that though he had sinned as his Father had done yet he humbled not himselfe but Amon trespassed more and more And upon Zedekiah chap. 36.12 that he did that which was evill in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himselfe before Ieremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. Examples in this kind would swell beyond the time I hasten 5ly There 's nothing in the world can stand in the gapp to stop God marching against us in the way of his Judgements and keepe out a Torrent of wrath flowing in upon a Kingdom but only the humbling of our selves Our eyes for the most part in times of distresse like Solomons fooles Prov. 17.24 are at the ends of the earth we looke upon our forces abroad and our fortifications at home like those in Isai 22.8 that in that day did looke unto the Armories made up their breaches drew in their waters broke downe their houses to fortifie the wall inlarged their trenches and let in the poole and these things are not to be neglected but here was their fault and I feare ours they looked not to the maker thereof they had no respect unto God no care by the humiliation of themselves in weeping and mourning a duty which the Lord of Hosts called for at their hands at that time as the only meanes of their safety and preservation to make him propitious to them to appease his wrath and engage him for them who if he keepe not the City the watchman watcheth but in vaine it is our God that is the Pignus Imperii the Palladium and Ancile of our Cities While we enjoy his protection and presence we may not only say of them as they did of Sparta that their men were their walls but our God salvation will the Lord appoint for walls and bulwarkes no weapon shall prosper against the City that is defended by God hee 'le send Armies from heaven to fight for us when we have none in the field They fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Judg. 5.20 The river Kishon swept them away even that ancient River the River Kishon Halfe a Regiment with Gideon when God goes Generall with them into the field shall be more then enough to discomfit the whole host of Midian he can strike the besiegers with a Panicke feare and make them fly at the onely imagined noyse of Horses and Chariots On the other side if God be against us it availes not what our provisions and fortifications be or how many thousand are for us All the Castles and Bulwarkes and Armies in the world cannot protect us from God as an enemy Aiguanus tells us of a Prince who being call'd in by the Inhabitants of a City to their assistance and the rather to perswade him being assured that the place was verytenible well provided and fortified The Prince return'd answere desireing to know whether their city were covered above so that Gods anger could not fall from heaven upon them signifying unto them that it was a vaine thing to hope to secure themselves in the strength of walls and the helpe of men while sinne layed them open to the wrath of God The sinnes within are more to be feared then the enemies without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a voice heard from heaven by the Tyrant Phocas who thought after all his villanie to preserve himselfe by the impregnablenesse of the place wickednesse is within the City shall be destroyed I read of a people that when Alexander sent unto them to know what it was they most feared he supposed they would have said himselfe but they answered that they were most affraid lest heaven should fall upon them and indeed this is most to be feared lest the wrath of the God of heaven fall upon us after all our fortifications we lye open to heaven and there 's no way to secure our selves from an enemy thence but by humbling our selves Humiliation hath often made up the breaches when a whole nation hath beene ready to be overwhelm'd by an inundation of Judgements As Abigail once did David it appeaseth God in the height of his fury it stands as the Raine bow that God hath set in the Cloudes which whensoever he lookes upon he relents and will not drowne that people in a deluge of wrath Non potest orbis cadere quē lacrymae sustentant saith S. Austin the teares of contrition they are the Pillars of a Kingdome the props that sustaine and beare up the world that it doth not fall into it's primitive confusion Humiliation is that sure Anchor of hope which hath saved the Church and State from wracke in the greatest tempests upon both God hath obtained his end when he sees us prostrate upon the ground and yeelding our selves his indignation doth not fall so low he cannot exercise vengeance upon them who revenge sinne upon themselves nor destroy them that lie downe at his feete and cry for mercy 2 Chron. 12 They have humbled themselves saith the Lord of Rehoboam and his Princes therefore I will grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be powred upon them by the hand of Shishach Goe saith the Lord to those Commissioners EZek. 9. Set a marke upon them that they may be spared in the day of my wrath They are mourners they cry out for their owne and the sinnes of the Nation If my people that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face and turne from their evill wayes I will heare from heaven and have mercy I will pardon their sinne and heale their Land 1 Chron. 7.14 We have an exellent example to this purpose in the 10th of Judges The children of Israel fell from the service of God to the service of Idols God sells them that will not serve him to be slaves to their enemies who vex and oppresse them full 18 yeares a long bondage this the condition of the people on the the other side of Iordan and 't is like to be as bad with those on this side the river The enemy is upon his march with a mighty Army The People in distresse fly to God for assistance and receive a cold answer from him such as might have discouraged them from all hopes of deliverance for first he upbraids them with those many deliverances he had wrought for them already Did not I deliver you out of the hand of the Aegyptians and the Amorites and the Children of Amen and the Zidonians c. as if at this day he should answere us of this place Did I not deliver you from the Tyranny of the Pope from the Spanish Armado and the Gunpowder-treason from the many plots against the persons of your Kings and the peace of your State from the fury of the pestilence and the terrour of death in sundry battailes of late Yet have ye forsaken me and then concludes he will deliver them no more but bids them go to the
the pot thus empty upon it that the brasse might be hot and burne that the filthinesse might be molten in it and the scumme consumed now because after all this her filthinesse remained and her great scumme went not out of her The Lord concludes her as an incurable City under that dismall sentence at the 13 vers In thy filthinesse is lewdnesse because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse any more untill I have caused my fury to rest upon thee The Prophet Jeremy yet further illustrates the desperate estate of that people whom the extremity of distresse cannot reclaime from their wickednesse by a most apposite similitude taken from the Refiners who by melting their mettall in the fire make a seperation of the good mettall from the drosse Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them for what shall I doe for the daughter of my people as if he had said If there be any thing sound or of worth in a drossie cankred people it cannot be preserved but onely by melting them in the furnace this currupted Nation cannot otherwise be saved but onely by the fire Now with how great labour and exactnesse God performes this triall the Prophet expresseth Jer. 6.28 29. where he brings in God complaining against Iudah They are greivous revolters walking with slanders they are brasse and Iron they are all corrupters the bellowes are burnt the lead is consumed of the fire the founder melteth in vaine for the wicked are not plucked away Malitiae corum non sunt consumptae their wickednessees are not consumed and purged by the refining fire of Gods Judgments Their iniquity is so incorporated that though the bellowes be burnt i.e. the voyce of the rod as well as the Prophet made hoarse and quite spent with crying unto them to humble themselves the lead used for the separation of the drosse from the better mettall was all wasted in the fire yet they were not purified their drosse did still cleave unto them no extremity of calamity could part them and their sinnes and therefore it followes at the next verse Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Fourthly God doth especially observe the severall deportments of the inhabitants of a land when his judgments are upon them his pure eye runns to and fro to see how men stand affected and to take notice what men do and say in the times of distresse It was a fearefull visitation which God threatens Iudah with Ier. 8.3 where the prophet tells them that so great should their calamity be that Death should be chosen rather then life at the 6 verse he represents God as it were going frō City to City from house to house and from company to company and there listening to heare what the people would doe and say in the day of their feares I hearkened and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of the evell saying what have I done They spake happily much as God helpe us too many now but they spake not as they should they spake not aright for they repented not of their wickednesse no man sayd what have I done What a paucity is there in the world who in times of distresse speake that which God expects and desires to heare amongst all the talke of the times how rare is that of repentance the erre of teares and the voyce of weeping those sighes and groanes which the penitent soule sends up to heaven as Ambassadours to the throne of grace for mercy How few such speakers as the Prophet Malachi mentions Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a booke of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name Mal. 3.16 Where shall God find a selfe-humbling selfe-condemning sinner who sensible of his owne guilt saith What have I done Beloved that great God before whom all things are naked that knowes the secrets of all hearts is present amongst us at this time in the midst of the Temple and sees with what devotion or with what want of it we stand in his Courts he takes notice how the pulse of every one of our hearts beats there 's never a thought which he marks not never a sigh fetcht in private but he sets down in his book never a tear shed in our Closets that he saves not in his bottle he observes too who stands off and comes not in this day to afflict his soule as if he had no sinnes to procure the Judgements that are now upon us or no sence to feele them There 's never a person carowsing at the Taverne nor swearing in the streets no Zimri and Cosby acting their Lusts none idle or happly worse imployed in the house when the Assemblies are mourning at the Church that he observes not Never a sinne this day committed but he seales up in his bagge the sinnes that at other times might be mitigated by an excuse committed on this day grow into a presumption beyond an Apology God writes them in Capitall Letters with a pen of a Diamond he doth at all times abhorre a proud and unhumbled soule such a one this day is an abomination the soule that is not afflicted at such times as this shall be cut off from the people a contrite and broken heart is the onely sacrifice that can propitiate him in this day of attonement If we consult the sacred Records we shall not find a more perfect Register of any thing then of such both persons and People as humbled themselves under Gods mighty hand stretcht our in Judgement against them and of such as at these times remained obstinate and impenitent those he remembers to their advantage and mentions with praise these he records with indignation and sets a stigma a brand of infamy upon them for their lasting reproach so long as those sacred monuments shall remain in the world I can but point at one or two instances of many In 2 Chron. 32.25 we read of Hezekiah whom God had miraculously recovered from a dangerous sicknesse and granted 15 yeares more to his life when his terme was expired that he rendred not againe according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himselfe for the pride of his heart both he and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the dayes of Hezekiah In the next Chapter we have the story of the unparallel'd wickednesse of Manasseh his Son and how vanquish't by the King of Assyria he was carryed away captive in fetters to Babylon and there when he was in affliction how he besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly On the other side it stands as a perpetuall blot upon the name of Amon the sonne of Manasseh
the Church and Kingdome rather then the time of the great perplexity and distresse of both the very names of our womens tackling would fill up the whole third Chapter of Esay Neither Gods Ministers nor yet his Judgements can preach downe this sinne no not so much as their blacke spots and their paintings Is it such a blackensse as this thinke ye that the Prophet Ioel speakes of Ioel 2.6 All faces shall gather blackenesse Consider that and be affraid ye know not how neare that day is and remember the fate of painted Iezabell Hath it not beene almost the Eccho of every Sermon against oathes and blasphemies and those cursed imprecations Oh doe not this abhominable thing that God bates and indeed should we be silent the very stones in the streetes would speake and the timber out of the house would answer them yet the wicked know no shame those sinnes are growne to a presumption both against God and the King The children of Israel faith God could not stand but turned their backe before their enemies because they were accursed Jos 7.12 Alas then how shall these stand in the day of battaile that doe so often curse and confound themselves It is said of the Thracians that when it thunders they shoot up their Arrowes as it were in defiance against heaven these men their oathes and execrations That excellent Law we have against this sinne hath beene strengthened by two pious Proclamations of late Oh that there were a like care and zeale in the execution Honourable and Beloved let me in the name of God and in the behalfe of this poore Kingdome beseech you as the Father in the Gospell sometimes did our Saviour for his child possessed with an uncleane spirit If you can doe any thing have compassion on us and helpe us I would I could say with our Prophet Mark 9.12 Surely those are poore and foolish they know not the way of the Lord nor the Iudgements of their God Jer. 5.4 5 I will goe to the great men and speake unto them for they have knowne the way of the Lord and the Iudgement of their God Oh ye heads of our Tribes 2 Chron. 28.10 and ye the sonnes of Levi as the Prophet Oded sometimes spake are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God Pardon me I beseech you if I speake freely The Sacrifice of this day is a sinne offering and 't is Gods expresse command Lev. 5.11 that neither oyle nor frankincense be put upon it it is a sinne offering Lay your hand upon your heart and tell me what Reformation doe you find every one in his owne heart what one sinne have you forsaken of which before you were guilty what one duty doe you now make conscience of which you formerly neglected doe you find a Frame of spirit in your selves answering the sad and trembling condition of the Land in a word are ye humbled even unto this day I would I could heare a good answer from you that I might yet hope for better times as your persons are representative so are your sinnes too your sinnes are the sinnes of a whole Towne a County a Diocesse and so should I account your humiliation I doubt not but here are many which are exil'd from their houses and â—ifled of their Estates your condition is sad but let me put the Question to you Are your hearts humbled O Humiliation Humiliation what 's become of thee where shall I finde thee that thou mayst be a Pella a City of refuge to protect us from the Avengers of bloud a Noahs Arke to save a sinfull nation from the flood of Gods wrath The City says she knowes thee not the Court complaines thou art a stranger there and the Country cries thou art gone out of the Land Though the two great destroyers the Red the Pale horses have march't through the whole Land multitudes of people every day swept away the cries of our oppresed wounded spoyled undone freinds Fathers Brothers kinsmen sound every houre in our eares the sighes and teares and groanes of our dying nation are fresh and loud the ruine of the Kingdome and desolation as it were in sight yet are not most of us like that stupid judge in the Acts Act. 11.17 And Gallio cared for none of these things The truth is when these cloudes first began to gather together there was much perplexity amongst us where the tempest then hanging over our heades would fall we were all in great feare what the event of those distractions would be but now that our feares are come upon us we cease to be affraid like those Froggs in the Fable when Jupiter threw downe the logg amongst them it put them in a great fright for a time so that they held their croaking but after a while when the feare was a little over they came neare to the Log and leapt upon it The most of us seeme to be sicke of Ichorams disease 2 Chron. 21.15 our bowells of compassion to others nay which is yet more of pitty to our selves are fallen out We relent not at the murther and undoing of so many thousands of our brethren we can heare the passing-bell tole and see the panges of death upon our owne Country with dry eyes and unhumbled hearts and not so much as say Alas my mother what Jeremy nay what seas of teares even teares of blood are sufficient to lament this obstinacy Jonah 4.11 Should I not have compassion on a great City wherein are six hundred thousand soules that know not the right hand from the left the greatnesse of the multitude was a motive that prevailed with God to spare Ninive and should not this be an Argument as prevalent with us to withdraw us from sinne and to perswade us this day every one to humble himselfe Exod. 10.3 O my wretched heart How long Pharaoh like wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe If thou hast no pitty upon thy selfe yet shouldst thou not have compassion upon a perishing Kingdome Shall I carry to my grave nay to Hell with me the guilt of the bloud of so many thousand Innocents Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that walke in their sleepe they will venture upon dangerous precipices because they know not their danger but when they are awakened and come to see what they have done they are astonish't and even strooke dead with the apprehension of the danger escaped it is a wonder to see that men awakened by the loud cries of Gods judgments or if we be asleepe still we are in a dead sleepe should dare to go on in such desperate wayes as many of us do that we should have our eyes open and see our danger and yet not be affraid that the wrath of God should be so long upon the Land and we not humbled even unto this day In a word to close up all I have already tyred both you and my selfe as Jotham sometime spake to the men
you and they as much united in guilt as Conjugall Contract will dye together in the same sinnes have ye no compassion upon your poore Infants those innocent sucklings that have not as yet contracted the guilt of your Rebellion Are ye content there should remaine no other remembrance of Iudah but onely of your sinnes and my wrath would ye willingly stand as an eternall monument to the whole world of divine Fury a reproach and a Curse So that posterity shall make mention of your name onely in their solemne Execrations The Lord make thee a Curse and an astonishment as he did Ierusalem and Iudah Or what doe you flatter your selves with hopes of impunity in Egypt doe you thinke to find security in that place whither you have carried downe with you my Curse and your old sins is Jerusalem destroyed and shall Egypt goe free Have all my Judgements upon you beene like the beating of the aire by the wings of a bird in his flight that leaves no footsteps or remembrance behind him Have ye forgotten the wickednesse of your Fathers and of your Kings Have your Fathers nay your Kings been made to drinke deepe of the cup of my Fury and shall you escape who were kept alive onely because ye were the poorest of the people Cannot all the Calamities you have suffered bring you upon your knees and melt your hearts into contrition for your sinnes I should have thought that the long tract of time and the severe discipline I have used might long e're this day have led you quite home to repentance But alas what shall I say of you you have not even to this day so much as set one foot in the way thither Nondum humiliati all the Judgements you have suffered have not made any no nor the least impression upon you God himselfe seemes amaz'd at this and to be at a stand as well as the Prophet and to want an expression to reach the height of this obstinacy and therefore breakes off in an admiration at the desperate perversenesse of this People by way of Epiphonema in the words of the Text They are not humbled even unto this day These words are Onus Iudae in terrâ Aegypti The Burden of those Jewes who contrary to Gods prohibition and their own protestation were gone downe into Egypt In them you may please to observe with me these three particulars 1. A duty implied the performance whereof the great Judgements of God so long upon them call'd for all their hands and the want whereof he here upbraides to them by way of admiration and that is Humiliation they should have beene humbled 2ly The neglect of that duty censured They are not humbled 3ly The Aggravation of that neglect 1. from the persons guilty They the Jewes Gods owne people that could not pretend Ignorance of their duty nor of the equity thereof 2ly From the Circumstance of time even unto this day Time they had and teaching enough to have learn'd their duty but yet after all instructions and invitations thereunto by the tenders of mercy all comminations against them for their obstinacy yea moreover and not onely after some scatterings of wrath upon themselves in lesser Judgements but also after as dreadfull a Tempest of vengeance as ever fell upon a people Even unto this day They are not humbled even unto this day These are the parts of the Text the sense whereof may be resolved into these three propositions 1. From the duty implied that which this people ought de jure to have done when Gods hand was against them in those terrible Judgements the Inference is That when Gods wrath is revealed from heaven against a 1 Propos people in the way of his Judgements it is high time then for them to be humbled 2ly From the neglect of this duty in that the Jewes de facto in their greatest distresse under the sorest Judgements were not humbled I conclude That a people in outward Covenant with God 2 Prop. may even under the extremity of the greatest Judgements remaine unhumbled 3ly From the aggravation of this neglect both in respect of the guilt it laies upon such a people in this verse and the wrath it drawes downe upon them at the next The Result is 3. Propos That it is the highest aggravation of the sinne of a people an evident token they are designed to ruine not to be humbled under the mighty hand the great and continued judgements of God They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my Law nor in my Statutes that I set before you and before your Fathers therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evill and to cut off all Iudah But should I insist upon all these propositions severally I feare I should graspe more matter then I should be able to hold within the compasse of the time should I omit any I might seeme to trespasse upon the Text. I shall therefore take a middle way to reconcile both pitching upon the first as the head streame the other two as the lesser into which it runnes that as bearing the inscription of this dayes duty for the doctrinall part of this dayes exercise the other two will fall in either by way of proofe or Application In the handling of which I shall indeavour to follow St Hieroms counsell to Nepotian Ita docere ut non clamor populi sed gemitus suscitetur so to speake as to provoke the teares not the applause of my hearers such thoughts are unworthy to ascend this mount at any time much lesse at this words conceived only in the brain and born in the lips of the Speaker for the mos part dye upon the eare of the hearer they which come from the heart are likeliest to descend thither To feast the eare by an eloquent discourse this day were to breake the Fast while we are at the Church The eare and the eye every member of the body and faculty of the soule must beare a part in this dayes affliction as well as the belly The golden eareings were the matter of which the golden Calfe was made 't were an abomination to bring them into the house of mourning The children of Israel in the day of Gods displeasure and their sorrow Exod. 35.5 were commanded to plucke off their Ornaments that God might know what to do unto them till then they were not so much as in a posture for mercy sackcloth and ashes are the best Ornaments sighes and teares the best Orators of this day could I but mourne out a Sermon and you sit before the Lord this day weeping it would be best preacht and heard the word sowne in teares would be reapt in joy then might we hope that this Fast would prove a blessed Eve to some glorious Festivall the dismall cloud of wrath that now darkens the whole land and almost every day falls downe in
stormes of bloud would blow over and the sunne of Gods favour which is now hidden shine forth that we which the Lord in mercy grant and this whole Nation might see the salvation of our God I come now to the point When Gods wrath is revealed from heaven against a Nation in the way of his judgements then 't is high time for them to be humbled For the carrying on of which point I shall propound and endeavour to resolve these 3 Questions 1. What it is to be humbled and consequently what the sin is of which the Jewes stand charged in the Text they are not humbled 2ly Why 't is said that when Gods Judgements are upon a people then 't is high time for them to be humbled These 2 in Thesi And 3ly In Hypothesi to put our owne Case what cause we of this Nation have to be humbled at this day Having dispatcht these I shall then by Gods grace close up all with a seasonable application For the first what it is to be humbled I answere that it is not to be understood passively in this sense never Nation more humbled then they in the Text they were humiliati à Deo a people formerly exalted in Gods favour above all other in the world indeed they were his only by way of eminency and distinction His people but now not only degraded from that dignity but expos'd as the greatest object of contempt and wonder How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast downe from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstoole in the day of his anger Lam. 2.1 All the Chronicles in the world cannot match the sad downefall of this People Peceatum humiliaverat sinne had taken off their Crowne from their heades and deprived them of their exellency they were humiliati but not humiles ipsi se non humiliaverunt they did not humble themselves 't is an active humiliation the neglect whereof is upbraided here unto them and of which God and the Prophet complaine They are not humbled even unto this day This active humiliation or selfe humbling implies 3 things 1. A sense both of sinne and the punishment a tendernesse of heart oppos'd to that the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Tertullians language Duricordia the hardnesse and unmalleablenesse of heart uncapable of any horror of sinne or impressions of wrath that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or indolentia stupidity and desperate senselessenesse of our hand against God and his against us when though the fierce wrath of God lies upon us yet we feele it not Heb. 12. â— a despising of Chastisement a not laying to heart of our owne wayes and of Gods our sinnes and his judgements a stupidity frequently charg'd against this people one place only I shall mention it comes home to our present case Esa 42.24 25. Who gave Iacob to the spoile and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walke in his wayes neither were they obedient unto his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battell and he hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Here is a perfect and full Character of an unhumbled people to lye under the guilt of the greatest sins and the pressure of the sorest Judgments and yet to remaine insensible of either not to lay them to heart 2ly Contrition Tremelius and some others render it nondum attriti and upon our owne Margent according to the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrivit comminuâ—â— we have contrite for humbled in the Text They are not contrite even unto this day The heart is then humbled when it is broken in peices hence those two phrases are joined together in Scripture Psal 51.17 The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a contrite and broken heart cor contritum humiliatum O Lord thou wilt not despise It is called an abhorring of our selves in dust and ashes in Iob's phrase a rending of the heart in Ioeumll's a being in bitternesse in Zecharie's Afflicting of the soule in Moses Confusion of face in Daniel's a laying of the mouth in the dust in Ieremie's it is called Compunction or the pricking of the heart when sinne becomes as a thorne in the spirit and as a dagger at the heart it is said of Saint Peters hearers Act. 2.37 That they were pricked at the heart when the heart is smitten within the thigh without Ephraim's posture whom we find Jer. 31.19 thus bemoaning himselfe under his chastisement Surely saith he after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth When the inward greife of the heart doth expresse it selfe outwardly in sighes and teares the affliction of the soule in that of the body by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Is Pelusiot termes them Fasting and Sackcloth I clothed me with sackcloth and humbled my soule with fasting Psal 35.13 When the soule and the body which like Simeon and Levi were confederates in sinne shall sympathize in their sufferings and exercise a mutuall revenge upon themselves for the offences they have done when with David we shall wash that bed with our teares which we have defiled with our sinnes when those eies which before darted out rayes and sparkles of Lust shall streame forth waters to wash and those haires curl'd and frizl'd up to provoke dalliance shall hang downe to wipe our Saviours feet as Mary Magdalens In breife when the soule comes to be surprized with the horror of it's owne guilt and the feare of Gods Judgments and is more afflicted with bitternesse at the review of the dearest and most adored sinne then ever it was affected with delight in the commission of it The 3d thing implied in this active humiliation is a taking of shame to our selves and giving God the glory of his Iudgments according to the Counsell of Ioshuah to Achan My sonne give God the glory Joâ— 7 19. This is called the confession of our sinne and acceptance of our punishment as in that signall place Lev. 26.41 a place very worthy our notice as in which we may read both our duty and hopes in this our present distresse The Lord having there mustered before the Children of Israel a whole Army of plagues which he threatens to let in upon them in case of disobedience and from time to time to recruit against them with the vast accession of new and seven times greater calamities in case of Rebellion opens a doore of hope unto them even in the very worst condition If they shall confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers and their trespasses which they have trespassed against