bee broken for your sinnes nothing that you doe shall finde favour with me all the rest is but as wood and fire the Lambe the Sacrifice of a Contrite heart which is that I look at and for is wanting Get thee behinde me said Jehu to the severall messengers what have you to doe with peace Confessions and prayers are the messengers of our soules to God but unlesse the sinful heart be broken they will never be messengers of peace If any of you would angle in a River would you throw in a naked line only would this be to any purpose Sirs I know well that if a Fast bee rightly performed it hath as many promises of blessings and mercies See Esay 58. As any religious duty whatsoever Nay and I thinke that you never read in all the Bible nor yet in experience of its right performance without some sudden and remarkeable Testimony of Gods gracious acceptance and answer But then breaking of hearts ever accompanied those prevailing and victorious Fasts as you may Reade in Iudges and Samuel and the Kings and Ezra and Nehemiah c. And for my part I should not scruple the assecution of any convenient mercy nor the diversion of any impendent evill if once with all our Fastings there were also a breaking up of our Fallow grounds If GOD could in this command our hearts we might then in some sense command our God 3. Thirdly Have wee not all of us sufficient cause to breake our sinfull hearts Should sinnes should calamities abroad should dangers at home breake hearts all these may then worke upon us our sins have broken the heart of CHRIST and are such as have broken off God from a people and have broken many Churches downe Can you bee ignorant of the professed Idolatry in this Land of the horrid blasphemies of the over-flowing drunkennesse of the Sabbaths profanation c. And if wee looke at calamities abroad why as Iacob said Ioseph is not and Simeon is not so may we say Bohemia is broken up and the Palatinate is broken up and IRELAND is breaking up and yet the hearts of sinfull England will not bee broken up Nay if wee looke at the dangers hovering like a Cloud over this Land and dropping already in manifold and sundry divisions in manifold plots in manifold and severall contradictions and even readie to breake forth O LORD let it not breake forth in a bitter intestine Warre amongst our selves where every mans sword shall bee against his brother and the Child may kill the Parent or the Parent kill his Child bowels sheathed in bowels No man scarce secure in his owne Family our sins are bringing this upon us and yet our hearts will not breake for these sinnes The God of all Wisdome and mercies breake our hearts that so this judgement may not doe that which all our forreigne enemies hitherto could not doe Breake downe our Church and Nation 4. And if judgements should breake in upon sinners before hearts are broken for sins good Lord what where are they Dudilius relates a sad story of Bochna a woman who had but two sonnes and whiles she was walking with the one towards the River she heard the other crying out and hastning back shee found a knife sticking in him which kild him quickly then she returnes to her other child thinking to solace her selfe in an onely child but he in her absence was fallen into the river and drowned both lost at once Ah Sirs we have but two children a Soule and a body what an heavie losse will it bee to lose both these at once To bee cut off by an angry enemie and to be cast off by a mighty God! To lose a life and at the same time to lofe an eternall life To lose safety and salvation at once T is true that if a sinners heart be broken by grace there is no question of mercy but when an impenitent sinners life is broken by judgment his hopes are gone and his breaking of it for ever 5. Fifthly Wee shall assuredly be broken off if we be not broken up Beloved There are two vile malignities in an unbroken heart First It is one of the greatest of spirituall judgements ô said a Reverend man once if I must be put to my option I had rather be in Hell with a sensible heart then live on earth with a reprobate minde so I say an hardned and unbroken heart is in some respect a judgement worse than Hell for as much as one of the greatest sins is farre greater in evill then any of the greatest punishments Secondly It is the immediate and unavoydable forerunner of the greatest of temporall judgements He that hardens his heart shall be destroyed suddenly and that without remedy Prov. 29. 1. Observe that place There is no lesse then destruction which is not a particular and imperfect dammage but it is a compleate ruine and this destruction is certaine shall not may perhaps bee destroyed but when Suddenly I but the sinner wil shift it off withstand it No but hee shall bee destroyed without remedy His destruction shall not be prevented you may reade all this in the old World and in Pharaoh and in the Iewes before the Babylonian Captivitie and afterwards in the Roman divastation which hath lasted these 1600 yeares 6. But now where are our broken hearts I know not what to say my heartakes within mee ô that it could bee broken because hearts are generally unbroken Sinners are secure Consciences are seared wickednesse is bold sinnes are a delight and pastime God is not seene nor feared in his judgements in His warnings in His dealings Reformation is abhorred Humiliation most know not what it meanes and if they doe it is distasted Serious thoughts of our sinfull wayes who takes them up sufficient time for selfe-examination who makes it for himselfe every man runnes on in his course loves as hee did lives as he did And never knew a trouble in his soule nor a teare in his eye either for his owne or for the sins of others all his dayes And what will the end of all this be O that God would pittie us this day and breake our hearts for us though it bee so irksome and contrary to our flesh and bloud It is better said a Father to dye one death then to live and feare all deaths better it is to suffer the heart to bee broken then to expose our selves to all sorts of Judiciall eternall breakings ô Lord said dying Fulgen. Dapaenitentiam postea indulgentiam make mee a penitent sinner and then let me find thee an indulgent Father Never looke for great mercies for long mercies for any mercies with unbroken hearts we are not good we can doe no good we can expect no good till our sinfull hearts be broken O Christians be perswaded this day to get broken hearts God can do it for you and will doe it for you if you will but use the means and seeke unto him spare time and
England's PRESERVATION OR A SERMON discovering the onely way to prevent destroying JUDGEMENTS Preached to the Honourable HOUSE of COMMONS at their last solemne Fast being on May 25. 1642. BY OBADIAH SEDGWICKE Batchelour in Divinity and Minister of COGGESHALL in Essex Published by Order of that House JEREMIAH 13. 27. O Hierusalem wilt thou not be made cleane When shall it once be LONDON Printed by R. B. for Samuel Gellibrand at the Brazen Serpent in Pauls CHURCH-Yard 1642. To the Honourable House of Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT THis Sermon which I preached by your command and you harkned unto with much acceptance and is now printed by our Order I most humbly present unto your Gracious Patronage and Religious practice It hath this only in it that it is seasonable what one once writ to Aegidius the Abbot of Norinberg concerning Davids words in Psalme 118. They are verba vivenda non legenda That may be affirm'd of the Text I preached on the pith and matter of it should be lived and not heard only Repentance is a living word Alexander as Plutarch Orat. 1. de Alex. 〈◊〉 reports demanded of Porus whom he had surprised what his thoughts were of him he answered I thinke of Alexander Regaliter and that 's enough said hee for in that word all other things are contained the same I may say if any man demands what our sinfull and distracted Kingdome should doe I answer Repent and in that word if lived and done all our safeties and hopes are contained There were 3. things most Honourable Sirs which Luther did feare would prove Melchior Adam in vita Luther p. 157. 158. to bee the Ruine of Religion 1. Oblivion 2 Security 3. Carnall policy The good God overthrow these in our Land least our land be overthrowne by these Though Ministers discover all sorts of sins and though a Parliament discovers all sorts of plots and dangers yet people are setled on their Lee's they will not see nor feare nor humble themselves nor turne to the Lord at all O pray said a dying man in the beginning of the German reformation that God would preserve the Gospell pontifex enim Romanus Concilium Trident. mira moliuntur For the Pope and Councell of Trent are hatching of strange things Ministers say as much and more to people pray be humbled reform For you see what the bloudie Papists have done in Ireland and you heare what they are plotting against England we do thus speak and weepe but man will not hearken and obey They who will not easily see their sins will as hardly beleeve their dangers Fuge fuge Brenti cito citius citissime so friendly did a Senatour of Hala advise Brentius hast hasten make all the hast you can your life is lost else He embraced the advise preserved his life by it O that Gods advises so frequent so earnest so and more safe to humbling and reforming might once bee regarded and followed we shall never be safe if wee ever remaine impenitent As for your selves Honourable Sirs wee have all cause to blesse God for the worthy Acts already done by you and for your further intentions of most excellent good to our Church and Kingdom Ripen these intentions wee pray you into Actions That our Church may be glorious and our State safe and both flourishing and stable good actions are excellent though evill men oppose them nor shal they be therfore the lesse successeful remember that Christ hath conquerd all the world and a world conquerd by Christ shall never be able to conquer truth I have one request which I earnestly present to your selves and the House of Lords It is onely this Hasten what you can Englands Reformation and Irelands preservation In these the good and Almighty God unite strengthen protect and prosper you All To whose everlasting armes you and all your pious endeavours are commended by your daily Oratour Obadiah Sedwicke Die Mercurij 25. May 1642. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons now Assembled in Parliament that Master Harris and Mr. Obadiah Sedgwicke who this day being the day of the publike Fast at the intreaty of the said Commons preached at Saint Margaret Westminster shall have thankes returned them for the great and worthy paines they have taken and that they bee desired to print their Sermons and that no man presume to print them but such as they shall appoint till the House shall take further Order H. Elsyng Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Samuell Gellibrand to print my Sermon Obadiah Sedgwick A Sermon Preached at the late Fast to the Commons House OF PARLIAMENT JEREM. 4. 3. Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem breake up your fallow ground and sow not among Thornes THere is a learned writer who speakes of foure dayes for a sinner Bernard The first is Dies Faetoris A day of loathsomenesse 4. Dayes incident to man and this is the time when the sinner lies rotting in the grave of sin 2. The second Dies Timoris a day of anguish and this is the time when Conscience begins to bee awakened with the sight and sense of sinne 3. The third is Dies Doloris a day of mourning and this is the time when the heart begins to melt into Teares for sinning The fourth is Dies Laboris a day of Combat and this is the time when the penitent and converted soule sets it selfe against the temptations of sin The first of these is the worst of our dayes and yet too common the dead in this sense are more than the living The second of these is a bitter and turbulent day and yet it may prove happie and cheerefull there being more hope of a sore Conscience then of a seared Conscience The two last are like precious Jewels very good but very Rare It is an easie thing to finde sinners but it is not an easie thing to finde mourning sinners and penitent sinners So blinde is the minde of man so perverse is the will of a sinner so prevalent is the love of sinne so desperate is the resolution of an hardned heart that neither the Golden Scepter nor the Iron Rod neither the sweetest mercies nor the sharpest miseries will easily prevaile with sinning man to become a penitent man But though God be leaving though mercies be setting though wrath be approaching though life be short though hell be fearefull yet it is a thousand to one but the sinner remaines under all these constantly wicked or onely deceitfully good A cleare instance whereof you have in the Iewes in this Chapter who notwithstanding they had almost sinned away their God their Country their lives their helpes their hopes And notwithstanding all their warnings by variety of Prophets and all their sufferings by variety of punishments and all their threatnings in variety of Judgments though there was but a step twixt them and death only one mercy twixt them utter destruction by the enemy yet either they totally
take it to study the Law to study Conscience to study the Gospell to study mercies to study judgements to study Christ to study all that after all our hearts may bee broken for our sinnes that so God may not breake away from us but continue to be our God and that judgements which looke so blacke upon us may be broken off and plots contriv'd against us may breake asunder and all spirituall and earthly mercies may breake downe in mercy upon us And thus much bee spoken with a respect unto every one that heareth mee this day I have besides all this a particular errand from God to you who are publike persons and have summond me this day unto Vse 2. this publike worke me thinkes that the Lord speakes to you in some respect what once he spake to the Prophet Ieremiah Chap. 1. Verse 10. See I have this day set you over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe And blessed bee the Lord and blessed bee your soules and blessed be your endeavours that notwithstanding the infinite difficulty of the worke and the Malignant contrariety you meet with yet your hearts are undaunted and resolved to finish the work as Honourable as ever Parliament undertooke and as profitable to Church and State as ever Christians enterprised your armes shall bee made strong by the blessing of the everlasting God of Iacob let popish and malevolent and ignorant persons say or doe what they can Give me leave 1. To represent unto you The work of the Parliament some publike plots of fallow-ground which you blessed be God have begun to breake neverthelesse they need yet a more full breaking up Secondly to present in all humble fidelity unto you some few intimations and directions 1. The publike plots of Fallow ground which need a further breaking up are especially foure 4. Grounds to be broken up 1. The first lies directly in the valley of Hinnom and it is Idolatry a piece of ground which lies too much in every Shire of this Land what County is there where much Popery is not Sirs you must breake this ground up or it will breake our Land up There is not such a God-povoking sinne a God-removing sin a Church-dissolving sinne a kingdomebreaking sin as Idolatry the soule of God abhorres it down with it down with it even to the ground 2. The second lies neare to Beth-Aven and it is superstition which is but a bawd to grosse Idolatry As rife in practise even now notwithstanding all that you have said and done as if a Parliament had never opened a mouth against it If a due and carefull inquiry bee made I question not but you shall find in too many Churches and publike places as many Altars and as many Crucifixes hanging over them and as many Tapers on the Altars and as much bowing towards the East and Altar almost as many and as much as when you began this Parliament 3. The third lies just upon the coasts of Egypt that Land of darknesse And it is ignorance a very large circuit of ground this is many many places of this land there are which lie Fallow to this day never any husbandman nor Plow have entred in to breake up those grounds A most lamentable thing that since Iesus Christ came into the world and since the Gospell is come into this Land after severall scores of yeares yet how many Parishes in Wales and in the North and in other Counties which scarsely have enjoyed this much mercy as to heare one solid soule working Sermon concerning Christ and salvation by him O Sirs let your hearts bleed in pitty to these poore soules liberties I confesse are precious and so are our estates and so are bodies and lives ô then what are soules what are precious soules which did cost the most precious bloud of the Lord Iesus Christ The fourth ill plot of ground lies on Mizpah or if you please on Mount Taber for there the Priests 4. were a Net and a Snare Hosea 5. 1. And this is an idle and an evill ministry Sirs mistake me not I speake not of our Ministers indefinitely I know that wee have as godly as learned as painefull as profitable Ministers as any in all the Christian world but I speake onely of such whose speciall gifts consist in one of these two things either quietly to read out of a booke and discreetly to gather up their Tythes or malevolently to discountenance all godlinesse and raile against the Parliament Ah worthy Sirs It would amaze any ingenuous man to travaile such a Country as England and passing through many Parishes this after all is his Diurnall the Patron is Popish the Minister is an Idle Dunce or else a drunkard or else a swearer or else a scoffer preaching all holinesse out of his pulpit out of his Church out of his family out of his Parish and his people are like unto him and love to have it so And thus what betweene the Idle Minister and the evill Minister the poore people never come to knowledge or without which knowledge never comes to any thing they never come to the love and practise of any saving good These are the principall fallow grounds in this Land which need your care and paines 2. Now follow the Intimations and directions which I humbly present unto you 1. B Breake them up If ever you will quit your owne soules and the trust reposed in you and 4. Directions about the breaking up of ill grounds the whole land of Judgments spiritual and corporall If ever you desire to gaine ground in your publike intentions for good for the Lords sake breake up these Fallow grounds 2. But then in the next place goe very deepe with your Plow or else you will never breake up these grounds the deeper the better As all good is most strengthened so all evill is most crushed in its causes Take heed of shadow-worke and surface-plowing Gods eyes are upon you and so are the eyes of judicious men which can distinguish twixt scraping and breaking our misery will be but finely laid asleepe a while if your plow goes not deepe Doth a little cringing move you ô then let grosse Idolatry heate and burne your soules Doth boldnesse in a questioned Minister displease you ô then let his grosse wickednesse stirre you utterly to disburden poore peoples soules of him ô let sad complaints have quicke and full redresses 3. And goe over the Fallow grounds which you have broken goe them over againe Yea and againe Fallow grounds must be often broken up with the Plow Even the actions of the most judicious receave more ripenesse by review by often doing wee grow into a better acquaintance with what is to be done our first doings are rather trialls and enterprises the second doings ever prove the best worke besides that our affections also are oftimes too quicke for our eyes the desires of doing some
naught and good for no service It is bettter to cut it downe to the Roote then to hire men many dayes to out off the limbes There are three great mischiefes in all circumstantiall and slight acts One is The greatest causes of wrath are not met with Note A second is in a short time all the plashed evills will by a new influence from their rootes sprout up againe And the third is That when these evils once feele their strength and regaine their opportunity they will become more evill and mischievous then ever Histories and experiences witnesse enough of this Popery was hot in former Kings times but when it got out the bit by the death of Edward the sixth it burst out with more burnings and flaming cruelty in Queen Maries dayes 4. When they are only Coactive I meane such actings unto which there is little or no concurrence of a judicious and active will but are rather the sparkles which are forced out by the collision of flints elicited rather by the impressions of appearing and urging evills like Pharahos Obedience which was forced out of judgements and nothing else Marriners in a storme are very pious but then in a Calme turne as wicked as before the Iewes in their straites were as pliable as could bee desired they would part with any thing and do any thing for God but when the Sunne arose this vaine Cloud and dew were gone and scatterd If a Cloud of wrath bee it which puts us on to be and to do good a few beames Hosea 6. 4. of temporall safety will finde us flat and strangers againe The Acts of men doe spring sometimes from feare and sometimes from love those of feare may bee more strong and stirring for the present like a floud which runnes more violently then a River but those of love are most acceptable and constant voluntary acts though sometimes more slow yet are at all times more successefull Iohn in the Gospell ranne faster then Peter yet being at the Sepulcher Peter went farther then Iohn Iohn lookes downe but Peter goes downe an Arrow flies swifter and a man walkes slower yet a man may sooner walke to the marke then the Arrow can hit it Sirs No private or publike work of Reformation will come to good which is derived onely from a feare of evill and not from a love of good when the circumstances of evill are of the evill heart will shew it selfe evill again 5. When they are hypocriticall and vaine-glorious done by our selves and for our selves It is a strange thing to observe how the spirits of men are ballanced and mounted and keepe paralell with the ends which they propound unto themselves The Art and strength and length of our workings are ever moulded in our owne aimes and respects One man acts for God another acts for himselfe the workes of the one are blest and prosper the attempts of the other quickly languish and are blasted As vitious acts are under GODS curse so vaine-glorious acts are out of his blessing Sinceritie humble sinceritie is that which gives life findes acceptance and is crowned with successe If a man in his religious performances of praying and fasting and humbling of himselfe should seeke not God but himselfe as the Pharisees did his vaine glory would purchase onely the applause of men and rejection with God all his workes will bee lost and come to nothing Verily you have your reward said Christ a poore reward to have breath for breath And so in publike attempts if you should not entirely seeke God His Glory His Truth His Worship but your selves your worke will never prosper It will rest onely on your owne parts to act it and on your own strength to consummate and perfect it and what blessed issue can bee expected where weak man is left alone to bee the Author and finisher of great actions 6. Lastly when they are fickle and inconstant begun perhaps with some fervency but then laid aside by as much tepidity An aguish zeale hot in attempting but cold in effecting One day to act like penitents and the next day to live like sinners one while humbling and praying and after a while cursing and swearing Sometimes offering all our service and strength for CHRIST and Religion and See Hosea 6. 1 4. suddenly intent only to our owne delights and wayes forgetting like them who are much in complements all our zeale and professions What a vanity will this prove What harvest will insue when the Husbandman will one houre sow an handfull of seed and a weeke after goe home and do nothing It is observed in Nature that many remisse acts which have no proportion to effects and some strong acts soone remitted will equally come to nothing If there be to weake a strength in the root or if all the strength shootes out at once little or no fruit will follow yet this deceit cleaves much to mans heart that it wil either be constantly bad or else inconstantly good It hath some degrees of heate to begin but wants that prudence of patient endeavour and comming to finish and perfect like him in the Gospel who began to build but did not make an end Whereupon results a vanity and successelesnesse to our workes the ripenesse of which is betrayd many times more by our owne remissenesse then by others oppositions they sticke and dye in the birth because wee continue not in our strength to helpe and bring them forth I see that the time and your wearied patience call upon mee to hasten and finish Give mee leave to make some usefull application of all this and then I have done the application shall bee in this as in the former part a word First To all of us and then Secondly To you of great employment and publike service 1. To every one of us Vse 1 WEE stand here this day before the Lord and seeme to doe the worke of a solemne Fast-day We confesse Our sinnes Wee pray Wee humble our selves and professe that wee will Repent and reforme and obey the Lord Here hath been much seed sowne prayers are seed Teares are seed Sermons are seed But if all this sowing should bee but a sowing amongst thorns if all this should be so managed by us that our prayers that our confessions that our hearings that our resolvings should come to nothing and prove nothing If after once twice thrice many humblings we yet should not be humbled if after all the changes which befall our times our hearts yet should not be changed but sins remaine as strong and judgements remain as neare If after all this God should not be reconciled unto us our transgressions should not be pardoned judgements should not be withdrawn mercies should not be sent downe what a bitter and sad thing would this be for a man to perish though hee prayes and to bee destroyed though he fasts and a Nation to be made a curse and an hissing and a desolation after it hath seemed to meet the Lord
by solemne confessions and humiliations To perish in the shewes of repentance is a bitter perishing It was a sad greeting which they found from Christ Lord say they we have heard thee preaching in our Synagogues we have eat and drunk in thy presence yet saith Christ unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity verily I know you not So when we come to die and then come to judgement and say Lord we have heard thy Word we have fasted we have prayed we have afflicted our bodies and soules and yet Christ shall say depart I know you not yee heard my Word indeed but ye did not obey my Word ye confessed your sins but yee never forsook your sins ye gave on towards a little good but ye never became good you professed obedience but you never did care to walk in my wayes and therefore all that you have done shall never doe you any good would not this be a sad and heavy answer to our selfe-deluded soules Nay put the case that now after all our fastings the same judgement or a worse should befall us which befalls our poore Brethren in Ireland that the sword should break forth among us and all the unmercifull and sudden calamities of warre should beleaguer us that in a moment the Gospel should bee banished our liberties should be imbondaged our estates should be exhausted our lands should be dispossessed our houses should be burnt our coffers should be ransack'd our bodies should be tortured and our lives should be threatned Good Lord would we say is all our fasting and humbling come to this we looked for good and not for evill wee looked for peace and not for destruction why and the Lord might answer us when did you fast to me and when did you pray to me Indeed you prayed against judgements but you would never leave your sins which I told you often would pull downe judgements you would have had mercies but I could never perswade you to repent in good earnest you would trust to vaine thoughts of your owne you would never be humbled to purpose you would sow among thornes and see now what ye get by it O Christian thinke seriously of these things God hath called to England once againe often a longer time repent indeed turne from your evill wayes indeed be upright and holy indeed walk with me once at length in truth judgements have called warnings have called consciences still call dangers still call feares still call the Ministers of God as the Prophets of old still call and cry and beseech and weepe turne yet unto the Lord turne not feignedly but with all your hearts sow not among thornes yet Lord who believes our reports and calls the Prophet is reputed a foole and the Spirituall man mad men will be sinfull still they will perhaps one of ten thousand bee seemingly penitent and the issue I feare will bee this the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together Isai 1. 28. And while they be folden together as thornes they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry Nahum 1. 10 But Sirs let us yet be perswaded to repent and to reforme our selves to purpose if ever we purpose to repent or would repent to purpose this is the time all within us all without us all abroad all at home beg it at our hearts O that God would work all his works in us that our selfe-reforming work may begin goe on hold out and abound that God may be reconciled to our selves and this sinfull land 2. To you of publique employment MAny excellent works are fallen into your hands some of them you have gone through with already and more we are perswaded had received their seale had not the excellency of your attempts raised against you the enmity of manifold oppositions and contradictions my humble and earnest intreaty of you is only this let not those remaining excellent works if it bee possible so much as in you lies for ever stick in the birth let them not die in meere intentions or propositions but strive to bring them unto their due and much desired perfection you have begun some things 1. About erronious Doctrines 2. Against superstitious practices 3. Against Idolatry and seducing Priests and Jesuits 4. With notorious delinquents and offenders 5. Against scandalous Ministers and Innovations 6. For the setling of a faithfull and laborious Ministry 7. For an honourable maintenance and encouragement of it O never let us stand to the courtesie of the vulgar 8. For the easing of tender consciences 9. For the vindicating of the Lords day 10. For the setling of all distractions and hopes of a Church-Reformation according to the Word of God against which malice it selfe cannot justly open its mouth 11. For the succouring and relieving of poore and distressed Ireland Hasten all that you can lest it prove too late Now God forbid that such works as these should ever fall to the ground after so many yeers misery after so many thousand prayers after so many gracious overtures which you have made let it not be said of you in these works as hee said of his owne Faciebam non feci he was doing of them but they were never done Take up your first thoughts and engage your hearts and resolutions and all your endeavours speedily and successefully to carry on at least this one work of all works a solid Reformation Beleeve me it is the work which will bring a blessing upon all your other works peruse that place well in Haggai 2. 18. Consider now saith the Lord from this day even from the day that the foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it vers 19. from this day will I blesse you Now whereas Zerubbabel might reply we would set to this work but that we are afraid of warlike opposition To this the Lord answers in Verse 22. and 23. I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdomes and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdomes of the Heathen and I will overthrow the Charrets and the Horses and the Riders And I will take thee Zerubbabel my servant and I will make thee as a Signet q. d. Look you to that work and I will assuredly look to your persons and safeties Now that you may effectually carry on all these great works and especially that of Church-Reformation so that all may be prosperous and in the event come to something make use of two Two Directions directions which I humbly propound unto you First strip your selves of all the things which will weaken your hearts and make your endeavours still slow and fruitlesse therefore First put off your sinnes or else they will put off your work evill men are seldome apt for or prove successefull in good attempts There is nothing which intricates our actions more than our sinnes which doe likewise ensnarle our souls Enterprises set upon either without God or against God are like arrowes shot up aloft which never doe good but many times
Christ Now their hâ—â—ts were pricked and when Nathan drawes his parable out of the cloud and unclothes his Message to David saying Thou art the man Now 2 Sam. 12. 7. Psalme 51. Davids's heart begins to breake and take on O see the subtile heart of man will endure and beare all the Historical Notions of sin as we can the names and natures of diseases and medicines without any aking and sicknesse But when the Lord brings downe sin from being a notion to be an obligation and enters an action against the soule within the soule now and not before the heart-workings and heart-breakings doe begin 3. A Conscience affliction which in respect of 3. Affliction degrees and quantity is in some more and in others lesse for Gods Spirit is an Arbitrary agent in the Graduall effects of bondage as well as in those gracious effects of Adoption Neverthelesse though the degrees of working be different yet the worke it selfe is certaine The heart will never bee rightly broken for sin till Conscience which Saint Bernard calls Accuser Witnesse Judge and Tormentor begins to be awakened and quickned And believe it if The terrible workings of conscience Conscience which hath been so much stirred begins to stirre if Conscience which hath beene so often wounded begins to wound the spirit of man will eftsoone faile and breake within him O saith Conscience What hast thou done thus and thus to provoke the Holy and Righteous and Great God I know the severall acts of thy sinnings and times and places and persons and circumstances and I have sad newes to tell thee that great God against whom thou hast so much and so often sinned hath commanded and deputed me not only to speake no peace but also to speake His wrath and displeasure unto thee and in His Name I charge upon thee all thy sins and all his just wrath revealed against them And now the proud and stout heart of a sinner begins to throb and feare and tremble He thinkes that every threatning which he reades is a Cloud of Tempests against him hee thinkes that every judgment hee heares of another is a Sword drawne to cut him off also He thinkes that all the hell and torments thereof mentioned in the Scriptures will ere long bee his portion whereupon his distracted soule cries out ô that I had never beene ô that I had never sinned ô that I might never bee If I should now dye good Lord what will become of mee If I should yet live will the Lord ever bee mercifull to me The sins which I see are many the wrath which I feele is great and that which I feare is infinite If I live I see I am an accursed creature and if I dye ô let me not yet dye I feare I shall bee for ever ô my soule breakes at that endlesse word of misery for ever a damned sinner But yet cries out this sinner Lord Lord Is there no mercy nor hope of any mercy for mee a most vile sinner With these minde racking-breaking thoughts away hastens this burdened broken sinner unto his Closet and shuts the doore and downe hee fals on his knees and with much confusion of thoughts and feares hee spreads all his sinnings before God confessing one and then another and then with fervent agonies begges of the Lord more than for his life Mercy Lord mercy mercy for a lost for an heinous for an undone sinner Canst thou pardon me Wilt thou pardon me O Lord pardon mee O Lord bee reconciled unto mee O that I might have any hopes the least hopes that thou wouldest be mercifull unto me And now up riseth this sinner with these or the like thoughts well I will reade the Bible I will heare such a Minister I will open my condition unto him and conferre and inquire whither there bee no balme in Gilead whither there be a mercy Seate a Citie of refuge to entertaine such a sinner as I am and after a while upon carefull search he findes that yet there is hope that there is an immeasurable sufficiencie in the bloud of Christ an Ocean of ful and free grace in God and that God notwithstanding all his former sinnings against him is most willing and ready to accept of him into mercy if so bee hee bee willing to forsake his sinnes and imbrace a Mediator 2. The formall Ingredients HEreupon followes the second principall working Ingredients of heart breaking two Ier. 31 19. which formally makes up Evangelicall Contrition and it is 1. Pudor 2. Dolor shame and griefe Such kindnesse from the mercy-seate makes him now as Ephraim confounded and ashamed and his heart to breake into most melting flouds of teares that ever he should bee so monstrously vile to offend such tender and gracious bowels of mercy which hee now apprehends yerning towards him in and through Christ As before the apprehensions of divine wrath did distract and shiver him so now the apprehensions of divine love doe totally dissolve and melt him though there were not Heaven hereafter to Crowne him yet he must grieve and though there were not Hell hereafter to burne him yet he must exceedingly mourn for sinning against such a God This is that right Evangelicall Contrition which I presse for at this time called in Scripture a softnesse of heart and a contrite Heart and a mourning and a bitter mourning and a great mourning like that of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon which Zac. 12. 10 11. Saint Ambrose calls Cor liquescens an heart melting and dissolving and Saint Hierome magnum planctum an exceeding lamenting and St. Austin grave lamentum a very heavie griefe The Casuists and Schoolmen affirme it to bee the Sorrow for sin the greatest sorrow in 4. respects Adrianus Scotus Soto greatest of all sorrows 1. In conatu the whole soule seemes to send springs into it out of every faculty 2. In extensione It is a spring which in this life more or lesse is continually dropping 3. In appreciatione the changed soule doth ever judge that a good God offended should be the prime cause of greatest sorrow and Lastly In intensione For Intension of displicence in the will there being no oâ—her things with which or for which the will is more displeased with it selfe then for sinning against God And therefore some of the Schoolemen propounding this question Sot in 4. Sent. d. 17. q. 2. art 4. whether there should be more griefe for sin then for the pâ—ssion of Christ Resolve it Affirmatively that there is more cause of griefe for sinning then for the death of Christ and their reason is this because in the death of Christ there was Aliquid placens Something that did please God so farre as it was a Redemption but sin is simpliciter displicens there is nothing in it which is not altogether displeasing unto God consider it formally as sin 3. The consequent working WHich rather shewes and declares then makes a broken heart and it
Interpreters abound in their opinions concerning For the sense of the words these thorns By them Chrysostome understands Idols as entangling and piercing as the sharpest of Briars and thornes Origen and Hierom by the thornes understand covetousnesse and the cares of the world which likewise are scratching and wounding others understand all our sinfull corruptions ' there are spinae in corde saith Bernard thornes in our hearts as well as in our Fields and some understand by the thorns mixtures of worship crept into the worship of God amongst the Iewes as Sanctius and others But with the favour of all these and yet with submission I conjecture that these words Sow not among Thornes are a proverbiall speech and suggest onely this unto us That as the Iewes were to breake downe what was evill in themselves and the Church and State so they were to set upon the doing of all good in private and publike In such a manner and order as that their pains and endeavours might not come to nothing but might prove effectuall and successefull be to some good purpose indeed c. As an Husbandman who sowes will so sow that hee may reape and not loose his seed and labour and therefore will not sow among Thornes For this were an improper worke and would prove in the event utterly unprofitable It is a thousand to one if ever his seed comes up for Thorns have a stealing withdrawing and frustrating quality or if it doth come up yet it will be lost it cannot be gathered there is no comming at it with sithe or sickle Thornes have an hindering malignity as well as a stifling power From this exposition I observe onely this proposition Namely Doct. 2 That all penitentiall and reforming worke must bee so managed and acted that it may not prove a vaine and fruitlesse worke but may come to be a successefull and profitable work It must not be a sowing among Thorns but such a sowing which may in the issue produce an harvest for as good never a whit as never the better You read in Scripture of many Sowers 1. The evill man did sow Tares wee have had of Foure sorts of sowers late many such Sowers not onely professed Priests and Jesuites but some also amongst ourselves who have sowen Popish Arminian Socinian and superstitious Tares 2. The cunning man and he sowes divisions and dissentions There have been and still are too many who sow division twixt the King and the Parliament twixt Ministers and Ministers twixt Ministers and people twixt people and people 3. The foolish man and hee sowes hee cares not what in respect of the seed nor where in respect of the soyle nor when in respect of the time and so all is lost and comes to nothing 4. The wise man who in his sowing lookes to the seed that it bee good and cleane and to the soyle that it bee prepared and right and to the season that it bee fit upon which through Gods blessing the seed sowen takes roote prospers and proves an harvest Of this I now speake in the proposition which whither you limit it to a Repentance that is personall or extend it to a Reformation that is Nationall holds true in both and the Text will beare both The one and the other must bee so dispersed that it may not prove vaine and lost but effectuall and successefull Sirs Though penitentiall workes rightly done are never without successe and blessing yet pretendingly penitentiall agents may so carry on these works materially good that they may never prove formally and eventually good or beneficiall and therefore you read in Scripture that many prayings and fastings and solemne meetings and teares and other doings have found no acceptation with God nor wrought any subjective alterations in persons nor change from misery to mercy in a Nation read the Prophets concerning the Jewes and that will be testimony sufficient In sixe cases they prove in the event to bee nothing but onely a sowing amongst thornes 1. When they are but externall not acted by any inward principles the effects rather of art and parts then of the heart and grace Shels not kernells teares of the eyes but not teares of the heart prayers of the lips but not of the soule Shadowes and pageants of Repentance seeming to bee so to the eye of man but not heart-workings which onely are interpreted to be true and solid to the eye of God The Swanne in the Law was white in fethers yet reputed uncleane and unmeet for sacrifice because the skinne under them was black Religious workings you know stand in Gods account according to the quality of the worke-man the heart of whom is all in all for acceptance or rejection God reputes nothing done which the heart doth not Art may take man more than nature but with God the more art the lesse acceptance A painted Repentance which is onely externall will doe our selves and the Nation as much good as a painted sword as a painted staffe and as painted Fire That will not cut this will not helpe the other will not heate no more will a meerely externall Repentance prevent any judgements or obtaine any mercies 2. When they are but partiall A putting down of some sinnes and a keeping up of other sinnes will bee as vaine as to cure the Palsey and yet to neglect the plague or as to mend the pumpe and yet to neglect the leake Iehu's Golden Calves made an end of him though hee made an end of Baals Images and Priests And so in the doing of good it will come to nothing though some good bee done and yet the best good is neglected The Pharisees did many acts of Righteousnesse but lost them and themselves because they opposed and rejected Christ who was the chiefest and only Righteousnesse There is beloved such a naturall concatenation twixt all vices and so there is amongst vertues That they in a formall working ever include an universall hatred or an universall love No man can be interpreted good who is at defiance with any knowne particular good nor doth hee cease to bee wicked who doth not hate and oppose every knowne evill particular and exclusive actings in the one and in the other serve onely to the disacceptance of the workes and to the greater condemnation of the persons Though Imbecility shall never bee any prejudice to our works yet subtiltie and partialitie shall 3. When they are but circumstantiall though a multitude of lesser evills bee crushed if yet the greater are spared to survive This Reformation will prove like Sauls discretion with the Amalekites Read Ier. 48. 10. who spared the fattest and destroyed the poorest but he lost the kingdome by it Circumstantiall reformations I grant are more easie and quicke but those which are most deepe are ever most safe a Cloath will stoppe up the wound as soone and perhaps sooner then the plaister but the plaister which searcheth to the quicke heales much better If the Tree bee starke