Spiritual Whoredom Discovered

ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament, That Sir William Brereton do from this House give thanks unto Mr Thomas Case, for the great pains he took in the Sermon he Preached on this day at Margaret's Westminster, before the House of Commons, (it being a day of public Humiliation) and that he do desire him to Print his Sermon, wherein he is to have the like privilege of Printing thereof as others in like kind usually have had.

I appoint LUKE FAWNE and none other, to Print my Sermon.

Reader thou art desired page 22. the last line but one, instead of conferring, to write or read confessing of sin, other mistakes there are not many, unless they be literal.

SPIRITUAL WHOREDOM Discovered in a Sermon ON HOSEA 9.1. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God.

CALVIN conjectures that this Prophesy of Hosea, as we now have it (as the rest of the Prophesies) was but the summary or brief heads of certain Sermons, which at several times and upon several occasions were preached unto the people of Israel and Judah, collected by himself, and registered for the use and benefit of the Church of God.

This Sermon he conceives begins at my Text, but the distinct time when it was preached, neither himself nor any other Expositor do hint; That it was before the Babylonian Captivity, is clear from the date of the Prophesy, Chap. 1. Vers. 1.

Certain it is, and that may content us (saith he) that the Prophet doth here bitterly reprove the extreme obstinacy and desperate security of the people, who by all the pains and unwearied labors of the Prophets could not be brought to repentance, although their rebellions and apostasy were so visible that all the world might take notice of it.

However their incorrigibleness must not cause the Prophet to desist his duty: therefore upon all occasions (when called to preach before them ) he ceaseth not to reprove, to convince, to exhort, if by any means, he might happily awaken them to a timely discovery of their sin, and prevention of approaching ruin and destruction.

Peoples obstinacy must not silence the Prophets fidelity; passion and short-spiritedness, of all men in the world, doth ill become them: In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance, &c. is the Apostles cannon to all the Ministers of the Gospel.

In the words therefore the Prophet doth call them to serious and seasonable humiliation and repentance; for though the words seem to speak only a bare prohibition of joy and rejoicing; yet,

1. That was to convince them of, & reprove them for their unseasonable mirth and jollity, that they should rejoice when their God was so highly displeased with them for their manifold apostacies; and the repetition of the words rejoice not for joy, or as the Hebrew, rejoice not to exultation, is for the greater aggravation of their sin and the Prophets reproof.

2. And again the words have a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in them, they mean and import more then they speak out (as it is usual in Scripture Rhetoric); and so while they forbid joy, i. e. carnal security and sensual rejoicing in creature-comforts, they enjoin the contrary; sc. mourning and weeping, girding with sackcloth, and rolling themselves in dust and ashes; a constant and conscionable humiliation, and walking humbly before their God.

And this is pressed from a double Consideration

• Sin.
• Wrath.

Their sin against God.

God's wrath against them.

The one expressed: The other implied.

Their sin expressed, thou hast gone a whoring. And God's wrath implied, if thou hast gone a whoring, God cannot choose but be highly displeased with your sin, and yet more displeased with them for their security then for their sin.

And both these are yet further aggravated from the Relation which Israel had to God, thy God; which relation is set forth

• 1. Positively.
• 2. Comparatively.

1. Positively, The relation of a spouse or wife; and that is implied in the sin, which is called whoredom: Whoredom or adultery, you know, is properly the sin against the marriage-relation. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Adultery is the defiling of the marriage-bed; and therefore some do etymon Adulterium, quasi ad alterum, the departure of the husband or wife into the bed and bosom of a stranger: Here, I say, is the conjugal relation into which God had taken Israel, implied, to the aggravation of her apostasy; whereby her sin came to be Whoredom and Adultery against the Lord.

2. Comparatively, With other Nations; rejoice not as other people: Why? Because though they have the relation of creatures unto God, and of men and women, yet they have not the relation of a spouse or wife: Ye only have I known of all the families of the earth, saith God to Israel: i. e. with a conjugal knowledge; other Nations may cal God Baali, but they cannot cal him Ishi; i.e. they may cal him my Lord and my Maker, but not my Husband and my Redeemer; they are his by Creation and common providence, but not by Covenant and conjugal relation.

So that now here is the aggravation: Other Nations may sin against God, but they cannot commit adultery against God; other Nations may rebel against the Lord, but they cannot go a whoring from him: This was Israel's sin and the aggravation of it.

And as it was the aggravation of her sin, so it was the aggravation of God's wrath too; that, as I say, is implied; for if Israel's sin be the sin of adultery, then God's wrath must needs be the wrath of jealonsie; and jealousy as it is the rage of a man, so it is the rage of a God; anger red-hot, wrath ad octo, in the highest degree; Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance; he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts.

Jealousy is as cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame, &c. This therefore you see is the aggravation both of her sin and danger: By all which the Prophet calls Israel now to sense of sin, and humiliation for sin; to be affected with, and afflicted for her grievous departure from the Lord.

And now the words thus opened would afford many serious and seasonable observations. I shall resolve all into 4 Doctrines.

• 1. A Nation or Kingdom in external Covenant with God stands in a conjugal relation unto God.
• 2. A people thus related unto God may (possibly) go a whoring from him, commit adultery against him.
• 3. Sometimes it comes to pass that God's Israel whilst she lieth under the guilt of whorish departure from her God, instead of being affected with, and afflicted for her whoredom; instead of mourning, and judging herself before the Lord, doth securely and sinfully let out her heart to carnal comfort and rejoicing.
• 4. An Israel, under adulterous departures from God, hath least cause to rejoice; and more cause to mourn and lament then any nation or people under heaven.

In these 4 Doctrinal Observations you have the sense and soul of this Scripture.

I begin with the first, intending but a brief transition through the 3 former, that I might sit down and enlarge myself upon the fourth and last. I begin with the first.

Thy God; ] There you have the Covenant, so it runs, I will establish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, &c. To what end? To be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And so again v. 8. I will be their God.

Where ever the Scripture says thy God, it implies a Covenant. Fallen man having lost his God, can never come to say [my God] again, but it must be by virtue of a Covenant.

Thou hast gone a whoring ] that implies, as I have shown you, the conjugal relation unto God. Wheredom being the sin of wedlock, the violation of the sacred bonds of marriage.

Into this near relation doth God take a nation or people, when he brings them into the bond of the Covenant.

So run the words of the Covenant.

I will betroth thee unto me forever.

I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness.

I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. They are, I say, the words of the Covenant, which God speaks not only to old Israel, when the veil shall be taken away from their hearts, but to the Gospel-Israel also, even to whatsoever nation or people, God shall say, Thou art my people, and they shall answer thou art my God Witness the Apostle S. Peter, who in his first Epistle. 2. Chap. 9.10, verses. applies it to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Speaking to the strangers, i. e. strangers by nature, though not by grace; by generation, (not being of Abraham's seed ) though not strangers by regeneration, (being of Abraham's faith ) for so it follows. Scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bythinia.

I But there is no more national Churches, since Abraham's seed ceased to be a Church; Say some.

There is not indeed a national Church, in that sense that Israel was a national Church. And truly if this were but well observed, it would cut off a great deal of needless Controversy, whereof comes nothing but strife and contention. I say there is not a national Church, as Israel was a national Church; that is to say.

• 1. Quà, such a man's seed, they were a Church as coming out of Abraham's loins; for if there were any Prosolites among them, they were reckoned unto Abraham for a seed. So, we know no national Church in the times of the Gospel.
• 2. Nor (which follows upon the former) quà such a nation, Israel was a Church quà Israel; England is not a Church quà England, nor Scotland quà Scotland &c.
• 3. Nor, thirdly, do we assert or know a national Church exclusive, as Israel was; Israel was a Church, so that there was none else in all the world besides. In Judah was God Known, his name was great in Israel, In Salem was his Tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion, i.e. So, as he had no dwelling place else, it is by way of exclusion to all the world besides.

Thus I say, and in this sense, we own no National Church under the Gospel.

But now take a Nation or people as in external Covenant with God. h.e.

1. As God offering to them his Covenant of life and gráce by Jesus Christ, revealed in the Doctrine of the Gospel, and ratified by the Seals thereof affixed.

2. And secondly, such a Nation or people as generally accepting of, and closing with this Covenant thus revealed and Sealed, and professing faith in, and obedience to this Covenant thus offered. And this offer on God's part, and acceptance on theirs, makes them a National Church in a Gospel-sense; yea, notwithstanding ye should suppose, all in that Nation do not profess it, and but very few do savingly embrace and believe it. For what if some do not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God. i.e. The Doctrine of faith, or of the Covenant without effect? It is the Apostles argument in a like dispute; it is general Reformation, not personal saving conversion which makes a National Church.

If any man shall demand of me to show a National Church in the N.T.

1. Though I might as well demand of him, to show me such a thing as a Nation in Adams family; (we cannot show things til time bring them forth.)

2. Yet whosoever will impartially consult these Scriptures, ( All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. So shall he sprinkle many nations, &c. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee, shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the holy one of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Rev. 11.15. And the seventh Angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever, ) and the like, may find such a thing as a national Church in the Prophesy. And if the history of the Gospel reach not far enough to show the accomplishment, surely the progress of the Gospel doth.

3. In the mean time, as it is no absurdity to say that Adams family was both a family, and a nation, and a world, and all virtually: so neither is there any false Doctrine in it, to say, that the first Gospel-Church, was both Congregational and national, and Catholic or Universal.

4. Surely, a national Church (in our sense) hath been a truth, about which there hath been little dispute among the Reformed Churches; even among them that have opposed Episcopacy, there are many that have not so much as questioned a national Church. Mr. Cartwright not only dedicates part of his labors, against the Hierarchy, to the Church of England, but in his Catech. Ch. 3. Which treats of the Church, having spoken of the Universal Church, propounds this question. What is the Church of one nation? and answers it thus. It is that which is gathered under one politique or civil government.

Mr. Brightman in his exposition upon Revelations 3. in his application of the Church of Laodiàea to the State of our Church, speaks of it as one, Ecclesia nostra Anglicana.

But time will not suffer me to engage further in this controversy, nor need I stand to make conjectures, why some of later times do so strenuously deny such a thing as a national Church, the reasons begin to discover themselves every day more apparently then other to all the world.

5. And lastly, This is plain enough to any that are not willfully blind, that where the partes constituentes of a thing do meet, there you have the thing itself; where God holds forth his Covenant to a Nation or Kingdom and they generally embrace, and profess it: there is a Church in a Gospel-sense: and a Church thus covenanted, stands in conjugal relation unto God.

1. The greater is the honor which God doth put upon such a Nation or People; He hath not done so with any Nation, sang David once of Israel, before Christ; he hath not done so with every Nation, may England sing, and what ever other Nation God hath, or shall cause to approach so near unto himself, since Christ.

2. And secondly the more sacred and invincible obligation lieth upon such a people to maintain spouse-like affection, and to yield spouse-like obedience unto God; to stir up and provoke themselves to be faithful in Covenant with the Lord: to take heed lest there should be any root of bitterness springing up; an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; which was the sin here charged upon Israel: She went a whoring from the Lord: And brings me to the second Doctrine.

Witness the complaints of God concerning this people (thus in Covenant with him) in this Prophesy. Chap. 4.12. Chap. 5.3, 4. Chap. 7.4. with divers other, per totum.

Yea all the Prophets bring in their indictments against this people under this notion and metaphor of adultery and wheredom: There were no end of quotations.

Two things I would briefly speak to.

• 1. What this whoredom is, of which they stand indicted.
• 2. How it comes to pass that a people so nearly related unto God, may become guilty of so great a wickedness.

For the first.

1. All manner of sin is a kind of spiritual adultery against God: sin qua sin, hath the nature of whoredom in it: sin being nothing else (as the Schools define it) but a turning away from God, and a turning to the creature; a taking of that love and affection which is due to God, and bestowing it upon the creature, yea the Devils creature: for sin is none of God's creature: God made neither sin nor death; (all that he made was very good: ) but the Devil brought in sin, and sin brought in death. Sin, I say, is a departing from God to the the creature, to a base lust: Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with we, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. It is an inditement laid in, in reference to their sin and apostasy in general. And thus corporal whoredom against the Covenant of marriage, is also spiritual whoredom against the Covenant of God; and pride is whoredom, and drunkenness whoredom, (indeed they seldom are separated in the very letter) and Sabbath-breaking is whoredom, and all manner of profaneness is whoredom against the Lord.

So it runs in this people's charge by this Prophet;

Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart: The spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err in the very next verse.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face: that's branded with the infamy of whoredom too, verse. 4. The spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them: All manner of profaneness are but streams that flow from the poisoned fountain of an whorish heart, an heart turned away from God, and refusing to turn unto him again. And therefore in reference to all these and more, it is demanded with astonishment; How is the faithful City become an harlot? Wherein? It follows, it was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers: Thy Princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. See perverting of justice, rebellion, robbery, covetousness, bribery, mercilesness, all these are Whoredom.

But there are some special sins, which eminenter and above all other, are branded with this mark of whorish departure from God.

First, Idolatry is all over the Prophets stigmatized with the infamy of Wheredom and Adultery against the Lord; not only because (for the most part) they go together, but especially as this is indeed a proper whoredom against the Lord, in as much as it is the taking in of another lover into the bosom; the setting up of a Rival God: those expressions have much of the metaphor in them; where the Lord, speaking of their Idols, lays this to their charge, Thou hast discovered thyself to another then me, thou lovedst their bed; and thou hast opened thy feet to everyone that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms: i. e. Committed Idolatry with all the false gods of the heathen round about. Idolatry is the taking in of a strange god (as it were) into the bed of loves: therefore hath God set his name of jealousy upon that Command which forbids Idolatry, because it is the proper passion which is irritated by the adulterous departures (or the suspicion of it) of the yoke-fellow from the other party in conjugal Covenant and relation.

The second sin branded with whoredom in Scripture is, the refusing and opposing of Reformation: When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: i. e. In a time of reformation they were worse then ever. What are they called for this? See verse. 4. They are all adulterers, &c. Idolatry is whoredom, in as much as it is a turning away from God: and opposition to reformation is whoredom, because it is a refusing to return to God: They will not frame their doings, or (as the Hebrew may be rendered) their doings will not suffer them to return to their God: i. e. Reformation was not consistent with the designs they drave, it was not compatible with their lusts and private interests: What follows? The spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them.

Opposition of Reformation is spiritual adultery.

So are false doctrines and heretical opinions taken up and maintained by a people or person; they are spiritual wickedness and whoredom against God: The false Prophers prophesied lies in Jeremiah's time, they are censured as Adulterers for it, Vers. 14. I have seen also in the Prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing, they commit adultery and walk in lies: And so in this Prophesy. They make the King glad with their wickedness, and the Princes with their lies: i. e. They found our false doctrine to palliate and justify Jeroboams and his Princes false worship (of which you may read 1 King. 12.26.—) it follows verse. 4. They are all adulterers &c.

The truth is, indeed, false doctrine is the pander to all manner of profaneness; it is the cover-sin in the world: Antichrist himself had never been a man of so many errors and blasphemies, had he not been first the man of sin.

Vain man would fain sin by Authority, and therefore finds out falsehoods and lies, and then fathers them upon the Word, that he may sin by Scripture.

And that would make Error to be whoredom if there were no more (in a people that have known and embraced the truth as it is in Jesus) in as much as it is the Cord to keep a people down in the bed of Whoredoms, of all manner of wickedness; for so it is added in the inditement of the false Prophets: They walk in lies; they strengthen also the hands of evil doers, that none doth return from his wickedness: for this, they commit adultery.

But that is not all: It is not only whoredom by consequence, but perse, in its own nature: God is the God of Truth, and Scripture is the Truth of God: They therefore that depart from God and his Truth, to embrace and believe lies, stand guilty of whoredom in words at length, and not in figures only.

Inordinat love of the world, is specially pointed at by the finger of God's spirit, as an Adultery. Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity against God &c. This is so apparent an whoredom, that the Spirit of God makes it matter of shame and astonishment, that any man should be ignorant of it: know ye not?

Therefore is the covetous man said to be an Idolater, because he adores every Cross of his corn: i. e. He layeth out that love, and zeal, and confidence, and trust which is due to God, upon his Cash, he saith to Gold thou art my hope, and to his fine gold, thou art my confidence.

That is the last sin, (the last I shall name) which Scripture makes Adultery against God: Gornal confidence, trusting in the Creature. It is the sin immediately going before my text. Isreal buildeth Temples, so in Dan and Bathel, for the worship of the Calves: And Judah hath multiplied fenced Cities; both for the securing of themselves against danger: it is called a forgetting God, Israel hath forgotten his maker in the beginning of the verse. When a people trust in man and make flesh their arm, their heart is departed from God, they are gone a whoring from him.

And thus you see what whoredom against God is. First all sin in general, lived in and allowed: but more especially; 1. Idolatry. 2. Opposing of Reformation. 3. Heresy. 4. Inordinate love of the world. 5. Carnal confidence, all these are whoredom 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Adultery of the first magnitude.

Breifly now, How comes the faithful City to be an Harlot? how comes it to pass that a people so nearly related to God, may become guilty of so great a wickedness?

For is there indeed such a thing in Scripture as falling away from grace, and the Divines of England would never let us know of it?

Is there indeed such a thing as the dissolution of the marriage knot between God and his people?

Surely no.

But 1. we are speaking here but of a visible Church, a people or kingdom in external Communion with God, a mixed multitude of professors, the major part whereof for want of root in themselves, (with the stony ground) may make a total and final Apostasy from the worship, truths, and commands of the living God, to Idolatry, Heresy, and Profaneness; and go a whoring from God, so as never to return to him again.

Formal and ungrounded profession is the road to final defection and Apostasy.

2. Yea secondly, even of them who are living members of the invisible Church, who are betrothed unto Jesus Christ in an everlasting Covenant, even among these may be some, who for want of a discerning eye, of Spiritual watchfulness, may for a time, and in some degree, be carried away with the error of the wicked, and by the cunning craftiness, (the sleight of hand or cheatry ) of them that lie in wait to deceive, be carried down the stream and torrent of error and the Apostasy of the times. Oh, Christians had need of good eyes, and critical inspection and circumspection, to discern the fallacies and frauds of seducers, for want whereof they may be I say greatly, not unsettled only and troubled, but even ensnared and misled into dangerous principles and ways; but there is a Spirit of truth and love that acts and animates them (at the bottom) which shall preserve them from total and final Apostasy, and recover them to the acknowledgment of the truth, and into the chaste and spouse-like embraces and obedience of their first Husband. Hose 2.8.

Use.

However the Contemplation of both these may be.

• 1. A Startling and an awakening Consideration to all Christian Magistrates and governors, to look about them that they do not suffer Churches and states under their hand to turn Apostate, and go a whoring from their God, as much as in them lies.
• 2. A Caution to all, in the words of the Apostle, He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall.

But I shall have more full occasion to speak to both these in the fourth Doct. And therefore I shall leave this, and hasten in a word to the third Doctrine.

It was the condition of Israel here which the Prophet doth severely reprove and condemn; and this was not the first time they did so, was it not the complaint of the Prophets, Isaiah, and Amos?

And last of all, the complaint of the Lord of the Prophets, Jesus Christ himself?

What might the Reason be?

1. Surely, first there is desperate security at the bottom of it, people in this case do willfully shut their eyes against the discoveries, and convictions of sin and wrath. They lie in a deep sleep of security, and take no notice how the things of their peace are passing by them.

2. There is a mixture likewise of desperate unbelief. Behold I work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told you: people do harden their hearts against all the predictions and intimations of approaching ruin.

3. People do flatter themselves extremely, with their present prosperity and deliverances. It was the Lullabie of this people here, as Interpreters observe; because garners were full, and wine-fatts ran over; because they had great peace, and rich plenty, therefore they thought all was well, As long as people hear not from God in thundering and lightning, they reckon themselves safe enough. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other God's whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations?

Behold, theft, and murder, and adultery, and perjury, and Idolatry, all put upon the score of deliverances. Thou hast found the life of thy hand, therefore thou wast not grieved. As long as people can live of themselves, they will lay neither sin nor wrath to heart. Carnal minds take God's silence for God's consent, his patience for his approbation. these things hast thou done, and I kept silence, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.

4. A fourth ground or cause of it, may be, trusting to outward Church-privileges; placing confidence in the very being in external Covenant with God. Behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit; what were they? why, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these.

Foolish people content themselves to hang on the outside of the Ark, and think that shall save them from wrath both present and to come. There is a dreadful Catalogue of sins brought in by the Prophet Micah, against the Rulers and Teachers of this people. They build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the Priests thereof teach for here, and the Prophets thereof divine for money: horrid Apostasy! And could they hold up their heads under all these abominations? yes, as high as ever, and overlook and scorn all the threatenings of the true Prophets, no evil can come upon us; they may tell us strange tales to make us afraid if they could, but we are safe enough, evil will not, evil cannot come upon us; why? they lean upon the Lord, and say is not the Lord among us? Mark I beseech you, because they had yet the presence of the ordinances of God, they concluded they had also the presence of the God of the ordinances, and thus they deceived and cozened themselves.

Use.

Is not here more soul-humbling work for us? Lord what is man left to himself? But of this also in the next Doctrine, which is the fourth and last Doctrine.

Rejoice not O Israel for joy as other nations for &c.

There is a twofold ground of it.

• 1. In reference to their sin,
• 2. In reference to their danger.

There is no people under heaven that can sin as Israel sins; no people under heaven that can smart so for sin as Israel may smart.

first for their sin.

Israel's sin hath more aggravation upon it then the sin of all the world besides.

There is a twofold aggravation upon Israel's sin, of which the sin of other nations is not capable.

• 1. An aggravation of light.
• 2. An aggravation of love.

God's Israel sins against more light, and God's Israel sins against more love, then all the earth besides.

First, Israel sins against more light, they know more then all the world knows.

1. Of God. God reveals more of himself unto his Church, then he doth to all the nations upon the earth. In Judah is God known &c. They know more of his names and attributes then the rest of the world do, his name is great in Israel: his holiness, his justice, his mercy, his faithfulness, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his omniscience &c. These he makes known to and in his Church, more then to any of, or all the nations in the world. God mentions it as an high favor unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I appeared unto them, by the name of God Almighty: an higher favor, that he made himself known to his seed by the name Jehovah: God shines forth in his Church in the brightness and deerness of all his glorious attributes: and this is an high aggravation of Israel's sin and Apostasy. Howbeit then when ye knew not God, ye did service to them which by nature are no God's. But now after that ye have known God, how turn ye again? &c. This was a defection for which there could be no Apology made: for if the knowledge of God by the book of the creature, where God's name is to be spel'd out but by dark and broken Characters, be sufficient to leave the Gentiles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 without Apology or excuse, how much more will that knowledge of God held forth so distinctly and fully in the Church, leave Israel without a word to speak for itself in the day of her Apostasy and revoltings from the Lord her God?

2. Israel hath more knowledge of God's will: Israel knows or may know what that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is; Israel is the servant that knows his masters will, if he do it not, this aggravates deeply.

3. Israel knows more of the evil of sin, by the law is the knowledge of sin: yea the law makes sin appear exceeding sinful; the Gentiles scarce know what sin is, but in some very obscure and confused notions; and yet sin is sin in them, surely where it appears exceeding sinful, there it must needs be exceeding sin.

4. Israel knows more of God's hatred of sin, how much his soul loathes it: oh! do not this abominable thing (saith God to Israel) which I hate. And therefore if Idolatry be a sin in the Gentiles, who think it to be a worship which God loves, what is it in Israel to whom God hath expressly said, my soul hates it? If any man draw back, draw back from my truths, draw back from my worship, draw back from my Commands, &c. my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Now Israel to the attaining of this knowledge of God hath a three-fold advantage.

1. Whereas other nations have but what knowledge the book of * works can dictate to them, Israel hath the book of the * word; He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel. And the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. The word doth not only give light, but gives eyes too. He hath not dealt so with any nation. And if God hath not dealt so with any nation as with his Israel, in dispensing light, then can no nation deal so with God as Israel in sinning against it.

2. A second advantage that Israel hath above nations to know God, is his works, his works of special Providence. In Judah is God known, &c. how? by what mediums? Why, there brake he the arrows of the how, the shield, the sword and the battle. All the power, and artillery of the enemys that came against his Church, though upon mighty advantage. There is more of God manifested in the goings forth of his power and wisdom, for the preservation of his Church, and the ruin and destruction of the enemys thereof, then in all the world besides. So that in reference to this, the Psalmist sings, oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee, before the sons of men! what goodness? why his preserving goodness to his Church and people, thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man, thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion &c. Oh the ways of God in preserving and hiding his Church from the pride and power of men, are secret mysterious ways, which the world cannot discover.

3. And then the third and last Advantage is. Israel hath an Interpreter (greater then one of a thousand) to expound both these books unto her, even the Spirit of God which the world knows not. We have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given unto us of God. And again eye hath not seen &c. i.e. the natural eye, the natural ear &c. But God hath revealed them to us by the Spirit.

Indeed, the word expounds the works; and the works of God do interpret the word: it is a fine skil to make works and word face one another, and answer over one to another; but this cannot be done without an Interpreter, that is a secretioribus dei, God's privy-Counceller; and that is the Spirit which the world knoweth not, and receiveth not; and therefore is both the book of the word, some fragments whereof the Gentiles light upon sometimes) and the book of the works a sealed book, which they cannot open, or not read, if they could open.

Now therefore the Church and people of God, having this three-fold advantage to a more clear and full discovery of God, and his will, of sin and his hatred thereof, then all the world besides; Israel's sin hath hereby an aggravation upon it, of which theirs is uncapable, an aggravation of light. If ye were blind ye should have no sin, no sin Comparative: but now ye say, we see: therefore your sin remaineth, i.e. it remaineth inexcusable, it remains aggravated. And this is the first aggravation.

The second aggravation that Israel's sin is Capable of, is

An aggravation of love, a manifold love.

First, Israel sins against God's distinguishing, his separating love. Members of the Uisible Church, they sin against that love of God, which distinguished them from the rest of the world, members of the invisible Church, they sin against that love which distinguished them from the rest of the Church; his electing -love, his Adopting -love, his effectually-calling -love: Oh this must needs go deep in sin: You only have I known of all the families of the earth. i. e. Known with a Conjugal distinguishing knowledge: I have known you of all the families of the earth; to distinguish you from all the families of the earth: this makes their sin become exceeding sinful; it is the other branch of the Apostles argument, or rather are known of God: Know God, there is their light; known of God, there is God's love; his distinguishing love; sins against distinguishing love, are distinguishing sins.

2. Israel sins against his correcting love, which is always managed with the wisdom and moderation of a father; In measure &c. And for profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. The thought of sinning against this love melts down holy Ezra to the very bottom. And after all this is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass; seeing thou our God hast punishit us, less then our iniquities deserve, should we again break thy Commandments? &c. And so it should do with every ingenuous heart.

3. Israel sins against God's repenting-love. Psa. 106.45. He remembered for them his Covenant, and repented &c. Amos 7.3, 6. The Lord repented for the plague of grasshoppers: And the Lord repented for the fire: Yea, how often is it repeated Ezek. 20. I lifted up my hand; i. e. as if he were fetching his blow to smite them, and to smite but once; or as if he had sworn their destruction; (lifting up of the hand signifies both;) But I wrought for my name, Ver. 14. Mine eye spared them from destroying them, Vers. 17. I withdrew my hand, Vers. 22. &c. Now brethren to see a God repenting over a people, and to see a people not repenting before their God; to see God repenting of the evil of punishment, and a people not repenting of the evil of sin; God's repentings are Israel's revivings, Ezra 9.8, and when he revives comforts to their spirits, for them to revive grief to his spirit, oh who can take the dimensions of this aggravation?

4. Israel sins against God's pardoning love; He pardons the mixed multitude in the Church with a passing-by-pardon, a pardon of forbearance: he pardons his own in Covenant of grace with a blotting-out-pardon, a pardon of forgetfulness, I will be merciful to their sins, and remember their iniquities no more: But he being full of mercy forgave their iniquity: Oh now to sin against this love; while God is full of mercy, for Israel to be full of sin; God pardons and they sin, they sin and God pardons, and again pardons, and they again sin: For God to add to multiply pardons, and they to add to multiply sin; for this indeed, rejoice not, Oh Israel with joy as other nations, They, sin not against God's pardoning love.

5. Israel sins against God's parental love: Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? Therest of the world sin but in the capacity of bastards, slaves, creatures at best: Ephraim sins in the capacity of a child, a son, a dear son, a pleasant child; the child hath more cause to mourn and lament then the stranger: this is an aggravation that heaven and earth must hear of: Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

6. Yea Israel all this while sins against God's conjugal love: Turn, O backsliding children, for I am married to you, saith the Lord. Behold a Father married to his Children; behold God stands to his Church in relation of both Father and Husband, and yet she rebels; hath any Nation such cause to mourn?

I could tell you moreover of

7. God's protecting love:

8. His providing love, he provides like a Father, like an Husband for his Church and people, &c.

Against all which Israel sins: But I must hasten.

Consult in the second place the Danger, and that also will tell you Israel hath more cause to mourn for her adulterous departures from God, then any nation upon the earth.

What Danger?

Why Brethren, Israel playing the Harlot is in danger of God: jealousy. I the Lord thy God am a jealous God: other nations sinning are in danger of God's anger, but Israel of God's jealousy: And jealousy is the rage of a man, &. vt supra. Is it nothing, my Brethren, to have a God angry, yea even to Jealousy? Consider I beseech you:

God's Jealousy is,

1. A stripping -jealousy; I will, judge thee as women that break wedlock, (saith God to adulterous Israel ) how is that? Vers. 37. I will discover thy nakedness to thy lovers, and they shall strip thee of thy clothes, and take away all thy jewels; all her Church-ornaments, all her Bride-glory and bravery, not only her silver and gold, peace and plenty, but Word and Sacraments &c. Alas! the Nations have none of these to lose.

2. It is a withdrawing -jealousy; the husband withdraws from the wife when he is jealous of her; and woe unto thee, saith God, when I depart from thee.

3. It is a divorcing-jealousy; a discovenanting-jealousy: God said here to this whorish people, Lo-ammi and Loruhamah, not my people, not having obtained mercy: they discovenanted God, and God discovenanted them: they cast off God, and God, and God discovenanted them: they cast off God, and God cast off them.

Many more particulars might be added, but these must suffice.

And now tell me, I beseech you, hath not Israel, think ye, under whorish departures, more cause to mourn and lament then any people under heaven? Do any of the Nations sin against so much light? Do any of the Nations sin against so much love? Hath any Nation under heaven so much to forfeit by their sin as Israel hath? They may feel his wrath, but they are not liable to his jealousy. The Nations may lose their flax and their wool, their silver and their gold, but they have no Ordinances to lose, they have no Gospel to lose, no Word, no Sacrament to forfeit. The Nations have no God to lose, at least no God-a-father, no God-an-husband to lose: they may be unpeopled, but they cannot be unchurched: They may know what sword and famine is, but they cannot know what it is to be divorced. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, &c.

I but Gentiles are capable of hell, are they not, and is there any state worse then that?

1. We speak of Israel especially in reference to her Church-state and condition of which she is capable in this life.

2. If we speak of hell, Israel, that is the generality of the visible Church are in as much danger of that as the Gentiles: yea more; tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. Yea certainly a deeper place in Tophet is reserved for apostate Israel, then for the poor pur-blind Gentiles: when the Gentiles shall but swim upon the surface of that burning lake, Israel shall be sunk into the midst of those devouring flames: It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment, then for Capernaum.

3. And lastly, Even the very Elect of God, Israel according to the spirit and promise, if they be defiled with the pollutions and whoredoms of the rest, and carried down the stream of apostasy, whether in Doctrine or Conversation, it may cost them dear; God may put such a cup into their hand to drink; a cup of trembling and spiritual desertion, which, for a time, may be worse then all the plagues of Egypt, and as it were the very skimmings of the bottomless pit.

USE.

First, It may inform us what an horrid and hateful sin Adultery is before God, in as much as of all sins, the wisdom of God hath made choice of that sin for a type and metaphor of the great sin of apostasy from God, the greatest of sins next the sin against the Holy Ghost; and is not only a degree to it, but a spice of it: In all the bed-roll of sins there is none found vile enough to make a shadow or representation of departing from God, but this sin of whoredom, the fittest emblem for that purpose, in as much as it is a base and treacherous apostasy from the marriage-bed and the Covenant of God: for so is the adulteress described: She forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the Covenant of God. Oh, that as God hath set such a brand of abomination in the forehead of this sin, this peccatum non nominandum, this sin that should not be so much as named among Christians ( i. e. with complacency or delight, there should not be so much as word-obscenity among Christians:) I say, oh that as God hath set his brand upon it, so Authority would set their brand upon it too, and make it as odious and formidable in the punishment, as it is and should be to us in its own nature! When the government was immediately in God's hands, he punishit it with death; and why it should not be so in our polity, I know not: I am confident that law, as it hath been often propounded, so it had been long since established in this Kingdom, had not guilt and love of that abominable filthiness stood in the way.

But 2. Hence we have to confute that lewd opinion, that the Saints (according to the new style, which all new opinions do write) need not mourn for sin, need not be humbled for, nor troubled with any sin, (if at lest they can sin) which is improved to that height, that conferring of sin and mourning for sin, is the greatest sin a Saint can be guilty of. When alas, the Spirit of God tells us here, that no people in the world have so much cause to mourn and lament for sin, as they have; and you have seen the Doctrine made good by Scripture grounds and demonstrations.

As for those that can wipe off all this with the jeer and blasphemy of an Old Testament Spirit, I dare be bold to say, and fear not the breach of charity in it, let them be who they will, whether Teachers or Taught, Doctors, or Disciples, they be of the number of the Apostles Separatists mockers, walking after their own lusts, sensual, having not the Spirit; they have not the Spirit, neither old-Testament-Spirit, nor new-Testament-Spirit; for it was but one and the same Spirit of God that dictated both Testaments to the pen-men thereof: all Scripture is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 given by inspiration, the breathing of God, even the old as well as the new. For Prophesy came not of old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the holy Ghost. As for them that can wipe out an whole Testament of divine truth, with a wet finger (without which the other may well suffer a deleatur also) the punishment of their blasphemy, is Prophesied before hand (without repentance) God shall blot out their name out of the book of life.

I should talk more with these men, who thus boldly and blasphemously deny humiliation for sin, but that it would keep us too long from the work itself, (which is the work of the day) and the

Third Use.

An use for humiliation.

Have not the Prophets of England as much cause to cry in the ears, not of this Congregation only, but of the whole nation: Rejoice not oh England for joy as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God? Surely they have: witness first, not only the continuance but the monstrous improvement of all manner of sin among us; whoredom and drunkeness, and swearing, and Sabbath breaking, and all kinds of profaneness is broken in upon us like another deluge; and a worse deluge then that of water: for better it is a thousand times better to see a people lie drowned in waters, then to see a people lie drowned in sin; yea better to see a people lie weltering in their blood, then to behold them lie wallowing in their lusts.

Did the pride of Israel testify to his face, and doth not the pride of England testify to its face? Surely it testifies to the faces of men in that gallantry and bravery, sumptuousness and gaudiness of apparel, that scurrility of hair, (I may truly call it) loftiness and wantonness of gesture, and that in these sad times of Jacob-troubles, that England never equal'd in her most peaceable and prosperous days: I say it testifies to the faces of men: And it testifies in the faces of our women, the Gentry and Ladies of our times. I cannot say they are Black-Mores or Ethiopians, for they can change their skins, they can change their skins by painting; but I may justifiably cal them Leopards, for they will not change their Spotts: Spotted beasts they are, and are not afraid to come with their Spotts into the Congregations of God: yea to bring them to these days of solemn humiliation, wherein they should rather come Sprinckled with ashes, and girded with Sackcloth; Surely as an ancient Divine was wont to say, they cannot expect that God should know them, they do so un-make themselves from what he made them: and if God shall say to them hereafter, depart from me I know ye not, (these are not the faces which I made) they are undone forever; Interim, God may in a just judgment smite them with a Spot that cannot indeed be changed, or healed with all the art of the Physician; and rend their faces and skins with an incurable scab, as they now rend their faces with painting. It is threatened by a God able to make his Word good, for this sin of pride, Isa. 3.17. Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. And what shall we say for other sins, doth not robbery and oppression, cruelty and injustice cry in the ears of the Lord of Sabbath!

Surely there is such an increase of all manner of sin and profaneness as if the windows of hell were opened, and the floodgates of the bottomless pit were pulled up; hell itself broke loose. But alas! if we look upon those sins which more properly and peculiarly are branded in the shoulder with the mark of whoredom: How may we take up the Prophet Isaiah's lamentation, and wonder, How is the faithful City, the faithful Kingdom, become an harlot?

She that was accounted the chastest among the Churches, for fidelity to the worship and doctrine of the Lord Jesus, how is she degenerated into an Adulteress!

For 1. is there not Idolatry found among us? Ye have pulled down Idols in the Churches, (and ye have done well) but oh, Idols are multiplied in the Land; every man's opinion is become his idol which he adores and worships with highest veneration: we have cause to be humbled for our old Popery, and our old Popish Ceremonies; (You our Honorable Senators told us so once in an Ordinance of Parliament, and ye did well) but Popery was but one way of false worship: There be a generation of men in the Land that stand up for all kinds of false worship; that every man may worship God after his own conscience; or if they will not own it in words at length, they will have it in figures: And if they may not, are ready, not only to cry, but to act persecution, and that to purpose: for while they cry persecution, gladio oris, they are ready to act persecution, ore gladij: I pray God it may never be English'd.

In the second place, Is there anything refused and opposed so much as Reformation? Oh that Popery were so much opposed as Reformation! Oh that Blasphemies were so much opposed as Reformation! Oh that Antichristianism and Atheism were so much opposed as Reformation! Happy we then. Would ye know when all these abominations are broke out in England? Oh it is in a time of Reformation! In a time of the breaking out of Gospel-light and liberty; such as the world never saw since it was Christian. In a time when we had sworn ourselves to God by Covenant to extirpate Popery, Prelacy, Superstition, Heresy, Schism, Profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness. Alas we run in such a contrary motion that a man might almost think there was a word in the Covenant mis-printed, and the next errata should bid the Reader read establish instead of extirpate. Oh! God may say of us, when I would have healed England, then the iniquity thereof was discovered! England was never so bad as in a time of a Reformation.

Witness thirdly, the numerous and numberless increase of errors and heterodox opinions even to blasphemy among us.

The world once wondered to see itself turned Arian: England may wonder to see itself turned Anabaptist, Antinomian, Arminian, Socinian, Arian, Anti-trinitarian, Anti-scripturist, what not! Alas! what were Ceremonies to these things, but (as Calvin once called them tollerabiles ineptia, children's sport in comparison, how much less an evil was it (think ye) to bow at the Name of Jesus, then to deny, to blaspheme the Name of Jesus? 2 Pet. 2.1.

If any man shall demand a proof of these things, I shall say nothing else but this, that is to be feared that man himself is a proof, Hereticorum est omnia dubitare, It is the trick of Heretics to believe nothing, no not that there is such a thing as Heresy. Oh England! Is this of thy whoredoms a small thing! that thou shouldest sell the precious truths of Jesus Christ so cheap which our fathers and we ourselves, yea the Lord Jesus Christ bought so dear, even at the price of blood!

As for covetousness and worldliness, alas it is death to consider after a little suspension of trading and straitening of our estates, a little blood-let in our superfluous abundance, whereby God would have taught us that lesson, that riches have wings and fly away; and thereby would have weaned our hearts from the world, and have winged our affections for an higher flight, even the pursuit of more excellent treasures, the things above: I say it is death to see and consider on the contrary how people do with the Israelites (after they had fasted an whole day) fly upon the spoil, and eat with the very blood running about their lips, the blood of the widow, the fatherless and oppressed! What feathering of nests, what heaping of preferments and places: What scraping for the world, as if the dust thereof would not serve every man for an handful! What enriching of menselves upon the poverty of the Kingdom? What building (as of old) houses with blood, and raising of families with oppression?

And can all this go without creature-trust and carnal confidence? Woe unto us for surely we make flesh our arm, and our heart is departed from the living God; we have made anything our God but God. Alas Fathers and Brethren, my spirit doth fail me in relating these things! Did I ever think I should have had occasion to have made such sad complaints in England of England? Who could have believed that England could so soon have made an Apostasy from her God! Who could have believed that England could have so soon forgotten her Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ? Especially having so lately re-espoused herself unto him by Solemn Covenant! Jer. 2.12, 13. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord: For England, God's people, the spouse of Jesus Christ, hath committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Vers. 10. Pass over the Isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. So may I say, go over to Spain and France and Rome: Yea pass ye over to Constantinople and Egypt, &c. Have any of these Nations changed their religion which was no religion; and forsaken their gods which were no gods? But England hath changed her glory for that which doth not profit. These are some of the whoredoms that are found in England, but what are the aggravations?

Are Israel's whoredoms ours, and are not Israel's aggravations ours too? Yes, Israel's aggravations are aggravated among us.

Did Israel sin against more light then the Nations? England sins against more light then Israel: Gospel-light doth as much exceed that of the Law as the light of the Sun doth the light of the Moon, as the light of seven days exceeds the light of one. They saw in types, and vails, and curtains; so that they could not see things for shadows: We see with open face the glory of the Lord. It is eminently observable, look with what expressions the Apostle doth commend and celebrate the vision of glory above the vision of the Gospel, 1 Cor. 13.12. In the very same language doth he commend the vision of the Gospel above the vision of the Law, in this 2 Cor. 3.18. Doth not this aggravate their aggravation of light? I am sure above all this we have one book which they had not, the Book of the Revelations, wherein specially the whoredoms and plagues of the Antichristian state are clearly discovered; that so God's people might come out of her, Rev. 18.4. & the spirit of God, the Interpreter of all God's works and God's Word, poured out in greater abundance to expound his riddles. Again, did Israel sin against greater love then other Nations, and doth not England sin against greater love then Israel?

Surely there be two kinds of love which Israel had not, at lest not in such a revelation of them as we have: And they are, 1. God's- Christ-giving-love. 2. His- glory, his Heaven-giving-love.

Alas Christ and Heaven were but obscure notions, dark riddles among them, hardly understood of one of ten thousand among them, unless it were their Heroes, the Patriarchs and Prophets: and yet even of them, says our Lord Jesus, He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven, i. e. in the Gospel, is greater then He that was greater then the greatest of them, then John the Baptist, sc. in regard of the full and clear discovery of Christ and glory. Alas, an earthly Canaan and a temporal Messiah, one that should king it over them in terrene state and greatness, was the top of their ambition (witness the very Disciples themselves, even when Christ was ascending to take possession of his heavenly Kingdom): As for a savior of souls and a Kingdom of eternal glory, these were things which few of them could hardly spell out; but clearly and with open face revealed to us in the Gospel. And to be guilty of all these treacherous departures from God and Christ under such a glorious revelation of Light and Love, what may we expect; But even that the jealousy of the Lord should break forth like a devouring fire (and I pray God it be not already kindled) which shall burn down to the very foundations of the Land: Even,

1. A stripping-jealousy that shall strip us not only of our corn and wine, but of Word and Sacraments, even of all our Gospel-ordinances, and turn our garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness.

2. His withdrawing-jealousy; that God shall say of England as once of Israel, Ier. 12.7. I have forsaken mine house: I have left mine heritage: I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

3. His divorcing-discovenanting-jealousy; that God should call England, as once he did Israel, Lo-ammi and Loruhamah: and cast us out of his house and out of his presence forever. You see the wrath which he threatened upon Israel and Judah, he hath poured it out to the uttermost: What he spake with his mouth, he hath fulfilled it with his hand, as at this day.

But let me tell you this, when ever the Lord shall enter into controversy with England for her whoredoms, the furnace will be heated seven times hotter then it was for Israel: the judgment will be much more intolerable on us then it was on them: By how much our light and our love hath been more transcendent then Israel's, by so much will our condemnation be greater. Oh for an England, a people that have been clothed with scarlet, and adorned with jewels to be stripped naked as in the day wherein she was born! For a people that have known the joyful sound and have walked in the light of God's countenance all the day along, that have sat (as it were) in the bosom and embraces of the Lord Jesus, for God now to be a stranger in their land, and as a way-faring man that turns in but for a night: For a people that have sat at the top of heaven in Gospel-vision, to be cast down to hell into a kind of utter darkness! For a people that have been in the bed of divine loves; feasted at God's table, sat as a Queen in the Palaces of Ivory, to come to be divorc'd, kicked out of doors, and a Cain's mark (as it were) set upon them to wander up and down, to be a shame and a Curse and a Proverb among the Nations, as it is with Israel at this day: The tongue of man is not able to express, the heart of man is not able to conceive the misery and anguish of such a condition. Gentiles and Pagans are not capable of such a judgment as this is.

Truly there be many sad fore-runners and Prognostics of this approaching jealousy amongst us: scil.

1. God begins to trouble us; our wheels seem to be taken off; we drive heavily: In all our motions we drive heavily, and ye know when it was so with the Egyptians, wrath was near.

2. God hath poured out contempt upon us; the Lord make us sensible of it: unspeakable contempt upon the Parliament: Contempt upon the faithful Ministry of the Land: Contempt upon the City: Contempt upon the whole Kingdom: England once not only a terror among the Nations, but the glory of all the Churches; now the shame of Christendom and the scorn of all the world: It was one of the fore runners of old Israel's rejection and divorce.

3. A Spirit of division and confusion let loose upon as, Councils divided, and Ministers divided, City divided, and Kingdom divided: not one limb hardly hanging to another, the envious man hath done this; through the wrath of the Lord the Jesuit and the Devil have almost attained their design so that without infinite mercy we are like water spilled upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again, we are broken all to pieces.

4. All the four great plagues and judgments threaten us, sword, plague, famine, and evil beasts.

5. Yea that which is a thousand times worse, God seen to be departed from the ordinances: the converting presence of God is gone from the word, It was the sad emblem and symptom of God's departure from Israel. Ezek. 10.4. The glory of God filed the house, but God was upon the threshold; And the next news we hear of him, he was upon the Mountains: It is sad and ominous when God begins to recede by degrees from a people or person.

6. The power of godliness is departed from the generality of professors. Alas that savor & sweetness, that life and activity, which was wont to be in the people of God and in their Christian meetings, wherein they did admonish, and comfort, and exhort, and strengthen one another in the Lord their God, comparing their evidences, and communicating their experiences, praying with, and praying for one another; alas where are these things to be found? is not this a sad fore-boding of God's jealousy.

7. And then in the last place: Spiritual plagues begin to succeed and overtake temporal judgments. Unbeleif hardness of heart, contempt of the word and ordinances, mocking of the messengers of God &c. When so it was in Israel, the text tells us, there was no remedy: a Spirit of delusions to believe lies; and that which is the perfection of all, a Spirit of slumber, a deep sleep of security doth possess us: who is there that fears and trembles? who is there that takes notice of these things to lay them to heart: the whole nation is a sleep with the kingdom on sire about their ears. Well Honorable, and Beloved Christians, this is our estate; I may say to you as Josiah did once to Isaiah: Enquire of the Lord for us, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is gone out against us. What is to be done?

1. Why rejoice not O England i. e. Weep and mourn, it is the work we are about this day, O that we would do it to purpose. O that this day we could do as Israel did, draw water and pour it out before the Lord. O that we could make the place where we are a Bachim: And oh that the Lord would pour out upon us a Spirit of grace and supplication, that we might look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born. We have trflied with God in these days of public Humiliation, so that we may fear he takes them us more with good will at our hands. Truly we may fear lest our solemn humiliations be not become solemn provocations, and our very prayers turned into sin. Our fasts have not been altogether so good as Israel's bulrush humiliations: Isa. 58.5. We are impatient of bowing down our heads for a day. O let us cry mightily to God, and with Jacob -like importunity, resolve not to let him go, til be bless us

2. Yea secondly, let us mourn in secret as Jeremiah did. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand, for thou hast filledme with indignation. O that God would teach us to make good that Prophesy, surely it hath an eye to Gospel-times. Zech. 12.11, 12 13, 14. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apars: The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart: All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of David: i. e. the royal family, the house of the Prince. The family of the house of Nathan: i. e. the Prophets families. The family of the house of Levi, i. e. the Priests families: the family of the house of Shimei, i. e. the families of private men in their several callings. O that God would indeed pour out from on high such a Spirit upon England; that the King and Queen, might humble themselves, sit down, and lie in the dust before the Lord; that the Princes and Nobles, Magistrates and Ministers, with the whole people of the land, from the highest to the lowest, would humble themselves greatly before the Lord, and cry mightily to him; every family apart, and their wives apart; who knows whether the Lord might not repent of the fiereness of his wrath, and return and leave a blessing behind him?

3. Labor to possess a mourning frame of Spirit, take heed of letting out your hearts to take your fill of creature-comforts: take heed how you give up yourselves to carnal mirth and rejoicing: It was Israel's sin here in the text, and a posture ill becoming a people that have gone a whoring from their God.

It is a sin at any time to feed ourselves without fear, much more when God is angry. It was a seasonable and severe check God by the Prophet Ezekiel gave unto the unseasonable mirth of that besotted people. Ezek. 21.9, 10. Thus saith the Lord, say a sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished, it is sharp to make a sore slaughter, it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? And I could wish that (as Jerome said of his surgite mortui &c. so) this voice might sound continually in our ears; to check and restrain our vain and unseasonable rejoicings in the creature, yea in our sins: for what doth the Lord require at our hands but to do justly and love mercy, and walk humbly with our God? Else wicked Ahab and heathen Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. The Lord awaken us, and teach us to behave ourselves as a people whose God is angry, angry even to jealousy, & to know in this our day the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes.

2. Use, Exhortation.

There is a word of Exhortation behind, and I beseech you suffer it.

First. to you Honorable and Noble Patriots, who are called to be the Reformers, and Healers of a poor broken kingdom, I would humbly move these 2. things.

First, that you would exert that power and authority which God hath given you, to the punishing and suppressing of the Adulteries and whoredoms of the land, which do stare heaven and earth in the face, and do provoke the jealousy of God, even to give England a bill of divorce and put us away: arise I say, oh ye Rulers and Governors of England, gird your sword upon your thigh, and ride on prosperously because of truth and righteousness, and let your right hand teach you terrible things. You know what Phineas did in the case of Corporal whoredom, committed in the face of God and the Congregation. Then stood up Phineas and executed vengeance or judgment; and you remember how well the Lord took it at his hands: The plague was stayed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness; Oh that the Spirit of Phineas may come upon you; that you may sheath your sword in the bowels of these monstrous whoredoms of all sorts, Corporal and Spiritual, which are committed in the sight of all Israel, yea in the sight of all the Churches round about us: that the blessing of Phineas may come upon you, and the plague may be stayed.

Doth not indeed the punishing and suppressing of Spiritual whoredoms against God, Idolatry, Heresy, Blasphemy, and the rest: doth it not belong unto you, as welas the punishing of bodily whoredoms, theft, murder &c.? Doth it indeed belong to you only to look to the Civil peace, and to let Religion, and truth, and the worship of God, stand or fall to their own master? fight God, fight Devil, fight Christ, fight Antichrist; catch that catch can; you have nothing to do but to stand by, and look on! Say so then; speak out, publish it in your declarations to the world, and let the people of England know, that it is the right and liberty, to which the subjects of England are born, that every man hold what he please, and publish and preach what he holds: that it is the birth-right (as some would have it) of the free-born people of England, every man to worship God according to his own Conscience; and to be of what religion his own Conscience shall dictate: do so, and see (fathers and brethren) how long your Civil peace will secure you, when religion is destroyed; how long it will be ere your Civil peace, be turned into Civil war! for no doubt if this once be granted them, but they may in good time come to know also (there be them that are instructing them, even in these principles too) that it is their birth-right to be freed from the power of Parliaments, and from the power of Kings; and to take up arms against both, when they shall not vote and act according to their humors: Liberty of Conscience (falsely so called) may in good time, improve itself into liberty of estates, and liberty of houses, and liberty of wives, and in a word, liberty of perdition, of souls and bodies.

Right Honorable, and worthy Gentlemen: I cannot stand to dispute, this only would I know of you; are Idolaters and Heretics, and Blasphemers and Seducers, are they evil doers? if so, then look to your Charge. Rom. 13.3, 4. Rulers must be a terror to evil doers, unless ye mean to bear the Sword in vain. And if you will, God will not; and if God take the Sword into his own hand once (as he seems to be a doing of it) he will smite to purpose; he will execute vengeance thoroughly: both upon the evil doers, and upon you that have not been a terror to them. Oh therefore up and be doing, that you may deliver the kingdom out of the hand of the Lord; for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. O let not your patience (I hope it is no more all this while) be interpreted a Connivence, and your Connivence be taken for a toleration, it may be the kingdoms ruin, but it will be your sin.

2. As you should punish the whoredoms of the land, so I humbly call upon you in the name of the Lord this day, that you would awaken and stir up yourselves, to prevent the further whorish departures of this our Israel from the Lord.

And that first, by setting up your government, do it, I beseech you, and do it to purpose; do it, and do it so, as it may be able to answer the ends for which you set it up. That it may not be mockit out, by profane persons on one hand, nor by Sectaries on the other, (as it is at this day) fill your government (if you are in good earnest) with a life and soul, power and strength: whereby it shall be able to act, as well as to speak.

And Secondly, prevent the further departure of the land from God, by keeping out Seducers: those Seducing, Malignant, Popish, Prelatical Priests, whom you have cast out: who have been one great cause of the Apostasy of England. The sins of the teachers, have been the teachers of sin; they are the men who (with Hananiah and Zedekeah ) have taught rebellion against the Lord.

Certainly, if ye did well in putting of them out, ye will do extremely ill in taking of them in again. Hath the Kings army bettered them? hath Oxford changed their principles? I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that if ye suffer them to recover their stations again, or whoever of you shall for favor, reward, relation, or any other respects whatsoever, use your interest to re-invest them again into their places, you destroy what ye have built, and will be found transgressors: and translate the blood of poor souls upon your own heads.

Well, strengthen your hands (Honorable and much Honored Patriots ) strengthen your hands in God, thus to suppress and prevent the Adulteries and whoredoms of the land.

If you shall not; give me leave to tell you ye will bring a six-fold aggravation upon your neglect.

First, All the Sermons which have been preached before you, and by your command, have been published to all the world, will rise up in judgment against you: for they will testify to the present and to after ages, to the coming of Christ, and in that day, that you have had Prophets among you, who have not seen false visions and causes of banishment: but have dealt faithfully with you, in declaring unto you the whole Council of God.

2. All the blessed and glorious opportunities lost: when the poor kingdom near giving up the Ghost, shall groan out her last complaints thus; the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. What opportunities?

Why, 1. rare abilities and parts, both of learning, and grace among yourselves. I dare say a riper harvest was never gathered into those walls.

2. Strange and excellent impressions many times upon your Spirits.

3. Uictorious armies subduing and conquering the kingdom before you.

4. A Ministry, neither ignorant, nor unfaithful, nor driving their own interests, to serve you; to bring in the hearts of the people to you, which (till some taught them otherwise) they did, with such success, that;

5. Your interest in the affections of the Subjects was such, that you commanded their purses and their persons, their lively-hoods and their lives, with as much freedom as ye did the wives of your bosoms, or your hired servants. Oh that is were with you as in the days of old!

6. The prayers of all the faithful at home, and of all the Churches abroad; which were round about you as an army of banners. Oh, to have all these come in against you, will be an Aggravation indeed.

3. So will (in the next place) the deep obligations which God hath laid upon you: your plenty, peace, preservations, even miraculous, both Public and personal; I hope you have not forgot them. Admirable successes in your own kingdom: seasonable and honorable assistance from the neighbouring kingdom of Scotland, in a brotherly league and Covenant with you. Your malignant neighbors abroad, God hath found them Work of their own, that they have not been able to disturb you: nor hath he suffered the Plague at home in seven Summers together to scatter you. There hath not an hair of your heads fallen to the ground. Are these small things in your eyes? Surely they cannot.

4. What say ye to the Engagements which you have laid upon your own souls, by your enquiry at God's oracles; Declarations, Sacraments, vows, the Solemn league and Covenant! Oh will not these speak loud in God's ears? I, and in your ears one day, in case of neglect.

5. The judgment of God executed by you upon offenders, for their delinquencies against the state, against religion: I should be sorry, their blood should ever cry against you. Yet I must tell you, Jehu carried the matter so in destroying the house of Ahab, (though God commanded it) that while Jehu writes Justice, God writes down murder. I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. Jeroboam rescues ten tribes and an half out of the Tyranny of Rehoboam, and then betrays them to Idolatry: he sins, and makes Israel to sin. Amaziah destroys the Edomites for their Idolatry, and then worships their Idols. In all these you shall find, it was not love of justice, that did edge their sword, but self-interests: Reformation was not indeed their end, but the setting up of themselves upon the ruin of an opposite party: so dangerous a thing is it to dally with God.

6. And lastly, What say ye to your prayers, and in special to your late day of Humiliation for the spreading of Heresies and Blasphemies, in Print now to all the world? Will ye fast for Heresies and spare them when ye have done? Will ye humble yourselves for Blasphemies against God and Christ and the whole blessed Trinity, and suffer men to blaspheme on? What will this be when it is interpreted? Surely though fear may make men mince it at home, the Churches abroad will not be afraid to call it hypocrisy and mocking of God.

And be not deceived, saith the Apostle, God is not mocked: Not mocked? What is that? That is, 1. Not undiscovered: There is neither clouds nor darkness wherein treachery or prevarication can hide itself from the piercing eye of God: There is no imposing upon the Almighty.

And 2. God is not mocked impune: No man shall mock God and scape scot-free: What a man sows that shall he reap; it is the Apostles own exposition of the place.

Fathers and Brethren, let me not be mistaken; I come not this day as your Accuser, but as your humble remembrancer: I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; the Lord knows you are dearer to me then that blood which runs next my heart; and might it do Christ and you any service, I could (I hope) as freely sacrifice it, as eat my bread when I am hungry.

I know you have had many obstructions and hindrances; But now I beseech ye, gird up the loins of your mind; set yourselves, with all your counsel and strength, to the staying and stoping of the grievous apostasy and whorish departure from God in the Kingdom, and to reducing of it back again to the Commands, Worship, Truths and Government of the Lord Jesus: Conclude this with yourselves, there is no work lies upon your hands of such concemment as this: And for your encouragement know, that though your troubles and distractions be great; yet you have a mighty God to stand by you, who hath promised that Jerusalem shall be built, and the wall shall be raised, even in troublous times. It relates as well to Gospel-Reformation, as to the full and final return of the Jews: and the Lord make it good to you, and by you.

I would speak a word in the second place to the faithful Ministry of England.

Do you set yourselves (with the Prophets of old) to the bringing back of this poor Kingdom so fearfully gone a whoring from God: To that end,

1. Take heed of healing the hurt of the daughter of this people slightly, by crying peace, peace, where there is no peace: Take heed of daubing with untempered mortar: Take heed of false visions and causes of banishment: but be faithful in discovering the iniquities and whoredoms of the Land. If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned my people from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Behold this is the way to save the Land, speak while ye may speak; and I pray God it be not ultimus singultus morientis libertatis.

2. Stand in the gap with Moses, plead with Elijah, pray and cry with Jeremy: God hath not yet said to us, pray not for this people, if he had; surely (with reverence be it spoken) we should not believe him: Jeremy would not; but even after the Lord had enjoined him silence, pray not for this people, he is at his intercessions again and again, in the 13.19, 20, 21, 22. Verses, and all over his Prophesy. Oh therefore, Ye that make mention of the Lord, ye that are the Lord's remembrancers (by special office and designment) give him no rest till he establish and make this our Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Thirdly and lastly, Here is a word of Exhortation to all the people of the Land; and that in the language of the Apostle: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

In departing from the living God, in his

• Truths.
• Worship.
• Commands.
• Promises.

But in all these respects let us say with repenting, returning Israel: I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me then it is now.

And for the encouragement of

• Parliament.
• Ministers.
• People.

let me remember you of that gracious invitation and promise: They say, if a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return unto me, saith the Lord. There is much treasure in the place, but the summa totalis is this; God will accept of a returning people or person upon those terms that the dearest husband in the world will not. It is very observable that when Christ was withdrawn from the spouse, Cant. 2.17. she cries but once to him, Turn my beloved; but when she was gone from him, he cries four times return to her, Chap. 6.13. Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return: Christ is four times as desirous and glad of our return to him, as we are or can be of his return to us: The Lord speak effectually to us, that we may know, and all the Churches may know that he is the Lord God, and that he hath turned our heart back again. Amen.