S4 Chap. 18. » xpefition upon the rook of Jo B. Verf. 13 may fay, there areasmany deaths as there are difeafes andwayes to death , yet there are threegreat deaths, which doe as it were ftrive for preheminence firft Sword ; fecondly ,.Plague; and thirdly, Famine thereare, as it were, the firft three among the Deftroyers of mankinde : fometimes in the Prophets God puts a fourth, and faith ,.My foure fore ¡s:dgements ; as if they were Judgements above all the refit : and then I remember the evil beafe comes among them ; but fivord, peftilence, and famine are the firfl three, and according to this opinion famine is put for the firft of the three, the chiefeft of the three, like the Tachmonite (2 Sam. 23.) I finde one Interpreter fo confident ofit, that he Pubic procrlt!. faith without all doubt by the firft-borne death, he meanes famine, primogenita which is not an infirmitte or a difeafe tending,to or giving us mors eft fames, warning ofthe approach ofdeath,but is it lelfe acontinueddeath firm non eft in. and themolt bitter death And indeed the Prophet erem inhis ftrmítas vet p }' morbno fed con Lamentations feemes togive the preheminence to famine ; They titramors, qua that befaine with thefword, are better then they thatarefaine with non data ama hugger ; fir there pine away, ftricken throughfor avant ofthefruits rior,7c.Bold: cfthe field, (Chap. 4. 9. ) But I rather take it ofany fort ofdeath, as it is heightned and made grievous by circumftances, then conclude or fatten it upon any one fort ofdeath ; For as any kinde of finne may by circum fiances be fo aggravated and made fo exceeding finfull, that it may juflly deserve to be=fitted, The firft-borne ofinne;. fo likewife may any punifhment or death, which ù the wages offn. Hence obferve ; The Lord bath various degrees of ynolgements, andof deaths, to powre out upon the wicked. Some deaths are but like younger Brethren, others are like thefirfi-borne. It is with punifhments and judgements as it is with finnes, there is a difference in the degrees of them ; though all finnes be of the fame qualitie, yet all are not of the fame quantitie ; upon °foine finnes-the Ironer Cayes out his flrength, and commits them with all his might thefe may defervedly be ilindroilgxca called the firfi-borne of f nn'e , and fuch fnners the firft-borneof 73Y vrg07 67o finners; as Polycarpua anfwered Marcien the Hereticke whenhe alovT cáravx. cameinto his prefence, and asked him if he did not knowhim Erfeb. fib. 4. p a ,kccl. Hilf. Tex, faith he, I know thee wellIto be thefirfl-borne of Satan. Now, e,13. I fay,
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