authority which some slighted yea what revenge in inflicting punishments suitable to the offence By which word Revenge it is true and I will not in the least prevaricate in this Argument the best Interpreters and I believe rightly understand the punishment lately inflicted by the sentence of Excommunication pronounced against the Incestuous person according to the Apostles order Yet it is manifest I think that this Revenge was taken by the Church because the man did not take it on himself If he had been sadly afflicted if he had humbled himself by Fasting and Weeping and Mourning by confessing his Sin by confusion of face and all other signs of a true Penitent the Church had not proceeded to such a degree of severity against him as to deliver him up to Satan And such a Revenge whether injoyned by the Church or inflicted by a mans self the Apostle makes the fruit of a pious Sorrow That sharp Grief wherewith the Heart is wounded when it reflects upon its disobedience to a most Gracious Father those Stings which a mind conscious of such foul ingratitude feels in it self that shame that self-displicency and loathing which arises out of a serious sense of a mans offences work in him such a detestation of his former course of life that it will incline him by afflicting and punishing himself after such a manner as I have described to prevent the like again CHAP. VI. The Abuse of these Exercises ought not to hinder the Vse wherein a further account is given of them AND this course ought not to be laid aside because some have turned this just Revenge by inflicting punishments upon themselves for such ends as I have named into a proper satisfaction of the justice of God Which is the fault of the Church of Rome who by abusing many profitable things have made others throw them quite away To fansie any such satisfaction as they speak of which is variously explained by them and by some very injuriously unto our Lord Christ is to stretch the vertue of these things too far But if we therefore shall wholly reject them that will be to start aside as much the other way The Church of God in the purest times before the birth of those Errors which are comprehended under the Name of Popery most earnestly recommended and enjoyned such Afflictions of the Body without any design of satisfying the Divine Justice for their Sins yet with an intention to punish themselves for them in hope that God would graciously spare them and accept of their unfeigned Repentance of which these were the signs and tokens and also the beginnings of a new Life and the means to bring it to greater perfection The very Fast of Lent was anciently prolonged to that number of days of which it now consists for the benefit of the publick Penitents that were in the Church Who by such Humiliations as I have mentioned gave satisfaction to the Church which was another end of their Afflicting themselves and humbly begging their pardon promised hereafter to be better Christians and so prepared themselves to be reconciled and admitted to the Holy Communion at Easter It would be endless to recite all the passages we meet with in Ecclesiastical Writers concerning this matter that Penitents should by such Bodily Afflictions as have been often named take Revenge upon themselves for their former wickedness and undo what they had done before by doing just the contrary S. Chrysostom mentioning those words of John Baptist Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance puts this question How may we thus fructifie And resolves it in this manner If we do directly contrary to our former Sins Hast thou stoln another mans Goods begin now to give away thine own Hast thou been a Fornicator abstain even from thy lawful Bed Hast thou wronged any one in words as well as deeds bless hereafter even those that curse thee do good to those who reproachfully use thee Such Revenge as this is very necessary for a wounded man as he adds must not only pull the Dart out of his Body but apply also suitable remedies to his Wound Hast thou therefore flowed in Luxury and in Drunkenness make a compensation for it by Fasting and Abstinence Hast thou cast impure Eyes upon anothers Beauty cover thy Eyes and hang down thy head being touched with a greater caution by the harm thou hast received And thus Tertullian long before him gives L. de Poenit. C. xi this brief admonition If thy Neighbour ask thee why thou defraudest thy self of thy Food and art so Afflicted c. tell him Deliqui in Deum c. I have offended God I am in danger to perish Eternally And therefore now I hang down my head for shame I macerate and excruciate my self that God whom I have injured by my sins may be reconciled to me c. Gregory the Great though much later than either of them hath left this excellent Gloss upon the words before-mentioned You must observe that the Friend of the Bridegroom he means John Baptist calls not only for fruits of Repentance but for fruits meet or worthy and becoming Repentance It being one thing to bring forth fruit another to bring forth meet or worthy fruit For you must know that he who hath not committed unlawful things may justly use those which are lawful But he that hath done unlawful things for instance hath faln into the guilt of Fornication or which is worse of Adultery he ought to deny himself even those that are lawful in proportion to the unlawful which he remembers he hath given himself the liberty to enjoy For there ought not to be equal fruits of Repentance from those who have offended little and from those who have offended much from those who since they have been devoted to God have led a regular life and from those who have been very extravagant but every one according as he hath broken his vow to God less or more with more or less expressions of Grief and Sorrow he ought to address himself to God for Mercy I will add only the words of S. Ambrose to a corrupted Virgin According to the weight of the guilt must be the greatness of the Repentance And therefore thou must not Repent in word only but in deeds Which may be thus done If thou settest before thine Eyes from what a great dignity thou art faln from what a Book of Life thy name is blotted out And so believest thy self to be just next door to utter darkness where there is endless weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth When thou hast represented this to thy self by Faith then since the Soul that sins is liable to be cast into Hell fire and there is no remedy after Baptism but only the comfort of Repentance be content to endure any Affliction any Labour any sordid usage of thy self if thou mayest but be delivered from Eternal pains And if thou wilt be guided by me be thou thy self the more cruel
way but contented our selves with Prayers and some kind of Repentance without such Humiliations and chastening of our selves as our sins and our condition required CHAP. XIII Of Fasting-days particularly Wednesdays and Fridays THE Church of God therefore hath always set some time a part for Fasting as well as Prayer And thought it a duty of such continual use that it is not safe it should be long intermitted For mankind being subject frequently to run into sin it is but reason they should be frequently put in mind of calling themselves to an account and returning to him with sorrowful Humiliations for their faults And therefore it is a most ancient and no less wholsom Ordinance of the Church that we should from week to week assemble our selves for this end To search and try our ways and with Fasting and Prayer to turn unto the Lord that thereby we may turn away his wrath from us which otherways either in general or particular may fall upon us To except against this because there is no Divine commandment upon Record for it is very unreasonable For in the ancient Religion of the Jews there was no Precept given by their Law-giver for more Fasts than one throughout the whole Year which was that I named before on the great day of expiation and yet notwithstanding they held themselves obliged to observe many other Fasts upon set days in several months some of which are remembred in Scripture and approved by God though not prescribed by his particular Commandment Read vii Zach. 3 5. viii 19. where you will find that four Fasts in several months having been upon good reason ordained they durst not alter them though the reason seemed to be altered without a Divine direction which their Elders by whose authority they were first appointed desired to receive from the Prophet But it is most to my purpose to observe that there were also weekly as well as those monthly Fasts among that people which our Saviour found in use when he came and did not reprove no more than Prayer and paying of Tithes which the Pharisee mentions together therewith in xviii Luke 11 12. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men c. I Fast twice in the week I give Tithes of all that I possess Which were all commendable things if his vanity had not made him glory in them and despise other people And therefore the Pharisees frequent Fasting is mentioned I observed before in other places of the Gospel together with that of John's Disciples who also Fasted oft without the least reflection upon them for it as if they were superstitious or did more than needed No our blessed Saviour rather approves of their strictness in this For he saith his Disciples should not be behind with them in Fasting hereafter though for the present there was a special reason why they did not practise it Of which speech of our Saviour I shall make considerable use presently when I have noted that the two days on which they Fasted every week were the second and the fifth that is our Munday and Thursday Which days no doubt were chosen because they had been of old days of Prayer which the devouter sort observed with Fasting also for such reasons as I have already named If we may give credit to Maimonides these days were appointed by Moses himself for solemn Assemblies which he knew could not with safety be long discontinued And therefore saith he Our Master Moses appointed Israel to read the Law at Morning Prayer upon the Sabbath day and upon the Second and the Fifth that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law Upon which days even they that dwelt in the Villages as Mr. Thorndike * Relig. Assemblies chap. viii further observes out of him were bound to assemble in the Synagogues though on the rest of the days in the week they did not tye them to it no more than they did to Fasting on those days with which the stricter and devouter sort of people observed them as not only the Gospel but their own Writers inform us Now these two days having been thus set apart from ancient time for Prayer and Fasting those pious Jews who became Christians could not think of being less Religious and devout under the Gospel than they had been under the Law and therefore still continued to observe two such days every week though not the very same For as instead of the Seventh which was the Jewish Sabbath they now kept the First day of the week as the principal time for their Assemblies so instead of the Second and the Fifth they chose the Fourth and the Sixth which are our Wednesdays and Fridays for the two other days on which they weekly held solemn Assemblies And for the very same reason it is likely for which Moses or the Elders chose the other because they were at the same convenient distance from the Lords day as Munday and Thursday were from the Jewish Sabbath and hereby it was provided that as Maimon speaks no three days passed without the more solemn sort of Assemblies Certain it is that there was no Church in Epiphanius his time which did not look upon these two days as the stated days for Fasting and Prayer Which he avows so confidently against the Aerians that he fears not to ask this question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * Haeres lxxv n 6. Who is there that consents not in this throughout all the Climates of the world that the Fourth day and the day before the Sabbath i. e. the Sixth day are Fasts determined or appointed in the Church No body he knew durst contradict this challenge and undertake to shew the contrary which is the more remarkable because he represents them as set days by a setled Decree or Ordinance and that of the Apostles For so it follows that it was ordained by an Apostolical constitution all should Fast on those two days Which doth not seem to me so unlikely as it doth to some when I reflect upon those words of our Lord in answer to those that askt Why the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees Fasted oft but his did not Wherein as he no way condemns what either the one or the other did for that which was a vertue in John's Disciples could not be a crime in the Pharisees so he doth not go about to excuse his Disciples from the like obligation But plainly saith that though it was not fit for the present yet when he was gone from them they also should Fast in those days And I see no cause why we should not think that he means they should Fast as oft about which the question was as the other did Which being twice every week of which it is very reasonable to understand the often Fasting both of John's Disciples and of the Pharisees I cannot but conclude the Apostles also when our Saviour had left the World
observed weekly two such solemn days And so by their practice and example at least set apart and determined the times forementioned for Fasting and Prayer For why should we think of any other two days than those which the Church in future times observed every where with such uniformity that they could find no other Original of it but the Apostolical Ordinance Thus Socrates writes in particular of the Church of Alexandria what Epiphanius saith of the Church in general that L. v. Hist Eccles c. 22. it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Custom or a custom from the beginning of our Religion there to meet on the Fourth and Sixth days of the week for to hear the Scriptures read and expounded by the Doctors and to do all other things belonging to an Assembly excepting the celebration of the Eucharist which it seems was omitted there though not in other places on those days as unsuitable to a Fast and that Origen taught upon those two days a great part of what he left written in that Church Clemens of Alexandria also mentions these days long before him and I do not see of what other days Caecilius can be understood when he objects in Minutius Foelix to the Christians their solennia jejunia as dangerous tokens of a conspiracy among them For it is plain by those words that they held solemn Assemblies on certain days for Fasting as well as Prayer and that they returned often and great numbers met together or else they could not have been held dangerous to the Government These were the famous station days so much spoken of by the ancient Christians on which they continued longer in the Church than ordinary the Divine Offices being prolonged beyond the ordinary time and thence they had the name of Stations To be short if this be allowed which seems to be a probable truth that the Apostles afterward though not while our Saviour lived Fasted as oft as John's Disciples and the Pharisees had done before which was no less than twice every week There can be no other days reasonably thought of for this purpose than those which the Church in following Ages observed And there is the greater reason to judge this a probable truth because the Apostles observed other pious customs of the Jews of not Eating for instance before Morning Prayer was over as I before observed Which may well incline a considering man to think they likewise conformed themselves to this of Fasting as often in a week as John's Disciples and other strict persons had done which was no less commendable than the usage of Fasting till the end of Divine Service on the Sabbath days in the morning And then I can see no incongruity in it but it rather accords with the practice of Religious people heretofore if we think these to have been the times on which the Apostle advises Husbands and Wives to forbear one anothers company that they might give themselves to Fasting and Prayer 1 Cor. vii 5. Which Peter Martyr is of opinion * In Cap. xx Judic p. 172. the Apostle meant concerning publick Fasting and publick Prayer And as the Widow Anna is said to have served God many years with Fasting and Prayers night and day ii Luke 37. which I think ought to be understood of the weekly Fasts which Religious people then observed So the same Peter Martyr thinks it reasonable thus to understand the Apostle 1 Tim. v. 5. where he speaks of a Widow indeed whose description is that she continueth in supplications with Fastings saith he and Prayers night and day Upon those days as I take it which were then observed in the Christian Church answerable to those in the Jewish And why should we not think it was upon one of these days that the Church met together as we read xiii Acts 2 3. and ministred to the Lord and Fasted and Prayed For the very distresses in which the Church was required then as frequent Fasting as ever There is little doubt but the Fast here spoken of was upon a solemn day of Divine Service which is sufficiently implied in those words as they ministred to the Lord and in those that follow when they had Prayed Now on the Sabbath it was utterly unlawful to Fast and they abhorred from it as the Christians afterward did from Fasting on the Lord's day And therefore I conclude it was upon one of the weekly solemn Prayer-days then in use in the Christian Church as formerly in the Jewish For what reason is there to question that when any extraordinary case called for a special Fast as now the separating Barnabas and Saul for a great work did and as in pressing dangers the Bishops of the Church appointed extraordinary Fasts that Fast was still held upon those very days which then they commanded to be observed with more than usual strictness For thus all Fasts appointed among the Jews upon special occasions were in order to fall as Mr. Thorndike observes in the Chapter before named upon the usual days of Fasting which were every week observed in a lower degree but upon those extraordinary occasions were observed with greater severity and therefore it is reasonable to think the Christian Fasts of the like kind were kept on the usual days either Wednesday or Friday or rather both only with the greater solemnity However that place and another in the next Chapter xiv Acts 23. are plain evidences of their Fasting before Ordinations or setting persons a part for a special Ministry And upon them is justly founded the Fasts of the four Seasons called Ember-weeks before Orders are given in our Church all solemn and great things being always undertaken by such preparations Insomuch that S. Hierom in his Prologus to S. Matthew's Gospel saith that S. John being desired by the Churches to write his Gospel against Ebion and Cerinthus who denied Christ's Divine Nature told them he would do it si Ecclesia tota publicè antea jejunasset if the whole Church would first keep a publick Fast before he went about it Which is affirmed also by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History To conclude this Chapter all Christians have so generally observed some set times of Fasting which was wholly rejected only by the Gnosticks who condemned Epist Haeres xxvi n. 5. demned all Fasting nay cursed it as disagreeable to their Beastly life that those odd people who loving to be singular and cross to the customs of the Church would not observe the two usual Fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays yet Fasted on other days as Marcion and his Disciples on Saturdays and the Aerians on the Lord's day who also Fasted on Wednesday but of their own accord not in obedience to the Churches Constitutions So Epiphanius informs us out of whom I have all this * Haeres xlii n. 3. Haeres lxxv n. 3. And now that I mention the Saturday Fast it will be fit to take notice that the Church of Rome now hath and anciently
nothing but Bread and Water and Salt which was called dry diet and was proper to those six days as we read in Epiphanius * Haeres lxxv n. 6. In two of which days just before Easter some Eat nothing at all In the rest of the Lent some would Eat only Fish others allowed themselves also Birds because of the same Nature they thought with Fish being made out of the Water as Moses testifies But others forbore all Fish likewise as well as Flesh which was the custom of the Greeks Yet the famous Monks of Mount Athos would Eat Oisters because they had no bloud in them Some contented themselves with Eggs and Fruit others forbore both and lived upon Bread and Herbs and Roots And S. Hierom saith there were some who would not so much as Eat a bit of Bread which Socrates also testifies But in this variety they all agreed in one thing which was to Eat nothing at all until the Evening and then such Food only as was least delicate not confining themselves to any particular thing but as their Bodies would bear No man pretended to Fast if he Eat a Dinner though it were of Fish only or any other less nourishing thing And though on other Fasts they broke them at Three a Clock in the Afternoon they did not take that liberty in the Lent Fasts but continued them as I said till night At which time also they did not indulge themselves the best fare of any sort whatsoever but contented themselves with the meanest which they used also with much moderation Socrates indeed saith that some fasted only till the Ninth hour which is our Three of the Clock but they were very few if we will believe all other ancient Writers In short they fasted all day and used Abstinence at night Out of all the Records of the Church which speak of this I shall select only a passage out of S. Austin which most lively describes the true sort of Abstinence and reproves the false It is in his Books about the Manners of the Catholick Church compared with L. 2. cap. 13. those of the Manichees Where speaking of the great Abstinence to which the Manichees pretended he puts this Query to them If there be a man to be found as there may who is so moderate that he doth not Eat twice in one day and at Supper with a little Bacon hath only a dish of Herbs ointed and seasoned with the same Lard served up to him sufficient to suppress his hunger quenching his thirst also for his health sake with two or three draughts of diluted Wine and this is his daily diet On the other side there is one who tastes no Flesh nor drinks a drop of Wine but hath exquisite and far-fetcht foreign Fruits of the Earth with Mushrooms and such like things set before him in variety of dishes and sprinkled with good store of Spice at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon and Eats also a good Supper of the same things at the beginning of Night drinking therewith Mede and Cyder and other good Liquors like enough to Wine and excelling it in sweetness and that not merely to quench thirst but as much as he list for his pleasure Which of these two as to Eating and Drinking do you judge to be most Abstemious I do not think you so very blind but you see that the latter is a Glutton in comparison with the former And what can be more mad than to say that he who fills his Belly even to belching with all manner of pleasant things save only Flesh-meat and Wine hath kept the rule of Sanctity but that the other who Eats only so much of the vilest food seasoned with a little smoaky Lard as will suffice for the refection of his Body with three cups of Wine merely for the support of health is prepared for certain punishment Thus that great man whose words I have endeavoured to contract a little represents as I take it the practice of the Catholicks in their Fastings By which we may make a just judgment of our own in these days and not deceive our selves with a dangerous opinion that we have performed this duty when we have only changed our diet not forborn our Dinners or if we have crambed our selves with delightful Suppers This is not only against all ancient practice and the repeated admonitions of the Holy Fathers but is still condemned by good men in all Churches Particularly by Lindanus an Panopliae L. 3. C. xi excellent Writer in the Roman Church in the last Age whose words I shall not translate at large but only observe in short that he sadly bewails the state of the Catholick Church in which the shadow only of Fasting is left As for those that cannot possibly Fast so long it never was the intention of the Church to oblige them but they were anciently exhorted as appears by S. Chrysostom whose discourse on this Subject I shall produce anon to take some refreshment But then it was only to support their Spirits from fainting and they all humbled themselves before God with Supplications and Prayers especially upon the most solemn days of Prayer and bewailed those sinners which now did open Penance and beseeched God to give them true Repentance and endeavoured to perfect their own and gave Alms to the Poor and spent more time than ordinary in reading and hearing God's Holy Word in which and such like holy Exercises both one and other passed this time of Lent satisfying themselves with these Spiritual pleasures while they denied their appetites in bodily delights That is they that could not Fast took care notwithstanding to perform all those Christian duties which it is the very design and end of Fasting to help and promote CHAP. XVIII The great Vsefulness thereof AND now who sees not the reasonableness of this Observance and the great benefit we may receive thereby If instead of contending about it for which thus understood I can see no ground we would all set our selves to make the best use we can of what the Church hath piously ordained and for many Ages profitably practised I do not know how it appears to others but it seems very strange to me that what the Church had strengthened and confirmed by an unanimous consent in S. Austin's time should find any dissenters from it in these days And yet I fear there are some I wish they be not many who scarce observe Good-Friday that is the day of our Saviour's Passion with any of that strictness which I have mentioned but Eat and Drink and do all other things as upon the rest of the days of the year A thing never heard of in the Church of Christ till these later days which among other scandals affords matter for the lamentations of the best Men and Women among us during the Lenten season especially upon that Great and Solemn day when by common consent Christians anciently made a Conscience of fasting strictly And they who
the occasions of those sins which we have lamented if we gaze with some pleasure upon the bait which intices us to them if we love our old wicked company or be so bold as to venture into it if we draw as near a sin as we dare it is a sign we do not sufficiently abhor it nor have been sorrowful enough for it For that would have made us more shy more wary more timorous of relapsing into so dangerous an estate and afraid to approach near to those snares wherein we had been intangled and thereby suffered such affliction as can never be recompensed with any pleasures but those of pleasing God in all things Let us not deceive our selves then no not with sorrow and affliction of Spirit and the greatest Humiliations before God if they be not attended with a change in the whole course of our life Till sorrow hath wrought this effect we have no reason to think that we have sorrowed after a Godly sort We lay aside the afflicting our selves too soon and speak comfort to our Souls before they be sit for it If our grief hath not made an absolute divorce between us and our sins never to come together again For so the Apostle teaches us in that known place 2 Cor. vii 10. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to Salvation not to be repented of Sorrow is an unprofitable thing unless it work Repentance and Repentance is unprofitable if it be only a good fit and we return again to the sins which we renounced Let us not conclude therefore too hastily that we are Penitents Sorrow alone doth not make us so no nor a present change in the course of our life but that change must continue and hold out when we come to be tried and are placed again among our usual temptations Of which till we have had some experience let us be modest not confident in the opinion we have of our Godly sorrow And judge rather we have not sufficiently lamented our sins than speedily pronounce our selves absolved from them It was the custom in the Primitive Church for those who were upon the point of suffering Martyrdom for Christ to write Letters before they died in the behalf of lapsed Christians who were in the state of Penance desiring the Bishops that they might be reconciled and received to the peace of the Church But good Bishops would not easily consent to this unless they saw real signs of amendment in the Penitents And they likewise earnestly desired the Martyrs not to be too easie in granting these Letters or in promising to sue for them but to consider how solicitous their Predecessors were to have such Sinners truly humbled and how cautious to observe the kind and quality of the sins which they lamented in the state of Penance Nay there were some Martyrs so wise as to reprove this giving of the peace of the Church before they were so humbled as to be reformed Nè dum volumus ruinis importunè subvenire alias majores ruinas videamur parare as I find Moses and Maximus and other Confessors speak most judiciously in S. Cyprian who himself hath an admirable discourse to the same purpose lest while we desire unseasonably to raise up lapsed Christians out of their ruines we make way for their greater fall and utterly undo them They took care so to heal one breach as not to make another and more dangerous So to cure a wound as not to make a new one harder to be cured So to restore Penitents that they did not relapse into a more deplorable condition For they saw clearly that by speaking peace to them too soon before they were so soundly humbled and grievously afflicted as to be heartily established in new resolutions they became less fearful to offend and lookt not so carefully to their ways as they would have done if they had suffered more for their former offences Let us take the same care about our own Souls and not be too forward to conclude we have made our peace with God though we have been never so sorrowful when there are no credible signs that we are so afflicted for what we have done as never to venture to do the like again No Prince will pardon upon other terms and it is directly against all reason to think that the Sovereign of the World will be content to lose all the Obedience which is owing from his Creatures whom he hath made with a sense of Duty to him No cries though lamentable beyond all expression can perswade him to this and therefore it is foolish and presumptuous to expect it especially since he hath declared the contrary and told us as plainly as words can express it that the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men i. Rom. 18. and that except we be converted and become like little Children pliable to the Will of our Heavenly Father we cannot enter into his Kingdom xviii Matth. 3. Which our Saviour pronounces with such an earnest asseveration as is apt to awaken our attention to what he says there and in many other places which is utterly inconsistent with the imagination that it is sufficient to dispose us for his favour if we acknowledge our Errors and be sorry for them and bewail them without any further alteration CHAP. IX What Vse the Better sort ought to make of this AND as our Tears ought not to stop till they have wrought a thorough alteration in our hearts and in the course of our life So after that is wrought there will be still occasion for them and they must not be quite dried up My meaning is that they who by the grace of God have reformed their lives and done away their former sins by an unfeigned sorrowful Repentance or they who perhaps never highly offended God but have been only guilty of smaller faults ought not to think themselves wholly unconcerned in this Doctrine and to have no cause for being afflicted with such mourning weeping and Humiliations as I have mentioned They have great reason indeed to rejoyce in the Lord always and to praise him for his wonderful goodness towards them But this is so far from shutting out all sorrow that it is a part of that holy life unto which they are renewed by Repentance to be full of tender compassion towards others and to bewail their miserable condition And therefore beside some degree of sadness and sorrow which is due for lesser offences or for greater formerly committed though now amended there are two things which are really very lamentable and ought to be sadly laid to heart by the best of us First the publick Judgments which God at any time sends upon the Place or Kingdom where we live Secondly the obstinate wickedness of most offenders who notwithstanding these Judgments will not turn unto him that smiteth them nor seek the Lord as the Prophets words are ix Isa 13. I. When people will not judge themselves as I have said before