Delay of Reformation Provoking Gods Indication

A SERMON PREACHED TO the Honorable House of COMMONS on the Monethly Fast-day, April 29. 1646.

T HIS Text may well be called an awakening Trumpet, sounding a loud alarm in the ears of an impenitent, unreformed people: Many warnings had God given to Judah and Jerusalem, before they felt that fatal blow in the Babylonish Bondage: One among the rest is proclaimed in this Chapter, ver. 14. I will dash them one against another, even the Fathers and the Sons together; yea, I will dash them in pieces like bottles of Wine, ver. 12. (Alas, alas, poor England in this bloody intestine War ha's made a sad Commentary on this mournful Text:) Upon this warning God calls them to a deep Humiliation, ver. 18. [Observ.] Say unto the King and to the Queen, humble yourselves and sit down: Great ones and Nobles, Senators and Statesmen in a day of Humiliation, must forget their greatness, fit down in the dust, and lie low before the Lord, as well as the meanest of the people: They (notwithstanding this Summons) are so far from Humiliation, that they are entertaining thoughts of self-justification, ver. 22. Wherefore come these things upon me?

Hereupon the Lord deals more sharply with them, evidently convinceth them of their sinfulness, and severely threatens them for their stubbornness, I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings, &c.

The Text will spread it self into three Branches.

• I. An undeniable conviction; I have seen thine adulteries, &c.
• II. A dreadful commination; Woe unto thee O Jerusalem.
• III. A pathetical expostulation; Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

[Observ.] In the first, God silenceth their complaining, that they might have nothing to object against the equity of his proceedings; I have seen thy guiltiness: God will have every mouth to be stopped, and all the world to become guilty before him .

In the second, he foretelleth their misery (now ready to fall upon them) that they might tremble at it, and be affected with it; [Observ.] God would have his people deeply apprehensive of the sad signs and symptoms of his displeasure.

In the third, he reasons the case before he proceed to execution; [Observ.] God had rather glorify his mercy in our reformation, then his justice in our ruin and condemnation.

Let me first break up the Text in the terms of it, and then deal out the observations.

I have seen thine adulteries:] The great sin that God chargeth on them, and whereof he doth convince them, is Idolatry, which is here aggravated,

• 1 By the Titles given to it.
• 2 By the several circumstances of it.

[ 1] First, the Titles are these, it is called adultery, whoredom, abomination.

First, Idolatry is called adultery and whoredom, because it is a sin that defiles the conjugal Bed, cuts the marriage knot between God and his people, and provokes the Lord to give them a bill of divorce: When backsliding Israel committed adultery, I put her away and gave her a Bill of Divorce.

Secondly, it is called abomination, the Hebrew word coming from a Root , which signifies to loath or detest, as being that sin which God most detested and abhorred.

And there is an Emphasis in the Affix [thine] thrice repeated in the Text; Thine adulteries, thy whoredom, thine abomination.

Observe here, all the idolatries and abominations practiced on the Hills, in the Fields, and in the Villages round about Jerusalem, they are all charged upon Jerusalem; they are thine abominations; why so? Because Jerusalem was the Metropolis, or Mother-City of the Kingdom: There sat the Sanhedrim, and there were the Courts of Justice ; they had power in their hands to suppress these abuses, but they did not make use of their power for that purpose; therefore (saith God) they are thy sins, and shall be put upon thy account.

[Note.] It is worth the noting; When Magistrates are careless in suppressing abuses, these abuses shall be charged upon the Magistrates: When the people gathered Manna on the seventh day, the Lord chargeth the sin upon Moses , though Moses himself was not guilty: The Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws?

[ 2] Secondly, the Circumstances aggravating their Idolatry are four.

First, it was a sin not once, but often committed; thine adulteries, in the plural number: And a sin, the ofter it is committed, the greater it is, as a cloth died red, if it be dipt again, it is died yet redder.

Secondly, it was a sin committed with greediness an great delight, therefore it is expressed in this term, Neighings; a brutish transgression hath a brutish expression; and it is observable;

Wicked men by sinful courses become brute beasts, unmanning themselves, losing not only their conscience, but their reason also: So was it with this people here in the Text, They were mad upon their Idols, as it was said of the Chaldeans : Even as mad as pamperd, frolic horses are in the heat of their lust: Yea, the same Hebrew word which signifies to neigh, signifies also to shout for joy, as Ier. 31.7. Sing for gladness and shout among the Nations, where the same word is used: So that it was a sin committed with great delight: And this is certain, the more delight we take in our sins, the less delight God takes in our souls.

Thirdly, their hearts were so taken up with this sin, that God had no room there, like an unchaste woman, that thinks of nothing but her lustful Lovers : This is implied in the word Lewdnesse, or the (Thought) of thy whoredom; so the word properly signifies, and so judicious Calvin renders it .

Fourthly, they committed this sin in public view, not only privately in a corner, but on the hills and in the open fields, Upon every high hill, and under every green tree, they wandered and plaid the harlot : Impudency in sin is one of the highest aggravations of sin: Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush .

Now (saith God) I have seen all this with an eye of Jealousy, and an eye of justice, I have seen it to censure it, I have seen it to revenge it, for so it follows

Woe unto thee O Jerusalem: ] As if he should say, O unhappy Jerusalem, that art so desperately sinful, and dost not yet repent nor reform to this day! great misery and calamity do I denounce against thee, as one devoted to destruction.

Wilt thou not be made clean? ] I know the words are diversely read by Interpreters; but quotation of Authors is a Thief in an Auditory; Some read the words without a question thus, Thou shalt not cleanse thyself hereafter : But this reading suits not so well with the last words , After how long yet?

Some read them thus, Thou wilt not be cleansed by turning after me: Thus mistaking a vowell in the Hebrew word, for it is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 After me, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 After, or hereafter.

But the sense is plain enough, as reverend Calvin (an Interpreter, instar omnium ) does well express it; Wilt thou not be made clean? As if he should say, Is thy heart sohard that thou canst not yet repent nor reform, after all exhortations, invitations, woes and warnings? The pressing, piercing interrogation adds great strength to the expression .

When will it once be? ] or, After when yet? or, How long yet? that is, how long wilt thou continue unreformed? How long shall I wait till thou be cleansed? how long wilt thou delay and take time with me from day today?

The words being thus opened, many observations might be thence deduced, but I will not pluck every cluster that this fruitful bough doth hold forth.

There are three special points (suitable to the three parts or branches which I named even now) that will draw forth the strength of the Text.

• Doct. 1. God takes precise and special notice of all the sins and abominations of a people that are in covenant with him.
• Doct. 2. These sins and abominations provoke him to express his anger in dreadful Comminations.
• Doct. 3. Those dreadful Comminations denounced against a people, call for a speedy Repentance and Reformation.

I shall begin with the first point as it lies in order:

[Doctr.] God takes precise and special notice, &c.

For the proof of this, the Scripture is abundantly plain and pregnant: I have seen this people (saith God) and behold it is a stiff necked people: Stubbornness of heart is not obvious to man's eye (for God, and only God, knows the hearts of all the children of men, saith Solomon, 1 Kings 8.39.) yet God takes notice of it: The Lord tells this Prophet Jeremiah, speaking of the dissembling Jews; Mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquities hid from mine eyes: We may think to thrust God out of our sight ( When God is not in all our thoughts ) but we cannot thrust ourselves out of God's sight: The Elders of Israel, because they committed wickedness in the dark, every man in the chambers of his Imagery, therefore they said, The Lord seeth us not: But God's takes away this Covershame, Jer. 23.24. Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord; Do not I fill Heaven and earth, saith the Lord; Darkness hideth not from him, but the night shineth as the day .

[Reas. 1] For first, God hath an eye of omniscience, he knows not only our works and ways, but the inward frame & temper of our hearts; Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of the Sons of men: And if the very windings and shufflings of our treacherous hearts are obvious to his eye, then certainly our outward actions and enormities are much more conspicuous and apparent: Doth not the Apostle say, All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do: Mark the expression, for it is fuller then one word can render it; it is a metaphor frō a Beast whose skin is flay'd off, and cut up by the chine bone, that you may see all his entrails, which the Heathenish Priests in their Sacrifices were wont to do, when they did (to use Lucian's words) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , i. e. exactly view and take notice of them; the Lord sees our very reins, as if the thoughts and secret workings of our hearts were unbowelled before him.

Object. But doth not our Savior say concerning wicked men, Depart from me, I never knew you ; It seems then that God doth not know all men, and all things upon the earth?

Ans. God knows not the wicked with a knowledge of approbation (for so he knows the righteous only ) but he knows them and all their actions with a knowledge of observation: The whole frame of their hearts, and all that their heart frameth , all their desires and designs, intentions and inventions, plots and practices are observed by his alsearching eye, and shall be accounted for before the Tribunal of Christ at the great day.

[Reas. 2] 2ly The Lord takes notice, because he hath an eye of jealousy: He is a jealous God , very apprehensive of any conjugal unfaithfulness, and ready to revenge it: As a tender husband, the more dearly he loves his wife, while she is loyal to him, the more grievously he is offended if she prove treacherous: This is that which God complains of by his Prophet, Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously wiih me, O House of Israel: And God makes this an aggravation of their offense; They brake my Covenant, though I was a husband to them, saith the Lord.

[Reas. 3] 3ly As he has an eye of jealousy, so he has also an eye of justice, having appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness , and bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil : And the Prophet makes this one reason, why he observes and takes notice of all the ways and works of the Sons of men; Thine eyes are upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

But this point will not need so much confirmation as application.

[Use 1] For instruction, there are two lessons hence arising, by way of inference, which may much conduce to our Humiliation in the presence of God this day.

• The first is this, God's patience towards us is infinite:
• The second this, Our presumption in sinning against him is intolerable.

[Instruction. 1] For the first, see and admire at that Patience and longsuffering, which Heaven and earth, men and Angels may stand amazed at; that the Lord of glory (whose power and purity, omniscience and omnipresence, justice and jealousy do dazzle the eyes of the very Angels) should see all the abominations committed under the Sun, hear all the execrable oaths and blasphemies that are belched out against him, observe the insolency, scorn and rage of presumptuous sinners, that set their mouths against the Heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth ; yet doth not all this while set the world on fire about our ears, or thunderbolt us from Heaven, or take us away with the stroke of his hand .

Do but consider these 〈◊〉 remarkable things in God.

• A piercing eye, and
• A powerful hand.

The one to spy, the other to punish; and withal seriously weigh that infinite and inconceivable holiness and purity of his nature, that he cannot endure iniquity ; and then break out into admiration and say, O infinite patience and longsuffering! that thou, O God, shouldest support us in our being at that very time, when we are fighting against thee by our provocations and rebellions! whereas didst thou withdraw thy hand but one moment, we should drop down to hell. Would any King endure to see a Traitor abuse his Titles, villify his person, revile his children, contemn his laws, and do as much as in him lies to cast his Crown down to the ground? yet this our God endures with unwearied patience: May not we say with the Prophet, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed: Oh that we could now begin to admire the boundless, bottomless Ocean of that mercy and loving kindness which swallows up all our thoughts, and will be matter of gratulation and admiration to all eternity, saying, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy.

[Instruction. 2] For the second; our presumption in sinning against him is intolerable; because all our sins admit of this aggravation, that they are committed full in the face of God, It is a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face: This is that which may prick our hearts, and wound our souls in all our confessions and humiliations, when we can say with David, Against thee, thee have I offended, and done this evil in thy sight: Thou hast been an eye-witness of all my stubbornness and undutifulness, of all my treachery and hypocrisy, of all my wanderings and backslidings.

This was one thing that let the Prodigal blood in the heart-vein, and stroke him with penitential remorse, viz. That in his wandering from his Father, he went into a far Country , as thinking to be out of the reach of his Fathers eye; but when he returns, he bewails this, ver. 18. I have sinned against Heaven and before thee: Mark the phrase, Before thee; he looks on his sin, as committed in his Fathers eye all the time: It were an intolerable impudency for a wife to dally with a stranger in the presence of her husband, or for a villain to offer violence to a Queen while the King looks on, ( Will he force the Queen also before me in the house, saith Abasierus concerning Haman ) Or a Thief to cut a purse in the Face of the Judge sitting on the Bench; or for a Subject to set the Crown on another's head, when the King himself is standing by: Yet thus deal presumptuous sinners with the Lord every day; and is not this a provocation intolerable?

What an aggravation was that of Nimrods sin ; he was a mighty Hunter before the Lord; so desperately bold was he in his boisterous tyranny, that he was not afraid to act it before the Lord: And are there not some that dare call Heaven to record for there fidelity in the public cause of Religion, when God and their own conscience know the contrary?

Are there not some like Ephraim, of whom God saith , He is a cunning Merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand, and he loves to oppress; yet (as if he would mock the God of Heaven to his face) he saith, I am become rich, I have found me out substance, in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin: As if he should say: God makes me prosper, though it be in a way of injustice and oppression, therefore he hath no quarrel with me at all.

Oh the horrible, hellish Atheism that doth possess our hearts! Are ye offended at the harshness of the expression? Ye must know, there is an Atheist in affection as well as in opinion; They say to the Almighty, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways: There is an Atheist in practice as well as in profession; They profess they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate: Are there not many of us that profess we know God, and in our tongues dare not deny him, yet in our life and conversation carry ourselves, as if God had but the eye of a picture, without life or motion in it: Are there not many of us who make of the great God of Heaven (with reverence be it spoken) no better then a Baal, a sleepy, senseless, careless God, that neither regarded iniquity, nor rewarded duty? Are there not many who (as much as in them lies (put out the all-seeing, all-searching eye of his omniscience, and cut off the arm of his revenging justice, as if he would neither see nor censure any of their transgressions?

If pilfring Achan had thought that the eye of the Lord had followed him (as Elisha told Gehazi, that his heart went along with him, when he received the present at Naaman's hand ) durst he have stolen the wedge of gold, and Babylonish garment, and so have transgressed in the cursed thing? If those two loose professors Ananias and Sapphira, could have reasoned as holy Job did, Doth not the Lord see my ways, and count all my steps? durst they have lied unto the holy Ghost? If traitorous Judas had thought the eye of his Master had watched him, durst he have nibled money out of his Masters bag? If we in our actings for God, our seekings and services, did but really think that the frame and temper of our spirits, our very ends and aims are as obvious to the eyes of God, as our actions are to the eyes of men; were we but fully persuaded of this, that he observes whether we be sound at heart, or rotten at core; durst we lie unto the Lord and cozen the world, and in the end cozen our own souls? But we think it not, I say it again to our shame, we think it not: We have poor low thoughts of God and of his greatness, majesty, power and glory; we are ready to think wickedly of God, That he is such a one as ourselves : Instead of raising up our thoughts to God, we pull down God unto our thoughts: This is our Atheism, this is our Presumption; let us see it, and bewail it, and be humbled for it.

[Use 2] Let the second Use be for Examination: Take occasion to enter into the Closet of our own hearts, to see how the case stands between God and us: This should be a day of self-scrutiny and self-reflection, wherein we should smite upon our thigh with Ephraim, and be ashamed,—yea even confounded before our God: It should be a day wherein we should plough up our fallow ground , ransack every corner of our souls, and turn the inside of our hearts out unto the Lord.

Let us therefore search our hearts, and sift our lives, whether there be not those sins and abominations among us, which the Lord beholds with an eye of jealousy: True it is, that Kingdom killing sin of Idolatry (which God so deeply chargeth on them in the Text, is in a great measure suppressed among us; and, blessed be the Lord, who hath put it into the heart of this honorable Parliament, to purge out the dregs of that leaven, which the Lord hates in his very soul, and to pull down that proud oppressing PRELACY, and those prelatical popish Innovations, which were the props and pillars of Idolatry:) But are there not other God-provoking, Heaven-daring, wrath-procuring sins yet unpurged out, which in the sight of God are very odious and abominable? May not God speak to his Ministers concerning England, as he does to Ezekiel? Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations: Let me instance in some particulars.

[Abomination. 1] First, is there not abundance of swelling pride, and that is one abomination; for everyone that is proud in heart, is abomination to the Lord, saith Solomon : We have yet as lofty looks and scornful carriages, and ambitious aspirements, pussing at Superiors, trampling on Inferiors, high conceits of ourselves, low conceits of others, as we had before this bloody war began: God hath pulled us down in our estates but he hath not pulled down our pride; we are brought upon our knees, but our hearts are not humbled.

[Abomination. 2] Secondly, is there not abundance of Hypocrisy among us? which is another provokefull abomination; for the Hypocrites in heart heap up wrath, saith the Scripture : Now we are for the generalla hypocritical Nation, and therefore a people of God's wrath, as God spake of the Jews, Isa. 10.6. We are a Nation full of wit, and therefore full of craft and guile; God may say of us as he did of Ephraim; Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: We can give good words (they cost us nothing) just as the Israelites did, whom the Psalmist mentions; When he slew them, then they sought him, they returned early & inquired after God, &c. But they did but flatter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues, for their heart was not upright with him, neither remained they steadfast in his Covenant: Here is a lively Image or representation of our double-dealing with our God in the time of our straights: We do not seek God for God, but for ourselves; we do not so much serve him, as serve our own turns of him; we pretend a willingness to be reformed, but when it comes to the quick, to take Christ's Yoake on our neck, to have purity of Ordinances and power of godliness meet together; to have strictness of Sabbaths and strictness of conversation kiss each other; to have plain powerful convincing heart-humbling, soul-healing preaching, now we shrink and draw back, and are afraid of a refining Reformation; this argues the dishonesty of the heart.

The truth is, we would fain have Religion and our lusts together, we would have a Reformation that might suit with our own humors, ends and interests, and make Religion a shoe fitted to our own last; is not this to be hypocritical in our ends and aims? We come to hear Sermons just as they did in Ezekiel's time; Son of man, this people sit before thee as my people, they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness: So at this day, many of you will give us the hearing, but ye will do what ye list: Ye come to judge the Sermon, not to be judged by the Sermon (as the Apostle speaks in the like case, Jam. 4.11. If thou judge the Law, thou art not a doer of the Law, but a Judge; ) Ye would have witty Sermons and reproof at a distance, and love not the jewel of plain-dealing: Look as men commend the sweetness of Rosewater, but start and turn away if they be bespinkled with it; so ye love to hear the truth, and commend it, but like not that it should touch ye, or come too close unto you: Ye come (on such days as these) to hear your ways reproved, but have no serious purpose to have your ways reformed; we may preach what we will, ye will practice what ye please.

Is not this a piece of hypocrisy which the Lord abhorreth?

[Abomination. 3] Thirdly, is there not a great deal of impenitency and stubbornness under God's corrections? Me thinks I hear the Prophet Jeremy complaining of us as he did of the Jews in his time; O Lord thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved, thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction, they have made their faces harder the a rock, they have refused to return: There is a spirit of insensibleness seized upon us, that we do not lay to heart one of the sorest of God's plagues, one of the sharpest of his arrows; this man-devouring, land-destroying sword, that hath eaten so much flesh, and drunk so much blood, and is not yet put up into the scabbard: We are like the Drunkard that Solomon speaks of, that sleeps on the top of a mast, and lieth down in the midst of the Sea; they have stricken me (saith he) and I was not sick, they have beaten me, and I felt it not: Oh how provokefull is this to our God, and to the eyes of his glory, to see us a people so stupid, so senseless, so locked up in our own hearts, that neither sins nor miseries, nor means, nor mercies, nor word, nor sword can work upon us!

Ye shall read of some of God's servants recorded in Scripture, that have been more affected with an evil threatened, then we are with a judgment inflicted: Look on godly Josiah, he hath his heart tender and melting, when he heard the words of the Book of the Law : Look on Habakkuk, he hath his belly trembling and lips quivering, and rottenness entering into his bones : Look on Isaiah, his loins are filled with pains, pangs took hold on him, as the pangs of a woman that travelleth, he was bowed down at the hearing of a hard vision, he was dismayed at the seeing of it : These holy men were deeply affected with a calamity, that was but like to come upon them, but we are not sensible of a dreadful judgment that is already come upon us: I pray God a deep fleep from the Lord be not fallen on us, such a one as fell on Saul and his Army , when the Lord purposed to deliver Saul into David's hand; for we bear off all God's blows with head and shoulders, as Jerusalem did, when she said, Woe is me for my hurt, my wound is grievous, but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it; as if she should say, It is a burden and I must bear it as well as I can: Do but examine our thoughts, consider our speeches, look into our houses, observe the general deportment and carriage of men under this heavy judgment of a Land-wasting war, and you may see that literally fulfilled in our times, which the Prophet speaks of concerning Israel; He hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of Battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

[Abomination. 4] Fourthly, is there not a great deal of injustice and oppression yet among us? And this is a crying abomination; The cries of the oppressed enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts: Yet how many poor oppressed ones cry and cry again, but are not heard, nor remembered, nor relieved; They have debts due unto them, but are ready to strave for non-payment, they are distressed, but have no helper.

Nay, are there not some that make no conscience of paying debts, because they are under protection.

O that God had no cause to utter that complaint which he doth by the Prophet Isaiah; Judgment is turned away backward, and Justice standeth a far off, Truth is fallen in the streets, and Equity cannot enter; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him, that there was no judgment.

Where the course of Justice is stopped, it is not for me to inquire, look YEE to that, to whom it belongs (for God looks for it at YOUR hands, whom he hath called God's, and he will one day call ye to an account, and say, Do ye indeed speak righteousness O Congregation? Do ye judge uprightly O ye sons of men? ) Only this I say, Stop the course of Justice, and ye stop the course of a River that will overflow all Bounds and Banks, and drown the Country round about.

If the cries of the oppressed be not heard, our prayers and humiliations will not be heard; so saith the Lord expressly, I despise your FAST days, and I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies, unless Judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

[Abomination. 5] Fifthly, have we not our Wilderness-provocations? So much murmuring and repining at the passages of God's providence in these days of trouble, that God might justly swear Your carcases shall fall in the Wilderness, and ye shall never see the Land of Canaan: Are we not extremely unthankful in receiving mercies? and shamefully barren in improving mercies? May not it be said of us, as it was said of the ungrateful Israraelites, They forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the Land of Ham, and terrible things by the red Sea: Even so is it with us; we have in a manner forgotten the marvelous things that God did for us at Edgehill, at Newbery, at Marston-moore, at Nazeby, famous Nazeby, never to be forgotten while we have a tongue to speak the praises of our God, for THERE did God break the Arrows of the Bow, the shield and the sword, and the battle: Selah. There did God so break the power and pride, and rage of the enemies, that he dealt with them as he dealt with Pharaob, Son of man, I have broken the Arm of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and loe it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a rowler to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword: Yet all these mercies, miracles of mercies, and glorious Victories have been made scarce nine days wonder. Nay worse then this, We have provoked him at the Sea, even at the red Sea : that is, In the sense and under the fruition of special mercies, and extraordinary deliverances vouchsafed to us: We have not been bettered but rather made worse by Mercies and Victories bestowed on us: God's gracious favors have been fuel to feed our pride and covetousness, and contention, &c. Showres of mercy have made the weeds of corruption grow the faster: Such dunghilly hearts have we, that the more God shines on us with his mercies, the more we putrefy; the better he hath been to us, the worse have we been to him, and the more he hath loved us, the less hath he been beloved of us; and do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise ?

What an intolerable provocacion must this needs be? This unthankfulness and unanswerablenesse of heart to God's gracious dealings and dispensations, it is Obex infernalis, (as one calls it) a hellish stop or bar to future favors: A man that is about to pour in some precious oil into a glass, if he see the glass cracked, he stays his hand, and saith, I will pour no oil into this glass: An unthankful heart is a broken glass.

[Abomination. 6] Sixthly, is there not a notorious contempt of Ministers and Ministry among us at this day? Heretofore ye could say of Ministers that were faithful, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things? But now they grow out of credit and esteem.

Yea our very calling begins to be questioned and brought to the bar; and (say some) Ye take too much upon ye, ye Sons of Levi ; Too much state and power, too much honor and holiness, in appropriating these administrations to yourselves, wherein all the people might partake with you. I dare boldly say, never was there in any age or Nation under Heaven, a greater contempt cast upon this Ordinance, then there is at this day, especially by subtle and undermining Sectaries and Seducers, who cast dirt upon the very paps which they have sucked, villifying those Ministers and that Ministry, whereby they were first enlightened.

To whom I say in the words of the Apostle, Take heed ye despisers, and wonder and perish: Ye read of a Damsel possessed with a devil, that cried out concerning Paul and Silas (who were Ministers of Christ) These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation: The Devil himself durst not speak irreverently or contemptuously of the Ministers of the Gospel: Contempt of the Ministry therefore is a grievous provocation, which God will not put up at our hands; For when they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his Prophets, THEN the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy .

I know the uncovering of this sink of our abominations is unpleasing to you: Every unwelcome truth (though it proceed from the Father of lights) is looked on as a bastard, no man will own it till it be laid at his own door: But when God comes to charge these, or any of these abominations upon the conscience, then ye will begin to entertain those sad and serious thoughts that holy Job did; What then shall I do, when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? It is a small matter for me (a poor mortal man like yourselves) to reprove you, but when God reproves you, and sets these things in order before your eyes; how will ye hold up your heads before your Judge?

[Use 3] Let a word of exhortation therefore be welcome to you: Two duties there are which this Doctrine presseth on every soul here present; the Lord help us to put them in practice.

[Duty. 1] First, Let us see our sins that God may not see them: Let us behold them with sorrow and shame, for our humiliation, that God may not behold them in anger for our condemnation: Let us set them before our face, that God may cast them behind his back; when David could feelingly say, my sin is ever before me, he might more hopefully pray, Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities : Certain it is, if we discover our sins, God will conceal them, if we conceal our sins, God will discover them ; if we forget our sins, God will remember them; if we remember our sins, God will forget them : Better it is for us to see our sins here, and judge ourselves for them, then that God should see them hereafter, and pass sentence against us, to our everlasting horror and confusion.

[Duty. 2] Secondly, if God so exactly take notice of all our transgressions, let us learn this duty; to walk more warily and watchfully before our God; let us walk exactly, as in his presence; learn to eye and observe him at all times, in all actions, in all companies, on all occasions: Thus did Abraham , He walked before God: The Lord, before whom I walk (saith he) will send his Angel with thee, &c. He did walk in God's eye and presence all the day; And thus should we do: Ought We not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of our enemies? Now if we did thus, what a curb or bridle would this be, to restrain us from sin and sinful courses?

I have read a story of a Religious man, who being desirous to reclaim an unchaste woman from her lewd and sinful conversation, took this course with her; He came to her, pretending to have some wanton dalliance with her, so it might be with all secrecy; she thereupon led him from room to room; but he still made many doubts, least at this window, or that key-hole, this crevice or that cranny, some or other might chance to peep in and espy them together; at length she brought him to the inwardest room in the house, where (saith she) I am confident that none, upon my life, can possibly pry in, or take notice of anything that we do: Whereupon he told her with weeping eyes, No bolts nor bars can keep God out, no walls nor doors can hinder his piercing eye-sight; and what shall we gain (saith he) by shunning the eyes of men, when the eye of our God is still upon us?

It was good council that a Rabbin gave to one of his Scholars: There are three things I would have thee remember all the day long:

• An Eye that sees thee:
• An Eare that hears thee:
• A Hand that Registers all thy Actions.

So say I to thee (O secure, sin-sleeping soul) if thou canst find one hour wherein God's eye is not upon thee, take that hour to be secure and sinful, to be merry and mad, to do the Devils work with diligence, or God's work with negligence: but if God's eye be always on thee, let thine eye be always towards him, as the eyes of a maiden are unto the hand of her Mistress : If he watch over thee, do thou watch with him all the day long, and say of every place where thou comest, what Hagar said of that Well, which she called, Beer-la-hai-roi, that is, The Well of him that lives and sees me.

I have been somewhat large in the first point, the other two I shall dispatch with a quicker hand.

[Doctr. 2] THese sins and abominations provoke him to express his anger in dreadful Comminations; Woe unto thee O Jerusalem: thus God is said To roar out of Zion ; yea, so to roar, that he makes the Heavens and the earth to shake and tremble; he is said to swear in his wrath ; to be angry with the wicked every day; to whet his sword, and bend his Bow, and make it ready : How many curses and comminations do's God de nounce against impenitent sinners? As, that they shall be Cursed in the City, and cursed in the Field; cursed in their basket, and in their store, &c. cursed in all they have, and all that they put their hands unto; yea, God threatens that he will curse their blessings ; he will make their wealth to be their woe, their pleasure their poison, their flourishing their perishing, and those things which should be for their good, shall be traps and snares, and thorns, and occasions of falling,

Reasons.

Because sin is to the Lord infininitely

• 1 Provokefull.
• 2 Odious.
• 3 Injurious.

First, it is so provokefull, that it is frequently called a provocation , as being that wherewith God is exceedingly grieved fretted , vexed , burdened , resisted , for all these expressions the holy Ghost useth to set forth the provokefull nature of it.

The Rabbins have a Proverb, That every sin makes God's head ache.

But we may add somewhat more, and say, sin is not only a head-aking, but also a kind of heart-breaking unto God; it is that pathetical expression which God himself useth, Ezek. 6.9. I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me.

[Caution.] Yet take this Caution along with ye, when ye read that God is vexed and fretted, and provoked with heart-breaking grief, &c. you must know, Anger in God, is not a passion as it is in us (for he is a simple and uncompounded Essence, free from all passion and perturbation) but Anger in God, is a Will or Inclination to punish sin, arising from the detestation of sin: That as man expresseth his anger in his countenance by frowning, in his speeches by threatening, and in his actions by punishing; so doth the Lord discover his anger also in the same manner; he frowns on the wicked, and sets his face against them ; he threatens them with dreadful denunciations , and executes the judgments which he hath threatened .

[Reas. 2] Secondly, sin as it is very provokefull, so it is very loathsome, therefore called in the Text Abomination: No carcass or carrion so loathsome in our sight, as sin is in the sight of that God, who cannot behold iniquity : Hence is God said to loath the sinner, My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me; and he tells his own people, My soul shall abhor you.

Yea, so loathsome is sin, to his pure and perfect nature, that he hates it in his own children, as well as in stangers: It is true, it is not a hatred redounding to their persons, yet he hates sin in them, though he do not hate them for sin: At the same time, when he dearly loves the person of a Believer he deadly hates the sin of a Believer: As when David committed adultery, the Text saith, The thing that David had done displeased the Lord : Though David's person was accepted, his sin was abhorred.

[Reas. 3] As sin is very odious, so is it also very injurious to the God of Heaven: In the least sin that can be committed, we do the greatest injury (for the kind of it) unto God, that can be expressed; because in every sin there is an infinite Majesty offended, an infinite Justice wronged, an infinite patience provoked, an infinite mercy abused, and therefore an infinite punishment deserved.

Besides, in sin we often arise to a despising of God; Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord, saith God to David ; Yea, to a despiting of God. We read of some that do despite to the spirit of grace ; yea further, to an interpretative domineering or insulting over God; Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins (saith God ;) sin makes God a servant, and man a Master: Nay yet more (if more can be said) sin riseth (with reverence be it spoken) to a dethroning of God, it strikes at his Crown and dignity, even to un-God him, if it were possible; Must not all this make God exceeding angry?

[Use, 1] First, it will serve for our Instruction in two particulars.

[Instruction. 1] The first is this; That it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God, for he hath treasures of woe and wrath laid up in store for those that do provoke him: Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up in my Treasures ? True it is, when God is pacified, then it is better falling into the hands of God, then into the hands of men, for his mercies are great : But if his wrath be once kindled, then the sinners in Zion shall be afraid, fearfulness shall surprise the Hypocrites, who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?

O the desperate folly and madness of presumptuous sinners, that dare stretch out their hands against God, and strengthen themselves against the Almighty (as the Scripture elegantly expresseth it .) That dare run upon God, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his Bucklers; that dare kindle that fire, that burns to the lowest hell : Little do these men think how infinite the wrath of God is: Infinite I say in

• Intension.
• Extension.
• Satisfaction.

First, it is infinite in Intension; for who knoweth the power of thy anger, saith Moses ; it passeth the apprehension of men and Angels: That which is spoken of the glory reserved for Saints, is as true of the wrath reserved for sinners; Eye hath not seen it nor ear heard it, neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive it : it must needs be so, being the anger of an infinite God: A dart out of a weak man's arm will wound the body, but when it is shot out of a strong Bowe, and with a strong arm, then it wounds deeply: How infinite then will that wrath be, which seizeth on Vessels of wrath? When Mountains and Mil-stones of vengeance shall be thrown upon them, and that by an omnipotent hand and outstretched arm, and fury poured out.

Secondly, it is infinite in Extension or Duration; it extends to all eternity; for the wrath of God is the very fuel that feeds the fire of hell (the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it ) now, that fire is an eternal fire ; so long as God shall be God, so long shall that fire burn, and that is forever; yea (if it were possible) more then ever, even evermore.

Thirdly, it is infinite in Satisfaction: Nothing can satisfy or appease that anger but an infinite price, even the precious blood of Jesus Christ; which being the blood of a person that is God as well as man, is therefore called, The blood of God, Acts 20.28.

Know thus much, if God be angry, Angels stoop, Devils tremble, the Earth melts, and the very Heavens are rolled up as a scrowle of parchment: Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured forth like fire, and the rocks are thrown down before him : And if the denouncing or menacing of Temporal judgments be so dreadful, what will the suffering of Eternal judgments be? What will it be to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Thou art now ready to fancy to thyself, a God made all of mercy and compassion; but if thou saw but the shadow of God's wrath on a damned soul in hell, it would make thy heart ache, thy joints quake, and rottenness enter into thy bones.

[Instruction. 2] The second Instruction is this; see the hateful, hurtful, dividing, divorcing nature of sin, which sets God and his people at variance; Your iniquities have separated between you and your God .

Sin in this respect is far worse then any cross or calamity that can befall us; it is worse then sword or famine or pestilence, or sorrow, or sickness, or poverty, or persecution: For afflictions do not separate us from God: I am persuaded (saith the Apostle ) that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God: But sin can do us that mischief, which neither crosses nor losses, nor death, nor devil can do.

Whence is it then that we hug this Viper in our bosoms?

Oh that our eyes were open to see sin as God sees it, and then we should loath sin as God loathes it.

[Use 2] Secondly, here is something for exhortation.

[Duty. 1] This Doctrine hints to us these two Duties.

First, learn to justify the Lord in all his threatenings and executions.

Give him the glory of his justice in all his Administrations.

The Lord has of late been sore displeased with this Nation; He hath frowned on us in his anger, yea, he ha's so roared, that he ha's made the whole Land to tremble: He ha's shown his people heavy things, he ha's made us drink the Wine of astonishment : But in the midst of all these sad signs and symptoms of God's displeasure, the Lord may say to us as he said to Jerusalem; thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee: and we may say to God as Ezra doth in his penitential Lamentation; Now O our God, what shall we say after all this? for we have forsaken thy Commandments: As if he should say, We can neither accuse thy severity, nor excuse our own iniquity.

God delights not in thundering threats, nor breaking blows, nor severe proceedings against his people; He doth not afflict willingly or from his heart, as the Hebrew phrase carries it; showing mercy is his proper work, Judgment is his strange work ; therefore when he comes in a way of judgment, he is said to come forth out of his place , implying thus much; That then he is in the place that he delights in, when he sits in the Mercy-seat .

Ye read of a shaving Razor where with God threatens his people, Isa. 7.20. but the Prophet tells ye, it is a Razor that is hired, as if God had no Razor of his own, he delights not to have it or to use it.

It is Bernard's observation, that God is called Pater misericordiarum, the Father of mercies, because mercy naturally proceeds from him, and is willingly bestowed; but he is never called Pater vindictae, the Father of revenge, because that is unwillingly inflicted: Look as Bees give honey naturally and sting only when they are provoked; so it is with God, sweetness flows from his inward disposition, harshness only from outward provocation; therefore complain not of God or his indignation, let us complain of ourselves, and of our own provocations.

[Duty. 2] Secondly, we may by this Doctrine learn this duty, viz: To tremble at God's direful denunciations: If the Lyon roar, all the Beasts of the Forest tremble: Shall God be angry, and shall not we fear and fall down before him? Shall God threaten both by his Word and by his Works? His Word specifying what judgments we have deserved; his works of severity on others, telling us what we may justly expect for our miscarriages; and shall not this threatening awake us? shall his Rods be not only shaken over us, but wasted on us and yet we stiffen our necks and harden our hearts against his fear? God forbid: Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? will ye not tremble at my presence, that have placed the Sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it ? Fear ye not my Word? Fear ye not my Rod? This is certain, the more we triumph in prosperity, the more we shall tremble in adversity; the less we fear God's Rod, the more we shall feel it, either here or hereafter.

[Use 3] Thirdly, this Doctrine may be improved for imitation both to

• Ministers and
• Magistrates.

First, Ministers by God's own example, may threaten impenitent sinners.

They may come with a rod, as well as in love, and in the spirit of meekness ; they may be sharp in reproving sin, foretelling danger, and denouncing judgments: When the wicked are brazen faced in sinning, Ministers may be as brazen sac'd in reproving: Behold (saith God to Ezekiel ) I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks: We may spit fire and vengeance in the faces of obstinate and unreformed sinners.

Let no man slight this way as too legal, crying out These are legal Preachers, &c. For our Savior himself trod in the same path, denouncing dreadful woes against impenitent sinners: Woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida, woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites; which is seven times repeated in one chapter : And where do you meet with a more terrible soul-shaking Commination, then that of our Savior in the same Chapter? ver. 33. Ye Serpents, ye generation of Vipers, How can ye escape the damnation of hell? Look upon Saint Paul's manner of preaching; though there was never any Minister of Christ more Evangelical then he, yet he could speak to sinners as a Son of thunder, as well as in a still voice: Did he not thunder and lighten when he made Felix tremble ? Does he not tell sinners of the terror of the Lord ? and the dreadfulness of his wrath? That he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on all them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that such shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power .

Can Ministers have a better pattern for their Preaching and practice then holy Paul, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself?

Secondly, for Magistrates, God's Vice-gerents here on earth; they may and must show their just indignation against offenders and offenses.

When God hath put authority into your hands: First, ye must threaten offenders; thus did Nehemiah; he testified against Sabbath-breakers, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you: It may please God your threatening may prevail to prevent much sin, as Nehemiah's did: But if threatening will do no good, then ye must proceed to Act what ye speak; thus did he to obstinate and unreformed sinners; I contended with them (saith he ) and cursed them; that is, pronounced a curse against them that had taken strange Wives; yea, I plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God to reform what was amiss. Nay, for your encouragement, ye have a greater then Nehemiah, to be a pattern to you, in the execution of Justice upon Delinquents; ye have God himself for your example; for see what God speaks by the Prophet Zechariah My words and my Statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets, did they not take hold of your Fathers? What he pronounced in a way of commination, he made good in a way of execution. The Lord is known by the judgment that he executeth . It is true, He threatens before he strikes, but he will strike as well as threaten: so must ye do likewise.

The Magistrates sword must not be like a George on Horsebacke, always threatening, never striking; for he is the Minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil; therefore he must not bear the sword in vain . But where headstrong Obstinacy is added to gross Impiety, he must act with just severity, in suppressing sin and sinners, Turning the wheel upon the wicked , and cutting off those rotten members that are incurable.

But I use all this heat to the inflaming of your zeal; for no other end, then what was God's end in my Text, The sinners reformation. And this lets me in to the consideration of the third and last point which I propounded to ye, which is this:

[Doctr. 3] God's dreadful Comminations against sin and sinners, call for a speedy Repentance and reformation.

First, they call for a Reformation: Wilt thou not be made clean?

Secondly, for a speedy Reformation: When will it once be?

For the proof of this Point, the Scripture is abundantly plain and pregnant. When God had threatened a dreadful Judgment against his people, saying, Thus will I do to thee O Israel ; that is, I will deal with thee according to thy deserts; I will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks . He makes this use of this sad Doctrine; Because I will do thus unto thee, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel: Meet me by repentance and Reformation, and meet me speedily, lest it be too late . Do in this case as a King doth going to war; If he have but ten thousand to meet his enemy that comes against him with twenty thousand, he sends an embassage, and desires conditions of peace . So do thou; If thou be not able to match me by thy power (which is impossible; for, How can thine heart endure, or thine hands be strong, in the day that I shall deal with thee ?) then meet me by thy penitential Reformation; send prayers, and tears, and sighs, and groans that cannot be expressed: send a deep detestation of sin, a fresh indignation against sin, a renewed Resolution to forsake sin; send these (I say) as Ambassadors to desire conditions of peace, lest I break thee with breach upon breach, and run upon thee like a Giant . And what means the Prophet Isaiah by that quick and smart speech of his ? If ye will inquire, inquire ye, return, come: as if he should say, What ye do in the business of Repentance, do quickly; as Moses said to Aaron in the like case , Take a Censer and put fire therein, and Incense thereon, and go quickly unto the Congregation, and make an atonement for them. We may see the evidence of this truth in the grounds of it.

[Reason 1] For first, the exercise of God's patience, though it be longlasting, it will not be ever-lasting: My spirit shall not always strive with man , saith God, concerning the sinners before the flood. The spirit may strive a great while with stubborn unreformed wretches, but he will not be always striving: God patience may sometimes be so tired out, that he may say of a people, as the Prophet Jeremiah did of the Jews in his time; The Lord could no longer hear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed. He may sometimes be so pressed ( even as a Cart is pressed under sheaves ) that the axle-tree of his patience may be broken, and then He shall be suddenly consumed that would not be speedily reformed . Nay yet more, God's patience may sometimes be so abused, that he may be angry with his own children, and say to them as our Savior said to his Disciples, How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?

[Reason 2] Secondly, Reformation should prevent Desolation; Because God had rather have his Judgments prevented then inflicted. Hence it is, that He threatens destruction that he may not destroy us; Behold, I frame evil against you (saith the Lord) and devise a device against you; Return ye now everyone from his wicked way, and make your ways and your doings good .

[Reason 3] Thirdly, delays in Repentance are exceeding dangerous. The habits of sin are more strengthened; the powers and faculties of the Soul are more weakened and wounded; and God himself is more provoked to give up a people to their own hearts lust : to give them over as desperate and incurable, and to say in his just anger and indignation, He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. When Jerusalem became as a boiling pot, whose great scum went not forth out of her; (judgments would not mollify her nor bring her to repentance) the Lord is extremely angry, and tells her plainly, Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged; thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness anymore, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. Oh how doleful and desperate is such a Condition! which of us do not trembles at the apprehension of it?

Now this Doctrine may be thus improved:

[Use 3] First, It frames a Bill of Indictement against us, who have had warning after warning, threatening upon threatening, blow after Blow, yet are an impenitent and unreformed people to this day.

Hath not God trained us up in the School of Instruction for many years together? No Nation under heaven ha's had so many faithful Watchmen, so many painful, powerful Preachers as England ha's had. No people upon earth ha's lived under such sweet showers and sunshine of the glorious Gospel of Christ as we have done.

Hath not God trained us up in the School of Correction? Somtimes he ha's come with the Beesome of Pestilence, which ha's swept away thousands, and ten thousands in our streets; sometimes he hath smitten us with blasting and mildew, dearth of corn, and cleanness of teeth, in many places of the Kingdom; and to go no further, we now lie under a sharp Iron whip, a bloody unnatural intestine war, which ha's made the whole Land to tremble; we have been a mouth-eaten Kingdom almost twenty years together, for still we were wasting and declining, but in these four last years God ha's been as a Lyon tearing us to pieces, Hosea 5.12, 14. Alas, alas! Our young men have been slain with the edge of the sword, our Widows have bewailed the loss of their husbands, our Orphans have bewailed the loss of their Parents, and h •• stink of our Camps have come up into our nostrils : We have had sad and mournful messages, of Villages plundered, houses fired, Brethren imprisoned, Women abused, estates devoured, whole Counties wasted; yet after all these verbal and real warnings, after all this sorrow and smart, and wrath, and blood, our dross and scum is not taken away, our leprosies yet abide upon us; there is yet as much swearing and lying, deceiving and dissembling, as much pride and covetousness, self-seeking and self-confidence, discord and dissention among Brethren, as there was before the war began; so that God may justly and angrily speak to England as he doth to Jerusalem in the Text, Wilt thou not be made clean? when will it once be? Yea, the Lord may justly take up that complaint of us, which he doth of the Jews in Jeremiah's time; They are Brasse and Iron (base and drossy metal, good for nothing) the bellows are burnt (the lungs of my messengers are spent with speaking to them) the Lead is consumed of the fire, the Founder melteth in vain, for their wickednesses are not plucked away, (all the pains and labor that hath been spent about refining of them is lost;) Therefore reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.

Blush O Heavens, and stand amazed O Earth, that a people should have so many instructions, corrections, warnings and awakenings, woundings and breaking blows, yet should remain so unreformed! God speaks in anger, yet we hear not; roars from Heaven, yet we fear not; smites us with his rod, yet we feel not; yea, stroke upon stroke, yet we lay it not to heart: For this should our eyes drop down tears, and we should in the bitterness of our spirits cry out with Ezra, Behold O Lord, we are before thee this day in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

[Use 2] In the second place, let a word of Exhortation take hold on your hearts, (and what I preach to others, the Lord grant I may practice in my own soul) Let us study a particular Reformation in our hearts and houses; let us do as God adviseth Jerusalem; O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved: Let everyone of us do as Jacob did, when God called upon him to pay his vows, which he made in the days of his distress, Gen. 35.2. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange God's that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. Oh that Joshua's resolution were fixed and fastened on the hearts of all that hear me this day; As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The City would soon be clean, if every man would sweep at his own door.

Motives.

Think with yourselves therefore, that ye see God waiting that he may be gracious to you . He waits till ye meet him with repentance, that he may meet you with deliverance. If ye were but fitted for mercy, he would bestow a full mercy on you. Think that ye hear him this day wooing, entreating, inviting, beseeching you to come in, and stand out no longer, We are Ambassadors for Christ, as if God did beseech you by us, &c . O admirable and unheard of condescension, that the Ceator should beseech the creature, that the King of eternity, whose glory is lifted up above the heavens , should entreat worms and dust to be reconciled.

Nay yet more, Look on God not only entreating, but expostulating or reasoning the case with you, as he doth with Ephraim , O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? O England how shall I deal with thee? Have ye been unclean, and will ye be so still? Are your former iniquities and provocations (before the war began) too little for you, but that you will add iniquity to iniquity, and rebellion to rebellion? As the tribes of Israel reasoned in the like case; Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day; but that ye must turn away from following the Lord, and make him wroth with the whole Congregation?

Lastly, look upon God not only expostulating with you, but also lamenting your folly and loss; O that thou hadst barkned to my Commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea. It is Chrysostom's observation upon my Text, that when God was now about to punish them, he do's pity them ; he do's as it were weep over them, and compassionately mourn for them; When, O when will it once be? just as a tender-hearted father that ha's but one Son, and that Son untoward and intractable, he takes the Rod into his hand, but withal he ha's tears in his eyes, saying, How shall I scourge thee my Son? How shall I give thee up (to Ruin) O Ephraim! How shall I deliver thee (into the hand of thine enemies) O Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled together ?

Doth all this nothing move us, nothing melt us? Are we in love with wrath, and death, and danger? Are we willing to perish? to be made a hissing, a reproach, and an astonishment to all other Nations? Know ye not that one sin unrepented, unreformed will do us more mischief then all our enraged Enemies can do us? One sin in forcing the Levites Concubine to death (it is one of the saddest Stories that ye meet with in all the Scriptures) occasioned the slaughter of LXV. THOUSAND MEN ; and that is more (I believe) then the sword hath devoured in this Kingdom these three years. Know ye not that without Reformation there will be no Pacification? Ye read in Isa. 9.12. that though the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind had devoured Israel with open mouth, yet God's anger was not turned away but his hand was stretched out still. But why would not God be pacified after all that calamity which fell upon them? the reason follows, verse 13. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. So long as we have a rebellious hand to stretch out against God, so long will God have a revenging hand to stretch out against us: If he do not bend us, he will break us. Nay yet more, without Reformation, we can expect nothing but a desolation, Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem (saith God ) lest my soul depart from thee (or be difioynted from thee, as the Hebrew phrase emphatically expresseth it ) lest I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabited. Observe here, though a people be as near to God as the Arm is to the shoulder-blade, yet if they do not hear the rod, and learn instruction, and be reformed, He will be loosed or disioynted from them, cut them off from his hand, and make them desolate. And tell me (Sirs) are ye willing to tire out God's patience that do's preserve you? when ye stand but upon one bough of a tree, (God's forbearance or longsuffering) which bough if it were broken or cut down, ye should fall into all woe and misery, both here and hereafter, Are ye willing to cut down that bough? Will ye observe lying vanities, and forsake your own mercy ? Will ye provoke God to say in his displeasure, I will stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting ? Oh give God leave to glorify his name in your Reformation, rather then in your ruin and desolation.

Quest. It may be you will say unto me, What is that Reformation that is required, and so earnestly pressed upon us this day?

Answ. I answer briefly, It is the purging away of whatsoever doth defile the Soul.

As

• Error in opinion.
• Inordinacy of Affection.
• Sinfulness in Conversation.

For the first, Do ye think Errors in judgment small matters, or trifles not to be regarded? Know ye not that they are exceeding

• Dangerous in their Nature.
• Damnable in their Effects.

First, they are dangerous, because they bewitch the Soul: O foolish Galatians, who ha's bewitched you that you should not obey the truth ; yea, they corrupt and defile the soul: I fear (saith the Apostle ) least your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ: Errors and Idolatries agree in this, they are both of them the defilements of the conjugal Bed; they make professors turn Strumpets, and cease to be loyal Spouses of Jesus Christ: Yea moreover, they hinder the growth of grace in the soul; as the worm at the root of the tree hinders the growth of the tree, or weeds sprouting up with the corn, hinder the growth of the corn: Hence is error compared to a Canker or Gangrene which consumes the flesh; so doth error consume or eat out the heart of grace: Oh that sad experience did not set seal to this truth! but we see it daily (and may grieve for what we see;) That many Christians, who formerly have been forward professors, & have seen some beauty in spiritual things, and tasted of the heavenly gift, yet when once they are caught in this snare of error, they lose the savor of grace, and fearfully fall either from the profession, or from the power of godliness.

Secondly, they are damnable in their effects: For it is well observed by Divines , That corruption in judgment is as bad, nay worse, then corruption in manners, especially where the mind ha's been enlightened with the knowledge of the truth. Leprosy in the head was of all other Leprosies the most dangerous and destructive: The Priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean (saith the Lord) his plague is in his head: He was unclean if he had the Leprosy in his hand or feet; but if it were in his head, then he was utterly unclean. Look as the Soul is the excellency of man, so the intellectual part is the excellency of the Soul; It is the Candle of the Lord, as Solomon calls it ; a light set up to direct the whole man in the way that he should walk in: Now as our Savior reasons in the like case, If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ? So here, if the mind and judgment be corrupted, how great is that corruption? In God's fear therefore, let all errors be avoided, as Satan's snares (for so the Apostle calls them ) wherein he entangles the understandings of seduced men.

For the second, viz. Inordinacy of Affection; such as sinful fears, sensual delights, carnal contentment, creature-confidence, self-love and self-seeking, earthly mindedness, and the like; they must all be renounced, if we ourselves would be reformed. It is a golden Rule of the Apostle (the Lord give us hearts to walk by it) in 1 Cor. 7.30, 31. Let them that weep be as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not over-using it . When a Picture is pasted to a wall, if you offer to pluck it away, you tear it in pieces; but if you set it in a frame, you may remove it as you please: So, when our hearts are glued to creature-comforts, we lose our hearts in the use of them, and tear our hearts in parting with them; But, if our hearts be set in a holy frame of spiritual Moderation, we shall neither over-joy them, while we have them; nor over-grieve when we come to want them.

For the third, viz. Sinfulness of conversation: This must be abandoned; It is not enough to bewail the Sins that ye have committed, but ye must also forsake the sins that ye have bewailed; He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy . All Grosse sins must be forsaken in practice; Let them not be once named among ye, as becometh Saints . The least sins (even sins of thought) must be forsaken both in Affection by loathing of them, and in Resolution by striving against them; cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart ; and hating every false way .

Quest But how, or by what Means may the work of Reformation be carried on, both in public and private, in Church and State, in our hearts and houses?

Answ Let us carefully and conscientiously make use of these Means:

[Help. 1] First, let us be humbled to the dust for our former failings; and particularly that our Spirits have not been upright or steadfast with our God; that we have not paid the Vowes which we made unto him in the day of trouble: Like little children, while we were under the rod, we made fair promises; but the rod (in a great measure) is removed, and yet we are not reformed.

[Help. 2] Secondly, Look often on our Covenant, and take heed of breaking with that God who keeps Covenant with us, and accurately eyeth and observeth all the jugglings of our hearts. Who among us do not tremble at the story of Zedekiah, of whom God speaks thus (after he had broke his Covenant which he had made with Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon ) shall Zedekiah prosper? shall he escape that doth such things? or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered? No, even in the midst of Babylon shall he die.

Memorable is the story of Uladislaus King of Hungary , who having made a League with Amurath the Turkish Emperor for ten years; upon the persuasion of a Cardinal called Julian, who absolved him from his Oath; he brake his League: Hereupon coming to fight against Amurath, He for a while prevailed, and had like to have got the victory; but Amurath seeing the great slaughter of his men, plucked the writing out of his bosom, wherein the League was contained, and holding it in his hand with his eyes lift up to heaven, said; Behold thou crucified Christ, This is the League that thy Christians in thy Name made with me, and now have violated; If thou be God (as they say thou art) Avenge the wrong done to thy Name and unto me: Instantly after, in the very same Battle was Uladislaus, that had broke the League, slain, and his Head carried on the point of a Launce through their Cities, as a token of the Turks Trophy. Now is it so dreadful a sin to break Covenant with men; What is it to break Covenant with that God, who can cast Soul and Body into hell fire? Certainly, if we break our Covenant, our Covenant will break us.

[Help. 3] Thirdly, Let us get more publicness of spirit, to say with the Psalmist, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let all private interests be drowned in public concernments; look as when public men have a private spirit, it is a great curse unto a Kingdom; so when private men have a public spirit, it is a great blessing: let that be our honor which was David's, to serve our generation: to be be useful in the times and places whereinto God ha's cast us.

[Help. 4] Fourthly, study unity and unanimity, that in the cause of God and Gospel ye may all have one heart, and one hand, and one mind, and one mouth: Do as the Tribes of Israel did in a public cause, They all arose as one man. Sure it is, there is not one plot or project wherein the Devil more labors or bestirs himself, then this, How he may cast in a bone of Division, blow the coles of contention, and break the band of unity among Brethren: Therefore look how far any man nourisheth the spirit of discord and dissention in his breast, so far (I dare tell him from the Lord) he is Instrumental to the Devil: Boards joined together make a Ship, disjoined, they cause Shipwracke: Agreement among Christians builds up Jerusalem, disagreement pulls it down: In the building of Solomon's Temple, there was no noise; neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron was heard while it was in building : O that in setting up the building of Reformation (for which we have lift up our hands to the most high God) there might be no noise of jars or janglings, crossings or thwartings, envyings or heart-burnings.

[Help. 5] Lastly, Get your hearts fired with a burning love to Christ, and an enflamed zeal for his honor, and advancement of the work of Reformation, that ye may be fervent in spirit ; a peculiar people zealous of good works : and remember this for your encouragement; If every thought of your hearts were a rapture, and every word an ecstacy, and every action a sacrifice; If ye had a thousand lives to spend for Christ, and ten thousand estats to lay down at his feet; If ye did spend and were spent in his service, He is able abundantly to recompense you both here and hereafter; Your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord .

To draw to a conclusion.

Let me wind up the three Doctrines on one Bottom, and so address my speech to you (Noble SENATORS) whom God ha's honored, and betrusted with so great a Work, as the steering of our Ship in a storm, and the settling of a poor tottering, trembling Kingdom: Ye have heard,

• That God See's all our Provocations .
• That God Breath's out against us his comminations .
• That God Cal's aloud for speedy Reformation .

I beseech you as a poor Messenger of Jesus Christ, lay these things to heart, and apply them to your own Souls.

For example: First, Do's God see all your ways with an impartial eye? (for he accepts not the persons of Princes, nor regardeth the rich more then the poor : ) Then give me leave to propound that question to you which the Prophet Oded did to the men of Israel, 2 Cro. 28.10. Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God? I come not hither, either to accuse or to censure any of you: (There is a witness within you will do the one; there is a Judge above you, will do the other:) But ye will suffer me to entreat you, to Beseech you by the Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering to him at that great day, To be true to your own spirits, to look into your own hearts, and to watch over your own ways, that ye give no occasion to the Lord to say, I have seen the provocations of these or these Parliament men.

Take heed therefore, lest (by the dignity of your places) your hearts be lifted up above your Brethren: and remember, the greater your places are, the greater must your reckoning be.

Be careful 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (to use the Apostles phrase ) to tread with a straight foot, to walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel: Remember that speech of Job, Thou lookest narrowlly to all my paths, thou fettest a print upon the beeles of my feet. If ye do but tread awry, or step out of that way that God hath appointed you to walk in; Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart ?

Let there be none among you, that drive on your own particular designs, and serve God and his cause no further, then they serve your own ends and interests: Do not spare those whom God would not have spared; (It cost Ahab dear when he spared Benhadad ; God tells him, Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. ) Do not discourage those whom God would not have discouraged.

Beware lest out of Cowardize or carnal fears, out of sinful compliance and conformity to the wills of men, ye TOLERATE what God would not have TOLERATED; for I conceive it worthy the consideration of the wisest, whether the Devil would not think he had made a good bargain, and gained well by the Reformation, if he could exchange the Prelacie for an Universal Liberty.

Take heed, lest there be any found among you, that are zealous for vindicating Civil Liberties, but when Church-government comes to be settled, ye shrink and start, and withdraw the shoulder, as being afraid of a Reformation that will be too strict.

Ye have of late caused the Scriptures to be searched, desiring that the mind of Christ in point of government, and what therein will bear the stamp of divine Authority, may be represented to you: And ye have done exceeding well in this matter, the Lord of heaven prosper you in your proceedings; But let me put you in mind of a sad Story that ye meet with in this Prophesy, Jerem. 42. The people come to the Prophet very demurely, Desiring that God would show them the way wherein they should walk, and what he would have them do, and they make a solemn profession and protestation, ver. 5. The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even, according to all things, for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Well, the Prophet do's inquire, and brings them a Message that they do not like, ver. 10. viz. That they should abide in the Land of Judah, and not go down to Egypt. What say they to this Message? You may see Chap. 43.2. They are extremely angry with the Prophet, and give him the lie to his face; Thou speakest falsely; The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there. Whereupon the Prophet tells them plainly, Chap. 42.20. Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye sent me to the Lord to inquire for you.

Observe here, If the Prophets counsel had suited with their own Principles, ends and interests, then they would have followed his advice: but because it did not, they scornfully reject it.

Now God forbid that there should be any among You that should thus double and dissemble with God in your inquiry; But if there be any such among ye, or if this or any of these secret sins before named, do cleave to your hearts or lives; I testify to you in the presence of God, what Moses did to the Reubenites ; Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Again: Do our sins yet threaten us with a Woe? Then let me beseech you (Honorable and Beloved) study to be so many Moseses to stand in the breach , between God's wrath and a sinful people. I know it is Christ alone that can do this meritoriously (for Moses in this was a type of Christ) but ye may do it instrumentally, as Phinehas did by executing judgment, Numb. 25.11. Phinehas the son of Eleazar, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them.

Shall I speak my fears to you? Truly I fear, Though God ha's brought us to the skirts of Canaan, to the Havenmouth of our deliverance, yet we are still so unreformed, that we lie under that Woe which is denounced against the Cherethites , viz. That the word of the Lord is against us; even that word which I spake of before in Isa. 8.12, 13. His anger is not turned away, because we turn not to him that smites us. Now if the Word of God be against us, it is more then if France, and Spain, and Germany and all Christendom were against us.

Therefore that God's anger may be turned away by a speedy Reformation; do ye endeavor to promote it with all your might; follow the example of that godly King Hezekiah, Whatever he did in the service of the house of God, and in the Law, and in the Commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered. Say to that God who ha's been your shield and buckler (to whom ye stand infinitely indebted and engaged) as Elisha did to the Shunamite ; Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care (in preserving us from the rage of those that rose up against us) What is to be done for thee?

Remember the eyes of the Kingdom are upon ye; nay, the eyes of all Christendom are upon ye, as a Parliament saved by the Lord, near unto him in the bond of love, and the Bond of a Covenant. O did ye but live up to the height of your mercies and engagements, what a renowned Parliament would you be? Therefore Do worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem ? Think with yourselves ye hear the whole Kingdom crying to you, as the man of Macedonia did to Paul, We are desperately sick with sin as well as misery, Come heal us, come help us. Ye have the broom of Reformation in your hand; for the Lord Jesus sake do something to cleanse us; sweep the Church as well as the Commonwealth.

To this end, take order that Obstructions may removed; ye in your wisdom can find them out.

Take order that Ministers may be encouraged in their work: Thus did godly Hezekiah, He commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the Priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the Law of the Lord. Let those that are faithful have such honorable maintenance, that their persons may be fenced from contempt: He spake as an Oracle in your House, that said, A scandalous maintenance is the cause of a scandalous Ministry. Do not starve the Nurse lest the Nurse starve the Child. Let there not be one penny of that which is called the CHURCHES REVENEW, diverted to any other use, then for setting up of a godly conscientious Ministry, in those places especially, where the people are ready to perish for lack of vision, and (were they but sensible of their own misery) would cry out as the Prisosoners at Ludgate, Bread for the Lord's sake, Bread for the Lord's sake.

TAKE ORDER That errors and heresies be discountenanced and suppressed; stop the spreading of this Gangrene, before it over-run the whole body of the Kingdom: O that I might make it my request to this honorable Senate on my bended knees, that ye would take some speedy course to stop this Flood-gate least we be drowned; for the Lord Jesus sake, show us that favor that the earth did to the woman, when the Serpent cast water out of his mouth as a Flood, to drown her, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood .

TAKE ORDER That our differences may be compounded.

Here let me turn my Exhortation into a Lamentation; O that we had some mourning Jeremiah's, that could do as he did in this Chapter ; My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride (for only by pride comes all our contention ) and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears: O that we could quench this flame of contention with our tears! but since we cannot, Lord Jesus do thou quench it with thy blood.

As concerning the present difference lying before ye, I will not undertake to loose that knot: Blessed be God, ye have an Assembly of as reverend, learned, pious judicious Divines to consult with, as this present Age can afford: Only let me beg two things at your hands; Bear with me, it is the first time that ever I spake to you in this place.

First, Be not jealous of your friends that have stood by you, and stuck to you, and have strengthened your hands in God as Jonathan did David's in the day of his distress .

Let us speak our hearts to you: God and our consciences will witness for us, that we seek for Purity more then Power; and if Christ's honor may be advanced, though in the ruin of our own, we do rejoice and will rejoice: In brief, if ye give us a power more then Christ gives us, it is our sin to accept it; if ye give us less, take heed least God be angry.

The second thing I beg is this, Hasten a settling: We know ye are going on, yet because the Church of Christ is running to confusion, bear with us if we be a little impatient of delay, and cry out as Sisera's Mother did ; Why is the Charet so long in coming? why tarry the weels of the Charet? or as the Text sounds in your ears; When, O when will it once be? Do not say as the people said in Haggai's time , The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built; for this made God so angry, that he did not bless, but blast their labors till this were done .

To conclude, remember ye judge not for man, but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment ; your authority is from him, your support is by him, and your account must be rendered to him; therefore protect the oppressed, punish the offender; encourage the godly, discourage the profane: Be an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, a father to the poor, and the cause ye know not, search it out, as holy Job did .

In one word, be so valiant for God, so courageous for his truth, so zealous for his glory, so vigilant in your places, so wise in your deportment, so impartial in your proceedings, so constant in your Covenant, so faithful to your trust, that the eye which sees may bless you, and the ear which hears may give witness to you, That the wisdom of God is in you to do judgment .

If it be thus (and O that it might be so) then not only we, but all the Churches of Christ about us, will bring in their votes, and say, This is a Parliament that the Lord hath blessed, This is a Parliament that the Lord hath crowned.