Nationall It must be personall for so saith the Text If that Nation against vvhom I have pronounced turn from their evill A malitia sua Every man hath some sinne vvhich is his peccatum in delicijs his dilectum delictum his beloved sin the sin of his constitution Let us turne from that sin vvhatsoever it is and if vve know not vvhat that sin is let us turne from every sinne and so vve shall be sure to turne from that sin This the King of Niniveh commanded that every one of his Subjects should cry mightily unto God and not onely so but every one to turne from his evill way and from the violence that is in their hands Thus must we vve must be able to say vvith David I have kept my selfe from my sin We live in times wherein there vvas never more turning Some turne like the Dogge to the vomit and like the Sow to the wallowing in the myre Some turne Atheists some Papists some Socinians some Arminians Some turne like the weather-cock which way the winde bloweth which way soever preferment goes that way they turne Many turn Neurers Many turne from Christs side to be of Antichrists side Many turne cold and Icy for God and his Church Some are like unto the Chamelion that will change it selfe into any colour but white So many will turne to be any thing but good If times turne ill they will be naught but if times turne good they will not be good But I beseech you let all us here present before the Lord this day turn sincerely unto the Lord our God from all iniquity Let us strip our selves stark naked of all the rags of the old Adam Repent of your pride dust and ashes doth better become you Repent of your gluttony and drunkennesse let weeping be your drinke and fasting your meate Repent of your swearing Condemne your selves out of your owne mouths that God may justifie you Repent of your covetousnesse If ever you expect to gaine Heaven looke not after the earth so much Repent of your Adultery that God may marry you unto himselfe and least you be married to eternall flames Repent of your security that you may live securely No way to escape damnation but by Repentance and no man that ever repented aright but did escape damnation Oh that this day might be the conversion of some sinner that they may be able to say From such a fasting day I began to turn unto God! Oh that this Fasting-day might be a Festivall-day to the Angels in Heaven who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Oh that some Zacheus would make restitution this day That some Prodigall childe would return to his Heavenly Father God Almighty exceedingly delights to shew mercy to a penitent sinner As a husband-man delights much in that ground that after long unfruitfulnesse proves fruitfull and calls his friends and neighbours to behold that ground As a Captain loves that Souldier that once fled away cowardly and afterwards returns and fights valiantly Even so God is wonderfully inamoured with a sinner that having once made shipwrack of a good conscience yet at last returns and swims to Heaven upon the plank of Faith and Repentance This is a notable provocation to all wretched hard-hearted sinners to turn unto God by true Repentance God is so farre from refusing you that he rejoyceth in your conversion and is more ready to receive you then you are to come And I may safely adde That in some sense God delights more in a penitent Prodigall then in one of his righteous children As the good Shepheard rejoyced more in his lost sheep then in his 99. sheep And the good Woman in her lost groat And the good Father in his lost sonne more then in the sonne that went not astray It is true that Innocency of life is better simply and absolutely considered than Repentance And it is more to be desired to live without sin than to have grace to repent after sin As a whole Garment is better than a rent Garment and yet a rent Garment may be so handsomely pieced together that there shall be little difference between that and a whole Garment A penitent sinner that feelingly apprehends the great mercy of God in pardoning so great a sinner as he was the sense of this distinguishing love of God towards him raiseth up his heart to a higher pitch of zeal and enables him to draw neer to God with more affection and fervently to be more tender of sin and to do and suffer more for God many times than those that are more righteous than he is As suppose two men at Sea the one comes safely to shore without danger the other escapes to shore not without great hazard and perill of life He that comes without hazard hath more cause simply to be thankfull yet ordinarily he that had the greater danger out of sense of his danger will return more praise than the other Saint Paul laboured more than all the other Apostles because he was a greater sinner than all the other Apostles and had obtained greater mercy Therefore Mary Magdalen loved much because much was forgiven her We never reade that the blessed Virgin ever came to wash the Feet of Christ with her tears But Mary Magdalen a great sinner she did it and she comes first to the Sepulcher and afterwards as some report she spent 30. yeers in Gallia Narbonensi in weeping for her sins Gregory brings the example of David who after he had obtained pardon for murdering Vriah and committing adultery with Bathsheba fell a longing after the water of Bethlehem But when the water was brought He poured it forth before the Lord and would not drink of it because it hazarded the lives of his men Observe how tender of sin David was after his Repentance He that before had spilt innocent blood is now troubled in conscience for putting the lives of his men in jeopardy He that before longed for another mans wife doth now repent for desiring another mans water Bernard brings the example of Peter who before his denyall considently told Christ Though all forsook him yet he would not Yet afterwards when he had repented of his denying of Christ he was so tender that when Christ purposedly asked him three times Lovest thou me more than these he answers not comparatively as before but positively Onely Lord thou knowest I love thee And this is another provocation to exhort all sinners to lay hold upon this holy Anchor this wrath-charming Repentance Come all ye prodigall children all ye lost sheep that have gone astray Behold your Heavenly Father is not onely ready but joyfull to receive you and if rightly understood more joyfull than in his faithfull Children Was there ever mercy like to this Oh that we had hearts to embrace it And the greater any man is in estate and parts the more honour God shall have if such a man will turn to God this day Great men are
Wrath. And this is Gods Methode First He threatneth before he punisheth And if his threatning anger reforme us wee shall never feele his punishing anger but if his threatnings prevaile not wee shall certainly feele his punishing anger And if neither threats nor punishments prevaile nothing remains but his condemning Wrath. Si non audies vocem misericordiae senties vocem judicij Si nonaudies primam tubam senties ultimam Si non audies Deum minantem senties punientem condemnantem What destroyed the old World but because they did not regard Noahs warning What destroyed Lots sonnes in Law but because they mocked at Lots warning 2. They will aggravate our condemnation For as a childe in the Mothers womb the longer it is in the wombe before it comes forth the bigger the childe will be and the more pain it will put the Mother unto So the longer God keeps in his wrath and is patient toward a Nation the bigger the childe of wrath will be when it comes forth and the greater will be our misery and affliction This Metaphor God himselfe useth Isaiah 42.14 I have a long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my selfe now will I cry like a travelling woman I will destroy and devoure at once Though God hath leaden feet yet he hath iron hands The longer he is before hee strikes the heavier the blow will be when hee strikes Patience is the proper purchase of the bloud of Christ There was no patience under the first Covenant Deus non expectabat Angelos non expectabat Adamum God did not wait for the Angels nor for Adam but as soone as ever they had sinned Hee throws the one out of Paradise the other into Hell But for us sinfull sons of Adam God for Christs sake tarrieth and waiteth our conversion Oh let us not sinne against the merit of Christs bloud Read the 5c Psa. 21 22. These things thou hast done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in peeces and there be none to deliver Let us not stop our ears from hearing these eight Voices lest God turne his words into blows and stop his eares from hearing our voices in our extremities There are two degrees of mercy in God Misericordia parva misericordia magna His little mercy and his great mercy For God to wait our conversion and to fore-warne us of evill to come this is a mercy and a great mercy in it selfe considered But it is but a little in comparison of the second mercy which is the great mercy And that is when God gives us grace to make a holy use of his patience to make his patience our salvation and to be led to repentance by it The Lord bestow this great mercy upon us The third Doctrinall conclusion That Nationall turning from evill will divert Nationall judgements and procure Nationall blessings So saith the Text If that Nation turne from their evill then will I repent and not only so but verse 9. I will build and plant it c. The Doctrine is a mercifull qualification of Gods absolute power he is so farre from using it as that he indents and covenants with every Nation If they repent I will repent Now whereas God is here said to repent it is spoken {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but it must be understood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God is not as man that he should repent Hee is said to repent because hee doth that which men doe when they repent I will repent That is I will turne my judgements into mercies God doth sometimes will a change but he never changeth his will God from all eternity decreed to be served in the old Testament with types and figures and in the New-Testament in spirit and truth Here was a will of achange but no change in Gods will When God is said to repent the change is in us not in God As when the Sun softneth the wax and hardneth the clay here is a different act of the Sunne but the change ariseth from the different object not from the Sunne So God from all eternity decrees to punish the impenitent and to blesse the penitent And when a Nation by Gods Almighty grace becomes penitent God turnes his punishments into blessings but the change is in the Nation not in God And now give me leave to speake my minde freely J am not come hither this day to feast your eares but to wound your hearts you must not expect elegant and fine phrases Non licet in tanta miseria disertum esse This is a day not for humane but divine eloquence Non loquor disertae sed fortia A day wherein we are to cry mightily unto God to knock aloud at Heaven gates and to extort mercy from Gods hands by a holy and acceptable violence And for my part I know not any Doctrine more sutable to worke upon your hearts and affections then this plaine conclusion That there is no other way to procure blessings from God or to turne away judgements from the Land but by turning from sinne unto God The wrath and punishments which sinne hath twisted Repentance will untwist Sinne is as a thicke Cloud stopping the Sun-shine of Gods mercy but if we turne from sinne this will melt the cloud and cause the Sonne of Righteousnesse to shine upon us Sinne it is as a Divell in the Aire to hinder our prayers from ascending but if we turne from sinne this will charme the Divell and make Satan like lightning fall downe from Heaven Sinne is like so many great peeces of Ordnance planted and charged upon high mountaines ready to shoote downe Cities and Kingdomes But if we turne from sinne this will take away the force of these Cannons and make them as Paper-shot Sinne is a wall of separation betweene God and us To turne from sinne will breake downe this wall Sinne is the great make-bate betweene God and man Sinne dissolveth Parliament unhappily Sinne puts variance betweene a King and his Subjects Sinne destroyed Rochel and the Palatinate it brought the sword into Ireland and will bring it into England unlesse we turne away from all our evill doings To turne from sinne is a key to unlock all the chests of Gods mercies It is Clavis viscerum Dei A preservative against all misery Oh the divine Rhetorique and omnipotent efficacie of Repentance This is that Raine-bow which if God seeth shining in our hearts he will never drowne our soules That starre which will bring us to Christ A repenting faith is our Sacra anchora to flye unto it is Ilex misericordiae it tyes Gods hands and charmes his wrath There is no thunder-bolt so great no wrath so furious in God but Repentance will abolish it This Abigail will
a name inferiour to beasts for so it makes a man for the time Austin saith that in his days drunkennesse was growne to that heigth as that there was no remedy against it but by calling of a Synod And in our dayes it is growne to that Gyant-like bignesse as that there is no hope of redresse but in the Parliament Woe to this Land because of this sinne this is that which will make us unable to stand before our enemies and to stagger like a drunken man For this sin God gives a Land over to the spirit of giddinesse Let us weepe for the blasphemous swearing that is in the Nation wherein if in any thing there is a pride taken in offending God for other benefit of it I know none For this sinne the land mourneth and let us mourne Weepe for the adultery and fornication which as an Epidemicall disease hath overspread the Nation Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge If man will not God will He that divorceth himselfe from his wife and joyns himselfe to a harlot God will divorce himself from such a man and divorce his mercies and blessings from him VVeepe for the covetousnes of the Nation This sinne is the root of all evill and for this sinne God will root out a Nation He that is swallowed up with earth as Corah and his company his eares stopped with earth his heart stuffed with earth God will give him earth enough when he dyes and they that love earth so immoderately are likely to have little enough of Heaven Weepe for the oppression Extortion Bribery Lying Griping Usury Cousenage and Deceit in trading These sinnes will cause a fourth Ocean to encompasse this Island and that is an Ocean of misery Let us shed teares for the innocent blood that is shed in the Land for the divellish pride that is amongst us Pride of heart pride of apparell in following the fashions of every Nation almost How justly may wee expect that God should make us slaves to that Nation whose fashions we so eagerly follow Mourne for the great prophanation of our Christian Sabbath-day how can we expect that God should give us rest in this Land if we will not give him a Sabbath a day of rest Oh let our eyes gush downe with rivers of teares Oh that our heads were fountaines of teares for the Idolatry that Land-devouring sinne of Idolatry for the superstition the Apostasie the contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministers and Ministery of it that raignes amongst us It is time for God to deprive us of Manna when we begin to be weary of it the time may come we may have Sermons few enough that neglect them so much as some doe The Confessors that fled for their Religion in Queene Maries daies acknowledged as Vrsinus relates that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them for the neglect of and unprofitablenesse under the Gospel which they had enjoyed in King Edwards dayes And if they were so severely punished for a few yeares contempt of the Gospel what a superlative degree of punishment doe we deserve that have had the Gospel of Peace and the peace of the Gospel for almost an hundred yeares and yet are so unlike the Gospel in our conversations The time would faile if I should make a catalogue of our Nationall sinnes Oh let us be one of the mourners in Sion for the abhominations of the Land that so we may be mark't out for safety And let us take this rule to perswade us Those sinnes which we know others to commit and yet mourne not for them these sins become our owne sins And therfore we may well pray with Austine Lord deliver me from other mens sinnes which for want of mourning and grieving for I have made mine owne A third bucket to draw the water of teares withall is the consideration of the great breaches that are in Church and State We are divided in minutula frustula as Austine of the Donatists Let these breaches break our hearts Let these rents rend our hard hearts For the division of England let us have great thoughts of heart A fourth helpe to humiliation is the consideration of the miseries that are like to come upon us as the woefull consequent of these breaches As our Saviour Christ when hee came neere Ierusalem and beheld the sinne of it and the desolation that was impendent over it he wept saying Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes c. So let us contemplate the sins of England and the destruction which wee may justly expect as the fruite of our sinnes and let us weepe over England and say Oh England England that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace It is reported of Xerxes that having prepared 300000. men to fight with the Graecians and beholding so great a multitude of Souldiers hee fell a weeping out of the consideration that not one of them should remaine alive within the space of an hundred years Much more ought we to mourn when we consider the abundance of people that are in England and the abundance of sin perpetrated among us and what shall become not onely of our bodies within these few years but what shall become of our souls to all eternity A fifth Bucket is the contemplation of Germany which is now become a Golgotha a place of dead mens sculs and an Aceldama a field of bloud Some Nations are chastised with the sword Others with famine Others with the man-destroying Plague But poore Germany hath been sorely whipped with all these three iron whips at the same time and that for above twenty yeares space Oh let us make use of this Bucket and draw out water and poure it out before the Lord this day let us send up our cries to Heaven for Germany It is a signe that we are not true members of the body of Christ because we have no more fellow-feeling of the miseries of the same body A dead member hath no sense of its own misery or of the bodies distemper If wee be living members we will simpathize with the calamities of Gods people A sixth helpe to Humiliation is the consideration of the bleeding condition of Ireland I need not relate you have great reason to know it better than my selfe the inhumane barbarous Canniballisticall and super-superlative out-rages butcheries and massacres that are there committed by those bloudy Rebels Oh let us send up one teare this day as an Orator to the Throne of Grace to plead for mercy for poore Ireland This is one chiefe cause of this generall Fast to pray and weep for Ireland Help it Right Honourable Oh helpe it vvith your Prayers and Tears Tears have voices as vvell as words