Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

SECT. XVI.

¹Hath the Plague been raging, and you yet alive? then be better than you were before. And here I especially direct my speech to those that had the grace of God infused into their hearts, before this Judgement came upon us; that you would improve this providence by being better than you were before; if Drunkards and Swearers will not be better, yet be you; if sensualists and flesh-pleasers will not be better, yet be you. It may be the wicked will be worse, but will you be so too? If Gods people are not mended by his Judgements, who will? and hath God swept away so many thousands into another world, and shall there be no good effect, or fruit upon neither bad nor good? God forbid? London hath been a place of great prosperity, a City of Feasting, and a place of plenty of outward enjoyments; but in this last Sickness, God hath filled it with dolorous complaints by the many breaches made by death in so many families and relations; God hath filled it with pale faces, and sick persons, and running sores; God hath turned it into a place, an house of mourning. And Solomon saith, Eccl. 7.2. It is better to go into the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Have not your houses been houses of mourning, some dead out of most houses, and you are yet living; will you then lay it to your heart? What should you lay ⟨p. 80⟩to heart? Lay to heart the great Judgement that hath been amongst you. Lay to heart the sins that did provoke the Lord to lay his hand so heavy upon you. Lay to heart the goodness of God in preserving you. The City hath been an house of mourning, but have you learned the lessons that are to be learned in an house of mourning? Have you met so many dead Corpse carried in the streets? have you seen the living labouring to carry forth their dead, and yet not learned the lessons that are to be learned in such a place of mourning? Where one is dead in a family, that before was an house of mirth and gladness, it will turn it into an house of mourning and sadness, much more, when many dead in one family; and this is the case of many families. God hath been teaching you many things at such a time, but is your lesson taken out? Oh, what dull Scholars are we in the School of Christ that must thus be scourged to learn our lessons, and yet have not done it?