Ephraim Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote on my thigh c. Jer. 31. 19. So Lam. 5. 21. Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned c. Use 1. See what folly then it is to procrastinate and put off repentance as if it was in our own power to repent and turn when we pleased whereas it is in God's power alone and therefore as the holy Ghost saith to day if you Heb. â— 7 8. will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. Vse 2. Let this make us the more careful how we turn aside from God because though we of our selves can turn away from him he onely can turn us again to him Use 3. As ever then we would that our selves or ours should be turn'd again let us apply our selves to him as these do here turn us again O Lord God of Hosts I have gone astray says Ps 119. 176. David like a lost sheep seek thy servant c. We can lose our selves but we must have recourse to God to reduce us and fetch us home O Lord I know the way of man is not in himself it is not Jer. 10. 23. in man that walketh to direct his steps and therefore let us cry with Ephraim Turn thou me O Jer. 3. 18. Lord and I shall be turned c. Vse 4. Then when we are turned again see here to whom to ascribe it and to whom to give the praise and glory of it even to the Lord God of hosts It is his work he has done it and none else but he could do it and therefore let him have the glory of it alone Doctr. 5. When the Lord turns a people again to himself he causes his face to shine He manifests his favour and shews himself gracious and propitious for these two are here joyned together Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts cause thy face to shine And this latter may be considered either as the efficient or as that which as an effect follows upon the former or as both So that when the Lord turns a people or a person to himself 1. he does cause his face to shine and 2. when he has turn'd a people again to himself he will cause his face to shine that is he will more and more cause it to shine more and more manifest his favour and to both these I shall speak something briefly 1. He then does cause his face to shine when he turns them again to himself he then remembers them with the favour that he bears Cùm convertit faciem suam Deus ad nos nos respiciâ— tum ad eum convertimur to his people and lifts up upon them the light of his countenance saving conversion being a blessed effect and happy fruit thereof and it being his special favour and grace that puts him upon it I will heal saith the Lord their back-slidings Hosea 14. 4. and whence will he do it what puts him Poenitentia est effectus gratiae fluentis à dilectione Dei in filio Dei fundatâ Pareus in locum upon it his love I will love them freely for his anger is turned away from him We are bid to seek God's face to seek his favour and such have found it and the Lord hath dealt very graciously with them but it is not thus as to the things of the world they in their very quintessence and though in their greatest confluence do not simply of themselves speak God's love and favour no but for all them though in never so great abundance men may be under God's frowns and have none of his favour but hatred and abhorrence for God's heart here does not always go along with his hand God's giving hand and his gracious favourable accepting hand are two distinct things and so is his permissive and his promissive approving Providence Men Ex largitate non ex promisso may have Quails and wrath the daintiest viands and vengeance coin and the curse heap Num. 11. 33. Psalm 33. 7. up wealth and worldly treasures have more than heart could wish and yet be under God's sorest Zach. 1. 15. displeasure I am very sore displeased with the Irâ magnâ irascor heathen that are at ease God's bringing these things abundantly into mens hands is no argument nor intimation of the love of his heart The tabernacles of Robbers prosper and they that Job 12. 6. provoke God are secure into whose hand God bringeth abundantly Ps 73. 12. Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches c. and yet such whom God hates and abhors Psalm 12. 5. But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth and Psalm 5. 5. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity and God is angry with the wicked every day Ps 7. 11. So that these things are no sign of God's favour neither in any or all of them does his face shine or is the light of his countenance lift up but now saving conversion and God's turning of a man again to himself this ever speaks God's favour and the shine of his face and the lifting up upon him the light of his countenance and though such a one may have but little of these things in his hand this is a sure intimation to him of the love of God's heart and this makes the little though it be never so little that such a one hath better than Boni nunquam in statu malo nam illis vel ipsa mala vertuntur in bonum mali contra nunquam in statu bono quia iis vel ipsa bona vertuntur in malum Gryâ—â—ous the riches of many wicked Ps 37. 16. for better says Solomon is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith Prov. 15. 17. And this makes it that it can never be ill with a godly man how little soever he have of these things because he has still God's love and that it can never be well with a wikced man how much soever he has of these things because he has ever God's hatred therewith and the evil things of the one being turn'd into good and the good things of the other being turn'd into evil Ps 25. 10. Rom. 8. 28. Ps 69. 22. Pro. 1. 32. 2. The Lord will cause his face to shine yea more and more to shine on a people or person that he turns again to himself For 1. it is his promise so to do to be gracious and to manifest his favour to such Job 33. 23. If there be a messenger with him an interpreter one of a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness the Hebrew his rectitude that is what is right and straight viz. to repent and turn to God Dutch read it to declare unto man his right duty as indeed conversion and true turning to God it is our duty and it is a right
7. 21. 6. of joy I hou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and wine increased for thou hast made him most blessed for ever thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance it makes exceeding happy and exceeding glad It is the greatest cheerer the choicest cordial for thy love is better and we Cant. 1. 2 4. will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more than wine 8. It is glory it is our honour and exaltaion For thou art the glory of their strength and Psalm 89. 17. 148. 14. in thy favour our horn shall be exalted he also exalteth the horn of his people he and his favour whose name alone is excellent and whose v. 13. glory is above the earth and heaven And who should or what should exalt his people if not God and his favour It is a crowning mercy who crowneth thee with loving kindness and Psalm 103. 4. tender mercies the favour of God the loving kindness of God and those special peculiar tender mercies which flow from his very bowels as it were from his tender intimate and affectionate love these crown these are our honour and ornament With favour wilt thou compass 5. 12. him as with a shield the Hebrew is crown him And so the Dutch and others read it thou shalt crown him with thy favourableness or well Ut scuto voluntate coronabis eum pleasing complacency as with a target as with a buckler with favourable acceptation thou wilt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coronabis crown him Not only does glory life and immortality crown hereafter but the love and favour of God crowns here yea all the Gold and Gems and Rubies and richest and preciousest stones in the world set and compos'd together can never make such a Crown for the head as the favour of God puts upon the soul With favour wilt thou crown him In the 2 Sam. 12. 30. we read there of a Crown the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones which according to the weight of the Sanctuary weighed above an hundred pound but according to the ordinary talent above fifty four pound but the Crown of Gods favour exceeds it and excels it Thus the favour of God is not only Shield and Buckler but Crown also yea 't is any thing every thing that is truly excellent comfortable and commodious and that his people stand in need for it to be unto them But thou O Lord art a shield for me my glory Psalm 3. 3. Isa 28. 5. and the lifter up of my head In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people c. As he said to Paul his grace is sufficient 2 Cor. 12. 9. Favor Dei auxilium spiritus sancti á favore isto proveniens for us or enough for us and is all in all to us his accepting grace and his helping and sustaining grace his favour and what flows therefrom 4. It covers and silences all that God has against his people So that though his people may have many failings which oppose their weal and might be matter of plea against them yet God shining on them with his face he passes them by and silences all in his love for love even in us covers multitudes of sins how much more 1 Pet. 4. 8. Prov. 10. 12. Zeph. 3. 17. God's love The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his love that is as some render it he will take satisfaction and contentment in loving thee in the affection he bears to thee But the Hebrew is as is noted in the Silebit propter dilectionem suam obmutescet in amore suo Margent he will be silent in his love or because of his love that is he will bear with thy infirmities and pass them by without manifesting any displeasure for them his love shall answer all objections against thee so that thy frailties shall not be charged upon thee but born with The Hebrew signifies also to be dumb or deaf and some render it he shall be dumb in his love or deaf that is to speak after the manner of men his ear shall not hear nor his mouth utter any accusations against thee so as to reject thee though he may humble thee he will quiet himself in his love when his anger is ready to be stirr'd he will pass over many things and as it were wink at them because he loves thee as the tender-hearted loving husband does as to his dear wife the loving father or mother as to her dear child So Hosea 14. 4. I will heal their back-sliding and whence I will love them freely for my anger is turn'd away from him and Micah 7. 19. He will turn again i. e. in mercy and loving kindness he will manifest his love he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the Sea drown them in the ocean of his love Psalm 85. 1 Thou hast been favourable unto thy Land and then v. 2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sin CHAP. IX The Application of the point and first in general by way of Information or inference IS it the onely way for a people to be saved for Use 1. of Information or inference God to turn them again and cause his face to shine as hath been abundantly made good then there are several truths that this point doth inform us of and instruct us in and several things from hence are deducible and may be inferr'd As 1. That then there is a way for a people to be saved and that let their present state and condition be what it will be it never so sad though as sad as this peoples was here whose prayer God had seemed to be angry with a great while v. 4 5 6 12 13 yea and had fed them with bred of tears and given them tears to drink in great measure made them a strife unto their neighbours and their enemies laught among themselves yea though God had planted them as his vine yet now he had broken down her hedges so that all they who passed by the way did pluck her The bore out of the wood did wast it and the wild beast out of the field devoured it yea all God's former mercies were now turned into judgments and yet were a peoples condition as sad as theirs here yea sadder yet there is a way for them to be saved yea let God but turn them again and cause his face to shine and they shall be saved Thus whatever are a peoples sicknesses or sores there is a salve whatever their maladies there is a remedy whatever is their case there is a way of
love to others it must be by endeavouring by all possible ways and means their conversion and so their salvation Thus Paul made appear the sincerity of his love to Israel his hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel being this that they Rom. 10. 1. might be saved And so David to his son Solomon he tells us he was his father's son so were Prov. 4. 3 4 5 c. others but he in a special manner was so being singularly loved and of such a one we use to say he is his father's son and how did he manifest the truth of his love why he taught me also and said unto me let thy heart retain my words c. Get wisdom get understanding c. And we can never approve our selves sincerely to love others but in this way for if to love be to desire and endeavour the good of those we love how can it consist with the neglect of their chiefest good And that this is to love a very Heathen saw To love says he is to desire good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist things for those whom we love and according to our utmost ability to endeavour to accomplish them and what good things to conversion and salvation and therefore while we neglect these we do but indeed hate whom we may pretend to love Many Parents they think they love their children why because they cocker their children and provide well for them as to the world and allow them high fare and fine cloaths and it may be can tumble in silver and gold but such in the mean while neglecting their souls and the means appointed by God for their conversion and salvation they shew plainly Peremptores potiús quám parentes they do not in truth love them but rather hate them and so will be found and accounted of at the last day And how well may such Jud. 16. 15. children say to their Parents what Delilah sometimes said to Sampson in another case How can ye say ye love us when your hearts desires and prayers are no more to God for us that we may be converted and sav'd when you neglect our souls our jewel our darling our principal one and take no more care of our chief good our spiritual and eternal good of that which if we should fall short of it would avail us nothing though you should all your days gather Pearls for us or could procure the gain of a whole world for us The Lord commands Thou shalt Levit. 19. 17. not hate thy brother in thy heart and how is this prevented Thou shalt in any wise rebuke him and not suffer sin upon him so that not to rebuke not to use those ways and means appointed by God for to reclaim and reduce thy brother when he sinneth is to hate him for thereby the guilt of his sin is still suffer'd to be upon him to his soul's ruine which to suffer as it is hatred in thee so the sorest judgement upon thy brother 7. Consider others unserviceableness till they be converted they are altogether unprofitable Rom. 3. 12. Ezek. 15. 4 5. like that Vine branch in Ezekiel that was meet for no work and that girdle hid in Euphrates that was good for nothing and like Salt Jer. 13. 10. Matth. 5. 13. which has lost its savour and is fit for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot And should we not do our utmost to get others out of such an estate that is so unprofitable wherein they neither can please God nor truly profit themselves or others wherein all their works even their best are but dead works and their Omnis vita infidelium peccatum whole life sin and is this an estate to let them lie in to let them alone in God forbid That 's very observable to this purpose which Paul says of Onesimus viz. that in time past i. e. all the Philem. 10. 11. while before his conversion he was unprofitable but after his conversion then profitable profitato Philemon yea to Paul himself before profitable to none neither to himself nor others but now to all to master and Minister and now he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicit nunc taâ—â—messe planc qualis vocatur answers his name which he never did before to which the Apostle seems to allude 8. Beasts if fallen or strayed and so in danger Exod. 23. 4. Deut. 22. 4. to perish were to be help'd and reduc'd and not men not souls does God take care of beasts would he have us keep them from perishing and not much more men souls but shall we let them alone in the errours of their minds and in the corrupt practices of their lives to stand or fall sink or swim live or dye no matter what what uncharitableness cruelty and hard-heartedness would this argue c. and therefore upon all these considerations let us lay out our selves to the utmost as to so good and blessed a work making use of all possible ways and means as may further the same as instructions exhortations admonitions reprehensions exemplary conversations c. and with and to all let us be sure to joyn our fervent prayers and earnest supplications for unless the Lord comes in with his help and makes successful what we do what can it avail if the 2 Kings 6. 27. Gen. 9. 27. Lord help not as that King said to the woman how should we help God shall perswade Japhet c. It is of God that sheweth mercy and Rom. 9. 16. as God gave to every man else had we the wisdom of Angels what would it avail without God and therefore we must address our selves to the most High and cry unto him who as he hath performed this for us can also for others but of this I have occasionally spoken something before and therefore shall not enlarge here and as we should endeavour this unto all as occasion serves so more especially to our relations and those whose good we have stronger obligations upon us than ordinary for to seek as we who are Ministers whose proper work in a more special manner it is in reference to our people and so Parents in reference to their children and all relations in reference to each other yea if children be converted themselves and their Parents as yet unconverted they should in a special manner indeavour their conversion onely what they do they are to do in an humble way and to mannage it after a reverent manner as beseems that honour that is due to Parents from their children It is controverted by some whether children may not be instrumental of greater benefit to their Parents than they have receiv'd from them and certainly if they prove instrumental as to their conversion they may for to be instrumental of regeneration and a spiritual birth is far better than of generation and a natural birth and to be instrumental to an happy glorious and eternal life than to a
the joy and comfort of them more than countervail the other there being no comparison between them but the one exceedingly transcending the other As the sufferings of this present Rom. 8. 18. time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed hereafter so neither are they to be compared with spiritual mercies here as for God to turn us again to himself to pardon our sins to cause his face to shine to vouchsafe us his favour and his comforts and consolations What sufferings or afflictions will not these comfort and support under or what other wants will they not more than countervail what are the world's frowns to God's smiles the world's troubles to God's peace the world's sorrows to God's joyes the world's afflictions to God's consolations the world's pressures to the pleasures of God's presence or its burdens to the rest which that affords what are its Bitters to God's Sweets its Gall and Wormwood to the Wine of his Love Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his mouth for thy love is better than wine and v. 4. we will remember thy love more than wine yea 't is better than life and in it even in death it self there is life And hence is it that the Apostle speaks what is a Paradox to the men of the world troubled but not distressed as sorrowful yet always rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things as dying and yet behold we live live in the light of God's countenance in his sight as Hosea 6. 2. and we shall live in his sight where indeed only the Soul truly lives and there it may live even in death and have light arise to it even in darkness and see light in the greatest obscurity and this light I mean the light of God's countenance it giveth Songs even in the night as it did to Paul and Silas when thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the Stocks yet God's gracious presence did so cheer their spirits and put such joy into their hearts that even at midnight they brake forth in praises to God Acts 16. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them they did not onely pray but sing prayses and sung so loud that others heard them the prisoners heard them they were awaken'd by them And what did they think of them surely they thought they were not well in their wits to sing at such a time and in such a place and in such a condition who having been beaten and many stripes laid upon them were cast into prison yea thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the stocks and yet now to sing O if God cause but his face to shine if he lift but up the light of his countenance it will make a man sing at any time in any place in any condition it will turn a prison into a Pallace and a dungeon into a Paradise This made David to have his Psalms yea Michtams i. his golden Psalms or as the Dutch render it his golden Jewels Aureum ornamentum aut insigne exputissimo auro factum it signifies what is made of the best and finest gold so called because of their singular preciousness and excellency in the saddest places and in the saddest outward condition as when the Philistins took him in Gath when he fled from Saul in the Cave when Saul sent and they watcht the house to kill him c. See Psalm 56 57 59 the Titles Moses Psalm 90. 14. prays O satisfie us early with thy mercy i. e. with thy loving kindness vouchsafe us thy favour that we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes This is enough to make the people of God rejoice and be glad all their dayes be they never so dark and gloomy evil and perillous As we have received mercy sayes the Apostle we faint not 2 Cor. 4. 1. The Lord tels Moses Exod. 33. 14. My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest Though Moses was to go through a wearisome wilderness and amidst a wearisom people yet the Lord's presence should give him rest We may go any where with him he will be an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Isa 32. 2. Vse 1. Of Reproof to those who when miseries and calamities are upon themselves or the Nation look after the removal of them but not after Spiritual mereies they are very earnest and sollicitous that God would take away their ourward plagues remove his judgments but not that God would take away their sins and turn them again to himself and cause his face to shine But so God will but do the other free them of their miseries let the latter do what they will Psalm 4. 6. There be many that say who will shew us any good i. e. any outward good how to compasse any earthly worldly gain or advantage O that we might have peace and plenty or how shall we once get out of these troubles and afflictions but few say with David lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and then all shall be well if thou do but this Many when they are in pain and sick and weak they cry out indeed but for what for ease and health and recovery not that they may be turned from their sins and recover God's favour as Pharaoh he calls to have other plagues taken away but never begs to have the plague of his own heart taken away which was the greatest of all and far worse than all the other but this is the voice onely of nature and argues a graceless heart and that which the Lord as I said complains of Hos 6. 14. Vse 2. Of Exhortation Then when miseries and calamities do abide us let this be our Prayer let us with the Church and people of God here more especially and most earnestly beg and implore spiritual mercies that God would turn us again and cause his face to shine lift up upon us the light of his countenance vouchsafe us his grace and favour bless us in turning us from our iniquities let us be importunate for these ask them again and again and whatever outward evils or distresses may abide us these as you have heard will not only comfort and support us under them but more than countervail them When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble c if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8. 31. You know what Philip said to our Saviour John 14. 8. Lord shew us the father and it sufficeth us So let but the Father shew us himself shine on us with his face vouchsafe us his favour and it sufficeth As the Lord said unto Paul and says to all his people 2 Corinth 12. 9. my grace is sufficient for thee though then Paul was in
the world especially if they be of consequence and must there onely be delays here were a mans house on fire would he delay to seek to quench it or was his estate much more his life in danger to be lost would he delay to seek to save it But is not the loss of the Soul ten thousand times sadder If ever you mean to turn from your sins to the Lord are there not the same reasons for it now as hereafter Is not sin evil bitter and destructive now as well as afterward and does it not now dishonour God thwart oppose provoke offend burden yea weary him and debase defile and wrong your own souls and threaten your ruine and hinder your own happiness comfort and peace separate between you and Is 59. 2. God the chief good and his favour which is better than life and is not God you should turn to as full lovely desireable soveraign excellent and all-sufficient a Good now as he will be afterward or what other reasons are there for turning from your sins to God that are not now and the reasons being the same now as hereafter why should you defer and go on still to adde further to your own shame trouble and grief O how much more peace and comfort Castigemus igitur mores moras nostras might sinners have did they sooner break off from their sins and turn to God and were they but betimes converted and brought home to him in their younger days how much more honour might they bring to him and how much more service might they do for him which they are not capable of till they come to be converted for till then they are in the flesh that is in Rom. 8. 8. the state of corrupt nature and so cannot please God nor serve nor honour him and yet what is our end or what were we made for but this or what is it worth the while to live for but in reference to this which makes our life to be life indeed without which it is no better than death that being the very end and business of our living and though we be we do not properly Fuit non vixit live 'till then For she that liveth in pleasure 1 Tim. 5. 6. is dead while she liveth And what an honour is it to please honour and serve the great God which is the honour of Angels and of those blessed Heroes above Thousand thousands Dan. 7. 10. Rev. 22. 3. ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him c. And his servants shall serve him c. But 'till you are turned again you neither do nor can serve God but serve sin Satan your lusts instead of the Lord of life and glory And who would not hasten out of such an estate O how good is it to bear the yoke in our youth and feel the bitterness of sin and abandon it betimes and not defer what is so infinitely for our own happiness and good and yet this is that people are exceeding prone unto still to put off and procrastinate their turning to God They deny not but it is to be done and they say they purpose and resolve to do it but not yet all in good time and so never set upon it and this is occasioned partly from their sloath and idleness partly from their excessive love of their lusts and sins and vanities as also from their hearts being so much glued to the world and the cares and incumbrances they have about the same and their still continuing in a prosperous estate in health and strength and not being in those troubles as Psal 73. 5. Jer. 22. 21. others are I spake to thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear c. But what contempt do these delays cast upon God and his favour and so upon the soul and upon heaven and salvation as if these were not worthy the minding and regarding presently But the vain things of the world which cannot profit nor deliver were to be preferred before them and therefore the more to put you upon speed and expedition herein I shall leave with you these following considerations 1. Consider Repentance is not in your power nor at your command to repent when you please no it is God that gives it and the Spirit that works it which is a free agent and Qui poenitentiae indulgentiam promisit secure in peccatis pergenti poenitentiam non promittit works when and where he pleases and is not at thy beck and God who promises pardon to such as repent does not promise repentance to the secure thou mayest have time but want power have space but want grace to repent If God peradventure will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. c. and therefore put it not off 2. It is a great work even the work of thy whole man and thy whole life and thy whole strength and will you still put it off when as so much of thy time and life and strength is spent already does it need all and shall it yet have less 3. The longer it is deferr'd the greater it will be It may be as yet thou hast some meltings some relentings but sin the longer it is liv'd in the more it hardens and the hardlier it is left lest any of you be heardened through the deceitfulness Heb. 3. 13. of sin There is an inbred natural hardness Ezek. 36. 26. that is in all by nature we have all stony hearts but sinners by going on still in sin and refusing to turn adde acquired hardness and the heart becomes more stony and less capable of the impressions of God's Spirit and so the sinners condition less hopeful continuance in sin taking away the sense and feeling of it and becomes as a milstone about the sinners neck He Qui non est hodie cras minùs aptus erit that is not fit to repent and turn to God to day will be more unfit to morrow and the less time he will have to do it in and the less strength to do it with there will be one day more to repent of and one day less to repent in The further any go on in the ways of sin the further off still they go from God and so their turning again is the more difficult and therefore it is good to stop betimes else it will be the harder task and seldom is it seen that such as have been long in travel from God in the ways of sin do bethink themselves of returning Can the Jer. 13. 23. Principiis obsta c. Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Wounds are presently to be healed else their cure will be harder and how much easier might this work be would sinners but set upon it betimes 4. The time is short It is as the Apostle expresses 1 Cor. 7.
robs us of our joy peace safety separates from God the chief good and brings horrors of conscience here and to eternal Is 59. 1 2. perdition hereafter which may have a moments pleasure but an eternities torment And can we do better than to incourage one another here to come up to so great a good and to come off from so great an evil Do others incourage one another in evil matters and not we in what is so good to quit sins and the Devil 's Psal 64 5. and hell's quarters murderers quarters our deadly enemie's quarters which seek our bloud and the destruction of our precious souls and to come into heaven's quarters into God's and our friends quarters O who would not incourage here and say come and let us return unto the Lord and so betake our selves to the onely way of our own and the Nations weal And O that it was once come to this that so both our own and the Nations utter ruine might be prevented which God professedly declares yea swears he has no pleasure in We read of those indeed who were ready to cast such a calumny upon God as if he took pleasure in their death for they said if our transgressions and our sins be upon us and Ezek 33 â—â— we pine away in them how then should we live c. as if they had said What do you tell us of living or prophesie of life when we find the quite contrary that we are dying Now as to this God vindicates himself asserting the clean v. 11. contrary by an Oath Say unto them as I live says the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live c. As death is indeed an act of justice punishing the impenitent so it hath the nature of good in it and so it is pleasing to God who is just as well as merciful but as it is meerly the creatures ruine and misery so he delights not in it and to this he swears Indeed God cannot lye and so his word might be enough O beatos noâ— quorum causâ Deus jurat O miseri nos si non juranti Domino credimus Tertull. but the more to confirm what he says he is pleased to swear and happy we for whose sake God swears if we believe but miserable we if he shall swear and we yet not believe him and further to shew his unwillingness that we should dye he doubles his invitation to turn Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye O house of Israel And this ingemination as it shews our dulness and love to our sins and loathness to leave them so a vehemency and intention of spirit in God there being much life spirit and affectionateness in sueh expressions and it shews also a necessity of compliance for that cannot but be a matter of great weight that we are so often invited to such Scripture ingeminations not being vain but the more words from God the more weight and what is doubly prest must needs be doubly our duty and that which we are doubly ingag'd to Surely as it shews God desires it much so that it concerns us much and what indeed can concern us more than that which unless we do we as certainly perish as the Lord lives And what goodness and condescension is it in the great God that he should so earnestly and so often invite us to that which is so much for our own good and that though he cannot be better'd nor made happier by us yet that our salvation should be so dear to him and therefore let us set to it our selves and incourage one another all we can looking up to God for help for though we can turn away Ps 119. 176. Hos 13. 9. we cannot of our selves turn again we can wound but not heal our selves throw our selves down but not raise our selves up loose our selves but not reduce our selves CHAP. XV. To see to it that our turning to God be true and real AND let us not onely incourage one another to turn to God but be sure our conversion be sincere 1. Let there be a sound conviction of sin and a kindly compunction for it with a thorow aversion from it to the Lord both in heart and life in inward principles and outward practises there being a change both of the disposition and affection and love to sin within and of the conversation without and these depend one upon another For 'till the conscience be throughly convinct of sin how should the heart be kindly contrite for sin and 'till the heart be contrite for sin how should it forsake or turn from sin and 'till it do turn from sin how should it turn to God And 2. let this turn be such as is of God as also unto God quite Jer. 4. 1. through unto him and not to any thing below him or on this side him O how sad is it to suffer shipwrack neer the haven to turn towards God and yet never to reach nor take up in God as our true and proper center to come up out of Egypt and yet never to come into Canaan not to be far from the Kingdom of God from heaven and yet to fall short of it and to be turned into hell 3. Let it be such as arises from faith 4. Let it be hearty with all or the whole heart no part of the heart here being reserved for sin but the whole heart inclin'd one way and that to God as it is said of good King Josiah 2 King 23. 25. that like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might c. Indeed the heart is the main and what is done Quod cor non facit non fit here unless it be with the heart it is not done And in what should we be hearty indeed if not in what we do to God and in what tends so infinitely to our own good 5. Let it be universal 1. As to the subject turning the whole man body and soul and all the faculties of the one and members of the other compleat as to parts though not degrees as to extension though not perfection in every part though but in part As the Air in the dawning is light in e-every part though but in part else if any one part be unturn'd we shall as one expresses it with our whole go to hell and therefore as all of us and in us is turn'd away from God never let us rest till all be turn'd again to God 2. As to the object turn'd from and turn'd to from all sin to all that is holy and righteous from every false and crooked way to every true and right way for as there 's no Brook so small no River Ps 119. 101 128. so little but if a man follow it it will bring him