Israel and thus bless the house of Aaron yea thus bless us all both small and great Let this blessing O Lord be upon high and low rich and poor mighty and mean upon Prince and people upon Court and City and Countrey upon our Metropolis our chief and mother-Mother-city yea and upon all her Daughters our other Cities and upon the whole Nation yea the three Nations and then shall we be blessed indeed yea Psal 115. 15. the blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth Thus though we cannot turn our selves we may yet pray unto God to turn us and intreat his favour the want whereof as aggravating their sin the Prophet Daniel confesses and bewails All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that Dan. 9. 1◠we might turn from our iniquities c. They could not turn of themselves but they might have prayed to God for grace to turn CHAP. XI The second Branch of Exhortation to adde to our Prayers our Endeavours ANd let us not onely pray but earnestly endeavour after this not onely beseech it but strenuously pursue it and follow after it let us joyn to our prayers our pains and to our desires our labour care and industry setting about it and setting our selves seriously to it and laying out our selves to the utmost for the attaining of it that we may be converted and turn'd again from our sins to God and that he may cause his face to shine on us In all labour says Solomon Prov. 14. 23. there is profit but the talk of the lips tendeth onely to penury that is nothing comes of that As the door turneth upon his hinges so doth 26. 14. the slothful upon his bed that is because of his sloath he is still where he was and hangs where he did comes not off and this is his undoing The desire of the sloathful killeth him for his Prov. 21. 25. hands refuse to labour Many wish well to themselves Immoritur optando nihil operatur non utitur mediis quibus potiri optatis queat c. Remus in locum and they say they do desire grace but refuse to labour and this kills them for grace is not had with wishing If ever we would be savingly converted we must not onely wish and desire it but labour and strive after it we must up and be doing use diligence The want of this the Lord complains of concerning that people as the cause of their ruine They will not frame Hos 5. 4. their doings to turn unto their God c. not so much as set about it nor set themselves to it nor see what they can doe They will not so much as endeavour and bend their course that way Non adjicient studia sua ut convertantur ad Deum suum Video me operam ludere quia mihi negotium est potiùs cum brutis animalibus vel cum saxis quà m cum hominibus c. Calvin in locum nor shew their good will nor make use of these means which tend towards it not do what they can do and might and therefore I do by my Prophets but spend my labour in vain and I have to do as it were but with beasts and stones rather than men Indeed I am their God by profession and I have shewn my self so by the care I have had of them and the many good offices I have done for them and yet though I am their God and the fountain and well-spring of all their good and their happiness is to turn to me yet they will not so much as once frame their doings to turn unto me And this is an heavy aggravation of peoples impenitency and leaves them altogether inexcusable when they will not endeavour nor so much as make use of the means as in reference to so great a concern not do what they might do we are not able indeed to turn our selves no conversion is too great a work and lies beyond our line and we should get a due sense thereof so as to drive us to God for help but yet we may endeavour it and attempt something as in reference to it something we may do but what you will say may we do and what would you have us for to do I shall shew you in several particulars 1. Attend constantly on the ministery of the Word wait still upon God in his ways and in the use of those means he hath instituted appointed and set apart to be instrumental as to that great work of turning you again to himself and of bringing you into favour and recovering again his face Do as those impotent folk they could not indeed heal themselves yea but they could and did lie at the Pool waiting for the moving John 5. 3. of the waters that they might be healed Get there still where Christ walks and where he works as Zacheus he got up into a tree in the Luke 19. 4. way where Christ was to pass and who knows but Christ may look upon thee as he did upon him and it may be a time of love and he may say to thee though in thy bloud live and bring saving conversion salvation home to thy soul It is good being in God's ways how many hath he savingly and graciously met there and his power hath been present to heal them to convert and save them The very work and business that he sends his Ministers about it is as he told Paul when he had converted him from a Persecutor to be a Preacher and as you have heard to open sinners eyes and to turn them from darkness to Acts 26. 18. light and from the power of Satan unto God c. And how many thousands of souls are there who have experienc'd this and for whom it hath been effected by their means and why may it not be effected for thee also The word is called a word of grace a converting word and wait on it for God to make it so to thy soul Of his own will says the Apostle begat he us by the James 1. 18. word of truth and why by the same word may he not beget thee if thou attend upon it God sends his Ministers to help people in this great work And a Vision appeared to Paul in the night Acts 16. 9. there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us Now be sure then to be there where he vouchsafeth such help which is the best help and better a thousand times than the having such come that might help you in other matters as in your estates and in matters of the world though it was to compass never so much of it And how sad must their condition then needs be and how inexcusable will they be found at that great day who refuse this help who carelesly neglect or despise the Ministery appointed for so blessed an end how deservedly and
God hath appointed to lead to it This is that Rainbow which if God sees shining in our hearts he will never drown our souls Thus you see what a profitable and gainful thing repentance is and I have the longer stood upon this because we are all for gain and profit Who will shew us any good and shall we not then be for that which tends to so much Psal 4. 6. and so great gain and good yea to all good even the greatest Art thou enquiring after good O he hath shewed thee here O man what is good Micah 7. 8. indeed even that which the Lord requires of Job 22. 21. thee viz. for to repent and turn to him for thereby good shall certainly come unto thee David prays that God would shew him a token for Psal 86. 17. good and here 's a token for Good indeed when God turns thee again to himself for all good for spiritual and temporal and eternal for good every where here and hereafter on earth and in heaven below and above in our way and at our journeys end in our exile and in our own countrey while we are abroad and when we come home to our fathers house for godliness which is the very essence of repentance is profitable unto all things having promise of the life 1 Tim. 4. 8 that now is and of that which is to come What man is he that desireth life and loveth many Psal 34. 12 13 14. days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good c. And O that God would vouchsafe this token for good to England to this Nation and to the whole of the Nation to Court and City and Countrey to every town and fellowship and family yea to every house and heart how would the Lord then give that which is good and glory should Ps 85. 9 12. dwell in our Land and we should be exalted and brought into an happy state indeed but never let any expect good or talk of gain or profit that still persist and go on in their sins for such find no good he that hath a froward heart findeth Pro. 17. 20. no good or a perverse heart and that goes on Perversus animo non consequetur bonum still to pervert his ways he finds no good he shall be sure to find and feel evil enough be filled Pro. 12. 21. with mischief but finds no good he may goods but no good no true good nor gain but such are all upon the losing hand yea are all the greatest losers imaginable for such lose all true joy peace and comfort here and Heaven and happiness and God himself for ever hereafter yea their own souls and what is a man profited should he gain a whole world if he lose his own soul Certainly then the sinners way and course that yet persists and goes on in his sins is the most unprofitable way and course under Heaven The way of transgressours is hard or Pro. 13. 15. sharp harsh grievous it may seem easie at present Via praevaricatorum aspera duriter ◠Deo excipiuntur c. Cart. but it will be sure to be found hard at last in the event not onely not profitable but pernicious such shall be us'd hardly 4. The absolute and indispensable necessity thereof Our turning again to God is not a thing arbitrary or indifferent but indispensably necessary Is to be blest by Christ necessary is pardon is the favour of God the shines of his face the light of his countenance necessary is to be happy in a word is heaven is salvation is eternal life and inheritance among them that are sanctified necessary is not to perish everlastingly necessary and if these be not what is certainly and undoubtedly they are most necessary and if so then is it to repent and turn to God indispensably necessary for without the one there is no attaining the other There is a double necessity 1. a necessity in regard of God's 1. Necessitas praecepti command the great God injoyns it and calls for it and that frequently and earnestly it may seem needless to mention places there are so many every where obvious and therefore there is onely one which I shall press and urge at present and that is Acts 17. 30 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the Dei praecipientis majestas world in righteousness c. Here 's that which shews it indispensably necessary God's command Bonum est poenitere an non quid revolvis Deus praecipit c. Tertull. and the majesty and greatness of that God who commands it Is it good says an Ancient to repent or not why doubtest thou God commands it it is his will c. Such was the state of those former times that God is said to wink at them which may have a double interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pati sinere and both are well worthy our weighing and considering 1. as denoting God's indulgence he did not deal so severely with them sinning but did patiently bear with them as though he had known nothing or was not angry c. because they had not those means and helps to keep them from sin as others now in these knowing times there being then much blindness darkness and ignorance yet not as if there were any such times as God wholly winked at in point of justice so as not to call them to account but comparatively he not so severely dealing with them as with knowing times but never so as to let them wholly go unpunished or not at all to call them to an account for that was inconsistent with his providence and justice for though ignorance and darkness may indeed abate and lessen the measure and degree of sin yet not totally excuse it And what then are the sins of these knowing times and days of so much clear light as we live in how shall God wink at our sins or how is it that he hath winked at them so long O the infiniteness of his patience that he should bear with us so long and not utterly consume us who sin against more light and love than ever Nation did O when shall the riches of such goodness forbearance and long suffering lead us to repentance But there is another sense and interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 negligere LXX usurpant pro indignari c. of these words which some rather imbrace as more fully laying open the meaning of the holy Ghost and as most consonant to what follows And the times of this ignorance God winked at that is he regarded not he had little respect to them of those times but let them go on in their sins as it were without check or controle that is he sent
sorts and kinds of evils whether temporal spiritual or eternal As 1. from our sins from their guilt to have them pardoned and forgiven If my people says the Lord shall humble themselves and pray and 2 Chron. 7. 14. seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I pardon their sins c. and repent ye Acts 3. 19. and be converted that your sins may be blotted out c. 2. From our sufferings miseries and calamities the mischievous fruits and effects of sin Thus the Lord promises upon his peoples turning to him not onely to pardon their sins 2 Chron. 7. 14. but also to heal their land that is remove those judgments which were as the sores and wounds of it So Hos 6. 1. Come say they and let us return unto the Lord and what then why then he that hath torn will heal us and he that hath smitten us will bind us up and v. 2. After two dayes will he revive us c. 3. As from these here so from hell and wrath and eternal death hereafter And hence repentance is said to be Acts 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. repentance unto life and repentance unto salvation and repent and turn your selves says God from your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Thus God's turning us again and causing his face to shine it remedies all peoples evils and miseries here and brings to them full salvation hereafter 6. This is the onely way for a people to be saved indeed to be sav'd to purpose and in mercy as you have heard so as in being saved to be blessed and happy and to have it well with them Thus this it is the onely way for a people to be saved and no other way will do or will or can prove soveraign or effectual either for a people or a person either for our selves or the nation no whatever other ways we take or other attempts or experiments we make without this they will all prove but abortive and to no purpose nor avail any thing but we shall perish notwithstanding And this I propose as the onely way in opposition to all worldly carnal ways and means and shifts and devices that men make use of and betake themselves to to save and secure themselves by with neglect of this but in vain and to no purpose do they do it and yet this is that to which men are very prone to run to other means and helps with neglect of this as the Scripture declares and the Lord complains when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound then went Ephraim to the Hosea 5. 13. 7. 11 12 13. Assyrian and sent to King Jareb yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound Ephraim also is like a silly Dove without heart that is simple foolish without judgment and understanding why it follows they call to Egypt they go to Assyria to aid and relieve them and neglect the onely way of their help which was to return to the Lord their God and seek him This spake them foolish and silly indeed for what says God When they shall go I will spread my net upon them I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven that is I will blast their projects and designs and make the issue of them to be their own ruine and confusion They thought to mount and soar on high but I will make them come down with a witness and hence says God Wo unto them for they have fled from me destruction unto them for they have transgressed against me that is gone on to rebell against me still in stead of turning unto me And what could betide such but ruine and destruction So in Isaiah 22. how sedulous and exact are the Jews there in their carnal policies and worldly contrivances to secure themselves but with a neglect of God and the true way of their safety which was their return to him And he discovered the covering of Judah Some Is 22. 8 9 10 11. by this Covering understand the city it self whither the people repair'd for shelter others the Temple or Sanctuary and the vain confidence they put therein others their strong holds armories or storehouses where their armes and ammunition were bestowed or what ever else it was wherein their power preparations or provisions for the safeguarding themselves and their city did consist as it follows and thou didst look in that day to the Armour of the house of the Forrest that is as is conceived the Magazine of the Kingdom ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David that they are many and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool And ye have numbred the houses of Jerusalem and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof neither had respect to him that fashioned it long ago Thus as to worldly carnal means and helps they are very sedulous and exact very precise in every punctilio they neither spare for pains nor cost but they neglecting the main which was to repent and turn to God and which God then in a more special manner did call for v. 12. all the other availed them nothing neither did they or could they save or secure them And hence the Lord expostulates the case with them as concerning their folly and vanity therein Jer. 2. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way running for help sometimes to one party one way and sometimes another way or to change thy way that is the way I have prescribed thee and should be thy way as if the Lord had said thou knowest well enough the way of thy weal thy way to be saved and why then doest thou gad up and down to find out new ways and to try other ways why they shall avail thee nothing thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast asham'd of Assyria as if the Lord had said they shall all serve thee alike as thou hast been deceiv'd and been befool'd by the one so shalt thou also be by the other yea v. 37. Thou shalt go forth from him and thine hands upon thine head i. e. with sorrow shame and disgrace whereof this was a sign as it is said of Tamar when ravished 2 Sam. 13. 19. by her Brother Amnon that she laid her hand on her head and went on crying for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences that is all thy vain refuges and ways which thou seekest and betakest thy self to out of God's way the Lord hath rejected them or as some despised them scorn'd them and as it were derided them and thy folly in imagining to save and secure thy self by them And thou shalt not prosper in them for Ezek. 24. 12. they are but lies as the Lord tels Jerusalem elsewhere she hath wearied her self with lies that is
such a wasting pestilence and such devouring flames and many other judgments and yet such of us as have been spar'd and were pull'd as fire-brands out of the burning how few of us have repented and are turned to the Lord. May not the Lord justly take up the same complaint against England as he did against Israel I have sent among you the pestilence after Amos 4. 10 11. the manner of Egypt your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses c. yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord. Strangers Hos 7. 9 10. have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth it not And the pride of Israel doth testifie to his face and they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this and Is 1. 5. why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more c. The bellows are burnt the Jer. 6. 29. lead is consumed of the fire the founder melteth in vain c. I gave them space to repent but they Revel 2. 21. 9. 20. did not repent And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands c. How have we despised the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the Rom. 2. 4. goodness of God leadeth us to repentance that is not onely affords us time and space to repent but gives us reason to repent but after the hardness and impenitency of our hearts we have gone on to treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God The Lord hath been hearkning and hearing and may he not justly complain of us as of the Jews of old but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness Jerem. 8. 6. saying what have I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel When the hand of the Lord hath been lifted up we have refused to see it and though his judgments are in the earth yet learn we not righteousness We have not said what have we done but have not some in the pride and stoutness of their hearts been ready to say what they would do even as those in Isaiah The bricks are fallen Isa 9. 9 10 down say they but we will build with hewen stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars i. e. as if they had said our houses indeed are down but what then we value it not we will build fairer and better and will have our streets now broader Thus this is all that they made then that many make now of what the Lord hath done not to be be brought thereby to consider what they have done thus to undo so famous a City but to resolve what they will do as to rearing and bertering their houses but not as to reforming their hearts and lives and therefore the Lord threatens he will set up their enemies and joyn Isa 9. 11 12. them against them both before and behind to devour them with open mouth and yet his anger is not turned away but his hand stretched out still If indeed not to turn again to God but rather more and more away from God and to turn still unto sin and every one to his course as the horse rushes into the battel yea to wax worse and worse and to have our tongues and doings more and more against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory If Atheism profaneness licentiousness superstition idolatry strange doctrines errours heresres schisms apostacies hypocrisies infidelity pride headiness high mindedness hardness of heart carnal security presumption incorrigibleness under judgments unthankfulness for mercies unfruitfulness under means hatred of God and the power of godliness contempt of his word and ways slighting and despising his ordinances resisting and grieving and doing despite unto his Spirit treading under foot his Son crucifying of him as it were afresh and putting him to open shame if shamelesness in sin declaring it as Sodom and hiding it not if swearing cursing blaspheming prophaning God's Name and Sabbaths if murder bloud touching bloud adulteries fornications wantonness lasciviousness and all manner of filthiness and uncleanness if drunkenness gluttony luxury peoples making their belly their God and being lovers of pleasures more than of him glorying in their shame if cruelty unmercifulness maliciousness despightfulness bitterness unrigteousness oppression fraudulent and unjust dealing lying slandering censuring reviling variance strife debate differences divisions emulations selfishness covetousness earthly-mindedness c. In a word if an inundation of all manner of wickedness and debauchery imaginable and the Nation becoming a very sink of vice or at best to have but onely a form of Godliness but to deny the power thereof and if for God in stead of causing his face to shine upon us to hide it from us and to turn his back upon us and to manifest his sore displeasure against us as he hath done alate in regard of those heavy judgments he hath sent among us dealing with us as he threatned to deal with Jerusalem And I will set my face against Exek 15. 7. them they shall go out from one fire and another fire shall devour them And has not God dealt so with us We were scarce got out of one fire which devoured our bodies which from above the Lord sent into our bones into our strongest parts that is sore plagues and pains which like a fire did pierce deep into and consume the most solid and strongest parts of the body as Jerusalem complains Lam. 1. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them and against how many thousands of families and persons did that fierce and furious fire of the pestilence prevaile And scarce as I said were we got out of that fire but another fire brake forth which devoured our houses and estates and are there not still many sad symptoms of his displeasure upon us and for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And if these now were the way for a people to be saved we were a Nation in as likely a way and posture to be saved as ever Nation was under heaven but if for a people to turn again unto God from their sins and for God to cause his face to shine be the way for a people to be saved and the onely way as indeed it is then the Lord have mercy upon us for we are a Nation in as unlikely a way and posture to be saved as ever Nation was and if we go on
onely asleep but dead and yet quickened and not onely dark but darkness it self in the abstract and yet made light in the Lord. If sinners indeed had never heard of any great sinners that God had turned again from their sins to himself or that it was not better with them then than before when they served their lusts they might have the more plea but there are many presidents in sacred Writ and if with mourning and humiliation thou turnest with them thou shalt be happy with them We find in the 15. of Luke that the Prodigal there went a great way off from his father he took his journey not into some neer adjacent parts but into a far countrey and there he spends all makes himself a meer bankrupt so that he falls to feed Swine and feeds on the husks that the Swine did eat and yet could not have his belly full of them neither and yet this Prodigal he is brought to himself and brought home again to his father and there he is kist and embrac'd and has the best his fathers house can afford How exceeding far had Manasseh turn'd away from God yea how exceedingly had he turn'd against him we scarce read of any that ever did worse read 2 Chron. 33. from the 1. v. to the 10. 2 Kings 21. from the 1. v. to the 17. It is said he used inchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards and wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger he made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom c. and yet Manasseh is made a Convert and turn'd again to the Lord the Lord he turns to Manasseh and turns Manasseh again to himself So what a persecutor was Paul he breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord c. Acts 9. 1 2. yea as himself says he was exceedingly mad against them Acts 26. 11. and yet this persecutor is turned to be a Preacher and to prosecute what he formerly sought to destroy Mary Magdalene had seven Devils lodging Numerus certus pro incerto in her that is many and yet Jesus Christ casts them all out and makes that heart where so many Devils had lodged fit for himself to lodg in who had the seven Spirits of God and she who had been so vile and miserable he appears Mark 16. 9. first to and makes the first witness of his resurrection And such were some of you what 1 Cor. 6. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haeceratis quilibet such kind of things he does not say such men or women but such kind of things as if the Apostle knew not how to stile them nor what to call them and therefore he puts it in the Neuter Gender such kind of things O they were sad and strange kind of things indeed and yet of such kind of things God makes something of yea makes blessed things of but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God It matters not much whither or from whence we are fallen if the Lord undertake but to raise us nor whither we are wandered or Junius before his conversion is said to be an Atheist but afterward became very pious stiled the Glory of Leyden where we are wilder'd if he undertake but to reduce us nor how far we are turned aside or turned away if he undertake but to turn us again no matter what is the sickness if he be but the Physician and undertakes the cure he can do good of any one be it who it will that is very encouraging to poor sinners which he said to Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7. My grace is sufficient for thee it is sufficient for the greatest of sinners his accepting grace is sufficient and his sanctifying renewing grace is sufficient one is sufficient against all our unworthiness and the other is sufficient against all our uncapableness and unfitness one is sufficient to put God upon doing what is to be done and the other is sufficient for to do it one as to motive the other as to efficacy he can make dry bones live and is Ezek. 37. 5 6 7. Matth. 3. 9. able of stones to raise children to Abraham he can change condition and disposition pardon and purge justifie and sanctifie yea do every thing and perform all things And therefore let all even such as have turn'd farthest aside from God be encouraged to go unto God and to call upon him and cry unto him to perform all things for them for all things are of him and to Psal 57. 2. perform this for them to turn them again and cause his face to shine Say Lord thou commandest us to turn O do thou make us to turn it is thy precept that we should turn Lord according to thy promise give us grace for to turn Turn us and we shall be turned convert us and we shall be converted we have turned aside after the world and vanity and sin yea after Satan but O turn us again to thy self we have turned aside to our own ways and after our own lusts but O turn us again to thee and thy ways thou sayest Return ye back-sliding children and I Jerem. 3. 22. will heal your back slidings and Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God that thou mayest cause us and inable us to return for the way of man is not in himself it is not in man Jer. 10. 23. that walketh to direct his steps turn us therefore and we shall be turned and thou who givest us space to repent give us grace to repent and to turn to thee and that with a true hearty real and universal turn Lord every thing within us is turned from thee and is averse to thee yea is turned against thee and therefore do thou by thy grace cause all to turn again to thee mind will heart affections all within us and all without us that so we may not be half but whole Converts and our conversion may not be partial but total and universal of the whole man and from all evill and to all that is good Salvation is said to belong unto the Lord and his blessing Psal 3. 8. to be upon his people and let us beg that the Lord would thus save us and not onely us our selves but others also ours his people and that this blessing may be upon us all the blessing of turning us all again to himself and of causing his face to shine the blessing of saving conversion and of Divine favour and affection that the Lord would thus save and bless the Nation this Kingdom Church State Cities Towns Families houses hearts even with the great Gospel-blessing of Jesus Christ raised from the Acts 3. 26. dead in turning us all from our sins and iniquities to himself Lord thus bless the house of