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

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

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

Horror seizeth me , and Trembling possesseth me , as if I was plunged in a Gulph dugg in Aceldama , bank't with Magormizabib . Couldst thou be more astonish't , oh my Soul , or more painfully in Travel , if my Pen was carved of a Bone , snatch't out of the Grave , and dipt in Blood , ink-horn'd in an humane Skull !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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