A WELCOME TO THE PLAGUE.

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stead of those whom the first-born of death have devoured. But why do I say devoured? Doth not that truly live at this day which was truly lovely in those darlings? Didst thou, O my fond heart, love beauty, sweetness, ingenuity incarnate? And canst thou not love it still in the fountain, and enjoy in it a more immediate and compendious way? Thy body, indeed, cannot taste sweetness in the abstract, nor see beauty except it be exhibited in matter; but canst not thou, O my soul, taste the uncreated goodness and sweetness, except it be embodied and have some material thing to commend it to thy palate? Be ashamed that thou, being a spirit as to thy constitution, art no more spiritual in thy affections and operations. Dost thou with sadness reflect upon those sweet smiles, and that broken rhetoric, with which those babes were wont to entertain thee? 1. Consider duly what real contentment thou hast lost in losing those. For what were those things to thy real happiness? Thou hast lost nothing but what it was no solid pleasure nor true felicity to enjoy,-nothing but what the most sensual and brutal souls do enjoy as much as thou. 2. Be ashamed rather that thou didst enjoy them in such a gross and unspiritual manner. Art thou troubled because any earthly interest is violated? Rather be ashamed that thou hadst and cherishedst any such interest.

But pardon me, courteous readers, this digressive soliloquy; and now suffer me patiently, whilst I speak something by way of admiration, something by way of observation, and something by way of exhortation.

I. Let me call upon men and angels to help me in celebrating the infinite and almighty grace and goodness of the eternal and blessed God

Who enabled me to abide the day of His coming, to stand when He appeared, and made me willing to suffer Him to sit as a refiner of silver in my house :

Who carried me above all murmurings against, I had almost

said all remembrance of, those instruments that conveyed the infection to me :

Who reconciled my heart to this disease, so that it seemed no more grievous, noisome, or scandalous than any other :

Who subdued me to, I had almost said brought me in love with, this passage of the Divine will. I can remember, (alas! that I can say little more, but that I do remember) how my soul was overpowered, yea, and almost ravished with the goodness, holiness, and perfection of the will of God; and verily judged it my happiness and perfection, as well as my duty, to comply cheerfully with it, and be moulded into it :

Who gave me a most powerful and quick sense of the plague of a carnal heart, self-will, and inordinate love of the creature; convincing me that those were infinitely worse than the plague in the flesh; so that I did more pity, than I could be pitied by, my ordinary visitors :

Who wonderfully preserved me from the assaults of the devil; never let him loose so much as to try his strength upon my integrity, or drive me to despondency, or to any uncharitable conclusions concerning my state:

Who enabled me to converse with His love and mercy in the midst of His chastenings, to see His shining and smiling face through this dark cloud; yea, kept up clear and steady persuasions in my soul, that I was beloved of Him though afflicted by Him :

Who knew my soul in adversity, visited me when I was sick and in prison, refreshed, strengthened, comforted my inner man, in a marvellous manner and measure, and made me appear to myself never less shut up than when shut up. Oh, would to God I might be never worse than when I was shut up of the plague! The not removing of that affliction-frame I shall account a greater blessing, and a more proper mercy, than the removing of that afflicted state :

COMFORT IN AFFLICTION.

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Who cleared up my interest in His Son, strengthened my evidences of His love, satisfied and assured my soul of its happy state, more than at any time-more than at all times formerly. I had clearer and surer evidences of Divine grace in that patient, self-denying, self-submitting frame of spirit, than in all the duties that I ever performed: the valley of tears brought me more sight of my God, more insight into myself, than ever the valley of visions, all duties and ordinances, had done. When the Sun of Righteousness arose upon my soul, and chased away all the mists and fogs of self-will and creatureloves, then also did all dark and dismal fears, all gloomy doubtings, most sensibly flee before Him :

Who supplied my family, from compassionate friends, with all things needful for food and medicine. The Lord return it sevenfold into their bosoms :—

Who maintained my health in the midst of sickness, in the midst of so great a death. I do not remember that either sorrow of mind, or sickness of body, ever prevailed so much upon me, during three months' seclusion, as to hinder me from my ordinary study, repast, devotions, or my necessary attendance upon my several infected rooms, and administering to the necessities of my sick. These ensuing Discourses were then composed; which doth at least argue, that, through grace, this mind was not altogether discomposed, nor body neither :

Who preserved me, and gave me not up to death. For I judge, that I was personally visited with the plague, though not with the sickness :

Who hath given me a sincere and settled resolution, and vehement desire to live entirely on and to Himself: which I account to be the only life of a soul, and only worthy to be called a living. Grant me this prayer, O most blessed and gracious God, for the sake of my only and dear Redeemer!

GEORGE SWINNOCK.

George Swinnock was a native of Maidstone in Kent, and for some time was a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. His first charge was Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, but at the time of his ejection from the Church of England, he had been translated to Great Kymbel, in Bucks. For nine years thereafter, he was chaplain to the great protector of Nonconformity in Buckinghamshire, Richard Hampden; but availing himself of the indulgence in 1671, he removed to his native town, Maidstone, and became pastor of a considerable congregation there, and died Nov. 10, 1673.*

Except to a few collectors, the writings of Swinnock are almost unknown; but we confess that we have rejoiced in them as those that find great spoil. So pithy and pungent, and so practical, few books are more fitted to keep the attention awake, and few so richly reward it. No doubt there are a good many far-fetched similes, and not a little apocryphal science; but these are what we look for in that period of our

* "Calamy's Ejected Ministers," vol. ii. p. 104.

For instance, to shew that "the lack of fervency is the loss of many prayers," he subjoins-" The lazy petition is eaten up by wandering thoughts, like cold honey by wasps and flies; whilst fervent prayers, like honey boiling over the fire, are free from such ill guests." Again, to illustrate the same idea, "There is no getting to the Indian Mines by the cold northern seas; though, because it is a shorter cut, some have attempted that way, and lost their labour." Amongst many other curiosities of natural history, he tells us-on the authority of Pliny, however-that "when one bee is sick, the rest in the hive are all sad;" and he mentions that horsehairs, by lying nine days under water, turn to snakes. In our own boyhood we remember a species of gordius, common in still water, which the country people believed to be an animated horse-hair. But some of his inferences are so ingenious, that we must not quarrel with the fact on which they are founded. Thus: "There is a story of a bastard eagle, which hath one foot close like a goose, with which she swims in the waters, and dives for fish; and another foot open, and armed with talons, with which she soareth in the air, and seizeth her prey; but she, participating of both natures, is weak in either, and at last becomes a prey to every ordinary vulture. The

literature, and they are abundantly over-balanced by a rare amount of sanctified wit and wisdom.

Prager.

Prayer hath a twofold pre-eminence above all other duties whatsoever, in regard of the universality of its influence, and opportunity for its performance. The universality of its influence. As every sacrifice was to be seasoned with salt, so every undertaking and every affliction of the creature must be sanctified with prayer; nay, as it sheweth the excellency of gold that it is laid upon silver itself, so it speaketh the excellency of prayer, that not only natural and civil, but even religious and spiritual actions are overlaid with prayer. We pray not only before we eat or drink our bodily nourishment, but also before we feed on the bread of the Word and the bread in the sacrament. Prayer is requisite to make every providence and every ordinance blessed to us; prayer is needful to make our particular callings successful. Prayer is the guard to secure the fort-royal of the heart; prayer is the porter to keep the door of the lips; prayer is the strong hilt which defendeth the hands; prayer perfumes every relation; prayer helps us to profit by every condition; prayer is the chemist that turns all into gold; prayer is the master-workman: if that be out of the way, the whole trade stands still, or goeth backward. What the key is to the watch, that prayer is to religion; it winds it up, and sets it agoing. It is before other duties in

ambidexter in religion, who is both for the flesh and the spirit, for riches and righteousness, is all his time a servant of sin, and will at last become a prey to Satan." Again: "As the carbuncle, a beast among the blackamoors, which is seen only by night, having a stone in his forehead, which shineth incredibly and giveth him light whereby to feed, but when he heareth the least noise, he presently lets fall over it a skin which he hath as a natural covering, lest its splendour should betray him; so the half-Christian shines with the light of holiness by fits and starts-every fright makes him hold in and hide it."