Gods three arrows plague, famine, sword, in three treatises. I. A plaster for the…Gods three arrovves plague, famine, svvord, in three treatises. I. A plaister for the…

BE not affrighted, O ye righteous ones, be not affrighted over-much at the judgements, though they be terrible judgements, which fall out in the world. Though by reason of the multitudes of wicked ones among whom ye live in this world ye be every one forced to complain and cry, ^aWoe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar: and to wish and say, ^bO that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people: yet can the Lord single you out, and when he comes to sweep them with the besom of destruction, set ⟨p. 21⟩you aside: and as a few precious jewels in the middest of a great heap of rubbish sift them out, and preserve them safe to himself, when the rubbish is cast away. It is said of Christ, that He will thoroughly purge his flour, and gather his wheat into his garner: but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable ³fire. Men when they fan their corn cannot do it so thoroughly clean, but that some chaff or tares will remain with the wheat, and some wheat be cast out with the chaff: witness the offal that remains after the best fanning that men can make. But Gods fanning, is a thorough fanning, not a ⁴grain, not a Saint shall be overslipped. This is indeed most properly meant of the last fanning of the world at the day of judgement: yet in the mean time doth the Lord take notice of every one of his, to provide for them, and in the most common and general judgements to do that which in his wisdom he seeth to be fittest for them. When Elijah