The righteous man's habitation in the time of plague and pestilence being a brief…

verse, And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sate on him was Death. The sword is spoken of plainly before in the 4th. verse, And there went out another horse, that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword; there's the Sword: then at the 6th. verse there's a Famine, I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny: Now at the 8th. verse comes on the Pestilence, and that is called Death; not the sword, or famine, but the Plague is that which hath the name of Death; because of all other diseases it is the most mortal; and as it is the most mortal disease, so 'tis the most unavoidable disease. It may be avoided through the goodness of God; but I speak comparatively, of all diseases 'tis the most unavoidable. And 'tis the disease that is the most emptying disease; it empties houses, and it empties towns, and empties cities. God threatens to empty a Nation as a man empties a dish, and wipes it, and turns it upside down. So to a family it is the most emptying disease of all other. But I will not stay here; 'tis too manifest, that this evil, misery and danger of a Plague is exceeding great.

But yet in the second place, there are a generation whom God will protect and deliver in the day of a Plague. It was always so in the most desolating judgements: when the Flood came was Noah and his house spared; and, when Sodom was destroyed, there was Lot and his house preserved and delivered. In the 6th. Chapter of Isaiah, ye read of a Desolation that looks like a Plague, Then said I, Lord, How long? And he answered (at the 11th verse) until his cities be wasted and without inhabitants, and the houses be without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away: Yet, says he, at the 13 verse, There shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten as a teil tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them, &c. yet there is a generation whom the Lord will preserve and deliver in such a general desolation as this. But who are these? this Psalm tells us, they are such as do trust in the Lord; those that trust in the Lord in the time of a Plague.