small as well as the great, & fear not the face of man. You are the pillars Ps. 75.3. If the pillars be weakened, if the nail be broken, or the strong men bow themselves, the house, the burden, & all falleth that leaneth upon them. By the way it speaketh to you also lawyers, 
Lawyers.  men of counsel, & magistrates attedants offer up also this newyears' gift to the Lord, that his slaying Angel return not. The wise man Pro. 23.23. teacheth you wise men wisdom, & giveth counsel to you counsellors. Buy the truth (that is, spare no cost to purchase truth) but sell it not (that is, be not hired for any money to forego the truth.) Set not your wisdom, eloquence, conscience and all to sale. Give not sweet taste to the bitter & sour, with your sugared eloquence. Let not your fined tongues, fair pretences, cunning gloss, goodly circumstances of speech, uphold & bolster out the unjust cause. Be not caught with bird-lime (for unto this doth AUSTIN compare the receiving of bribes) by which your wings are pinioned, so that ye can not fly. Officers, john Baptist Luk. 3. giveth you a good lesson. Be content with your stipend, & useno extortion  
Principally, 
5. London.  it doth appeal unto thee o London, which hast suffered the greatest brunt in this assault: lest the lords Angel return again, offer up unto him which hath shown thee mercy, this new years gift, & as you have been diligent the former year to take in the King's medicine for the body, so be not now negligent to take in the King's medicine for the soul. A certain heathen man, after that he had seen a sudden shipwreck of all his worldly goods, and had been exercised with diverse afflictions, broke forth into these speeches, well fortune I see thy intent, thou wouldst have me become a philosopher: even so o London having received the old year a shipwreck of thousands of thy subjects, and having been visited with much bitterness, say unto the almighty, well lord, I see thine intent, thou wouldst have me to become zealous, religious, & to enter into a meditation of the life to come. Let both Nehemias & Daniel, magistrate & minister within thy walls, confess their sins. Let every citizen in particular say as jonas did, I know that for my sake this great tempest hath been upon you. It is reported that the Delphians had murdered Aesop, & had concealed their sin: but being visited with mortality, they begun to confess it, yea caused it to be proclaimed by noise of criers that they had done it: In like manner o London, having committed diverse sins, & having been visited with mortality, confess them now, proclaim them, & reveal them unto the lord: let the graves that shroud so many corpses, let the tears of the widows, and desolate orphans yet remaining, move you unto repentance. As the rod of Moses made water to proceed out of the rock; so let the lords rod wring from our stony hearts some drops of remorse. The voice of the Lord, 
London's Echo.  spoken as it were from heaven, hath been heard within thy walls to move thee unto repentance: make now answer to this voice with a sweet resounding echo into heaven, in this manner, Thy voice I will hear, and thy call I will obey. Greatness will not stoop, but at great judgements; a great one thou hast felt: the Lord hath not only bruised the heel of the body, the poorer sort, but he hath reached the head, the rich and mighty among us. First, ye the 24. elders, apply this sovereign balm to your sore. Secondly, Merchants, from henceforth become christian merchants, to buy the pearl of God's word: take Christ with you in your ships: that the tempest of God's anger arise not, remember the ship where Jonas was in, and have no fellowship with Atheists, papists, and profane Esau's, clear your eyes with the eiesalue of plain dealing. You that have been crushing Zacheus, and gripple penny fathers in this gold-sick age, & have ripped up your brethren's entrails for money, as Samson searched the lion's carcase for honey, be no more wealth-devouring vermins, grind not the faces of your watrie-faced brethren, break off your cruelty, as the Spinster doth her thread, intending to draw it out no longer. Take heed, Mich. 6. that the treasures of wickedness be not found in your houses any more, neither a scant measure which is abomination to the lord who justifieth not the wicked balances & the bag of deceitful weights. Tradesmen, labour not any more so much for the meat which perisheth, but for the food which endureth for ever joh. 6. Citizenns in general, seeing the lord hath knocked at your proud palaces, shake from you the settled lees of your long continued iniquities, and because two principal have lodged within your walls, & walked along your streets pride & gluttony cure them now, according to the method of the king's medicine, by two contraries, humility & temperancy. Put on the royal indument of David which is humility, and let not your daughters walk more with outstretehed necks as the daughters of Zion Esa. 3. Return not in the city, you that are departed, with your painted faces, open breasts, monstrous verdingales, long staring ruffs, leave them behind, infect not the city with them any more, that they produce not again the same effect. Return not with your superfluous feasts, rather from henceforrh invite Christ jesus, & prepare him a feast, by faith & mercy. Many of you have been deprived a long time of the enjoying of one another's fellowship during the time of the pestilence, 
A profitable admonition.  but now being returned & coming together again, abuse not your meeting after this lonng separation, by quaffing, dancing, banqueting, spend it in the praises of him who hath brought you home again. Drunkard, search not out thy drunken companion, ask not whither he liveth, to associate thyself with him. Whoormonger seek not thy harlot, carnal man for thy confederates, renew not that wicked band & league, take the last farewell of them, & communicate no more with those unfruitful works of darkness Eph. 5.11. We have feared the former year to draw our breath in the streets, lest we should have drawn in infection, let us this year fear to draw in the infection of sin. The former year we have used & followed many good orders to stay the bodily infection, purged our houses cleansed our streets, perfumed our apparel, had upon our doors bills & red crosses, shunned infectious places, let out the corrupted blood, abstained from evil meats, emptied our houses of dogs, aired them with fire, carried in our hands diverse confections of art & such more: what ought we not than to do this year to stay the plague of sin? Let us purge our houses from spiritual infection, removing the false balance, small weights, 
Spiritual orders to be followed this year in the city.  counterfeit lights, sweet words, sour deeds, threasures of wickedness. Let us wash & cleanse our streets from pride, swearing & blaspheming, perfume our apparel with modesty & humility, shun places infected with drunkards, gluttons, adulterers. Let us have upon the doors of our hearts other bills, 1 the mark of the spirit rom. 8.2, the blood of the lamb. Of which we need not to be ashamed. Let us also let out the corrupted blood of hate, envy, concupiscence, abstain from the flesh-pots & garlic of Egypt. Let us beware of dogs Phil. 3.2. suffer not the detractions & slanders. Further, let us air our houses & our hearts with the fire of love, having above all things fervent love among us. 1. Pet. 4.8. Lastly, let us carry with us when we go abroad, that heavenvly pomander & confection of good works & of the fear of god, & this will preserve us against the infection of this world. You have used the old year wormwood against the plague, this year let me tell ye of a wormwood from which ye must abstain, for it is very nought against the spiritual plague: if you desire to know it, Moses telleth it unto you Deut. 29.28, Let there not be a root of bitterness or wormwood amongst you. To leave you o London, for the continual knils & alarm of bells, the trumpets of jehovah which have sounded within thy walls, let the tongues of thy inhabitants be bells & trumpets to publish the praises & mercy of the Lord towards them. O you that are not yet turned to your earth, how are you bound to think of your creator! redeem therefore this new year, with newness of lives, the former years misspent.  
In the last place, I must not leave you unspoken unto, 
The other Sister cities, towns, and villages.  you the glorious Sisters & confederates of the mother city, you the daughters & other members, of which some of you have also groaned under this burden: offer up unto god with your mother, this new years gift, & take in also this spiritual king's medicine, draw instructions from your mother's breasts, change your Morions skins, put of your stained coats, wash your feet, & not only your feet, but your heads also. And because all the joints of the whole body of the land have been disquieted, & that now the lord hath salved them with his saving health, concur together to sing the praises of that god of Israel. Great hath been your diligence, to avoid the bodily infection: be not now negligent to expel the spiritual contagion. Were it not madness to have cried for the wound, & not to pull out the arrow, for the coal which hath burnt you, & not to remove it? You have bewailed those sins which ye had committed, now commit not those sins ye have bewailed. He hath not retained his anger, & shall we retain our sins the cause of his anger? he hath returned to us by his grace, & shall not we return to him by repentance? he hath had compassion on us, & shall not we have compassion on our own souls? He hath taken away that, which took away his favour, & shall not we seek to continue that which keepeth his favour? we have long been all like to the Moon in her decreasing, for them she doth turn the opening of her bow down towards the earth, & her back toward heaven: even so, we have decreased, & failed in virtue, piety, zeal, we have turned the door of our hearts & the opening of our desires altogether to this world. But now with the new year, let us be like the Moon in her increasing, for than she turneth her open side up towards heaven, and her back towards the earth, and so groweth to a perfect light: In like manner, let us increase in piety, zeal, charity, let us turn our backs towards the world, but our hearts & opening of our desires to god & heaven. And for the decreasing let us increase, not in iniquity, but in faith & honesty, let us not forego for a little money, that, which for no money can be had again. I may speak brethren unto you that of the psalm, The lord hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, that he might hear your mourning, & deliver the children appointed unto death. You have all called upon the lord, and behold the success of good seed hath been consequent to your prayers, & they have been joined together, as if their souls had been knit together like the souls of David & jonathan. Continue therefore in your repentance & let it not be as a morning cloud, or as the morning dew which goeth away Hos. 6.4. or else never look for saving, sound, & continuing health, but even with Gehezi to die a leprous man, if not with the plague of the body, yet with the plague of the soul. Lord most mighty, most gracious, most merciful, wound us with thy fear, possess our souls with an awful dread of thy power which thou hast shown the former year, rebuild the ruins of the house of our hearts, make us fit for thy holy service, make us thy spiritual jerusalem, & our hearts the temples of the holy ghost, that thy Angel may spare us, as he did jerusalem. 
Psal. 51.  Create in us o lord with this new year, a clean heart & renew a right spirit within us. I end with the prayer wherewith I begun, Lord teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. 
Psal. 90.  Amen.   
FINIS.