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

Now to bring things home to our selves by way of application. Here we may see what is our work, our great work in this day. The day we are fallen into is a dark day, a day of the Plague and the Pestilence: 'tis good for us to inquire what our works is, 'tis good at all times, but now especially to inquire what our work is. Oh, what is my work this day? ⟨p. 17⟩Now the work of this day, our work is to trust in the Lord; this is the work that protection and deliverance in the time of a Plague is entailed upon. Who is there that does not desire to be protected and delivered from this Plague? Oh, that I and my family may be preserved! behold here your Antidote to keep you from the Plague; Trust in the Lord, as ever you and your family may be protected now in this evil day. Trust in the Lord, and call upon yours to trust in the Lord!

But what shall we do that we may trust in the Lord in this day of the Plague? First of all, you must repent of your own sins, and be sorrowful for the sins of others, and of the times wherein you live. When the Plague cam• in David's time, you know what David did, he repented, Lord (says he) I have done foolishly; as for these sheep, what have they done? 'Tis I Lord, 'tis I. So let every one do; this God expects in the time of a Plague. In the 4th. Chapter of Amos, says the Lord there in the 10. verse, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword; and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. When God sends the pestilence, then he expects that men and women should return unto him; repent and return unto him, in the 9th. of Ezekiel; those that sigh and mourn for the abominations, they are marked, when men go into the City with their destroying weapons. Those that sigh and mourn for the evil of the times, they are the marked men. They are not marked for deliverance, that do abstain from sin; a man may be given to drunkenness, and may leave his drunkenness, but that will not bring him under the mark: Men are not brought under the mark for deliverance, that do repent of their own sin; but the mark is set upon those that do mourn for other mens sins: but now I put both together; If you trust in the Lord in this evil day, in the time of a