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
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
neglected the worke or would not bee perswaded throughly to act the duty of Repentance The Lord saw this dangerous obstinacy and pitties it and strives with them to save their soules that they might by this meanes save their Countrey The way he spreads before them is expressed Partly in verse 1. If thou wilt Returne O Israel saith the Lord Returne unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight then thou shalt not Remove q. d. leave thy sinnes and save all Thou hast made many overtures and semblances thereof by Fastings by confessings by prayings Adde now one thing more Repent in good earnest This will bee life to your solemnities and safetie to your Nation Partly in ver 3. Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thornes q. d. If you do not Repent you are undone if you doe repent but not throughly you wil be undone too hypocrisie in good duties as well as profanenesse in bad wayes may ruine a person and Nation A man may as surely be drowned in a ship that hath a leake as when he hath no ship at all Therefore pretend Repentance no longer but act it and when you doe act it act it not slightly but exactly become good and do good to purpose If you regard and follow this Counsell Then as in ver 1. you shall not remove but if you will not hearken unto it then as in ver 4. My fury shall come forth like fire and burne that none can quench it because of the evill of your doings The words of my Text containe in them the principall works of this day which are two 1. A serious humiliation unto which the Iewes are exhorted in these words Break up your Fallow ground 2. A dextrous Reformation delivered unto them by way of caution And sow not among thornes There must bee not a little rasing but a breaking nor a meere breaking but a breaking up and when that is done there must bee a sowing too but every sowing must not serve the turne It must bee such a sowing as may come to something It must not be a sowing among thornes The field which I am at this time to worke upon and goe over you see is very large there is much more ground in it then I can conveniently breake up and sow I shall though by that Gods assistance who only is the Maker and breaker of hearts set upon the whole worke and Hee in tender mercy so accompany and water and prosper His truths this day that all our Fallow grounds may bee broken up and then so graciously sowne in righteousnesse that wee and all the land may shortly Reape in mercy I begin with the first part Breake up your Fallow ground That these words are to be understood not literally but metaphorically I make no question that any who heares me doth question Interpreters though do vary something in their conjectures Tertullian by fallow ground understands the old Law which hee Adversus Iudaeos c. 3. saith is to be broken up by the new Law he meanes the Gospel an exposition much impertinent and too wide Cassianus understands by it the Heathens and Pagans and other secular persons nor is this conjecture apt to the Text. Cyprian drawes nearer to the sense who by fallow ground understands Mores popusi the conversations of the Iewes and Cyril of Alexandria who by it understands Animum sylvescentem an heart like the wildernesse wilde and destitute of all pious culture and Chrysostome yet more exactly by fallow ground understands cordis profundum the very Core and depths of a sinfull heart So then to stop all quotations the fallow ground The Fallow ground is the sinfull heart is nothing else but the sinfull estate of a person or Nation And it is very aptly so described by reason of that consimilitude which the one hath with the other For First Fallow ground is a barren piece of earth a Tohu and Bohu as at the first voyd of all excellency and beauty There is not one graine of good seed So resembled in three re in it nor any one delightfull flower such a desart is mans sinfull heart It is a very Inane Nihilum vanity and vanity no divine excellency is to be found there Not any one effect nor any one seed of spirituall inclination For this It may answer as the depth did for wisedome It is not in me Iob 28. 14. Secondly Fallow ground is usually an indigested Thicket lumbred all over with weedes and Briars and Thornes and Thistles that originall curse which befell the Earth for mans transgression And such a piece also is mans sinfull heart Though it bee but a barren Wildernesse for any good yet it is an ample Ocean for all that is evill and hurtfull The upper part of his field hath in it an abundance of thornes unprofitable thoughts hurtfull cares wounding errors and the lower part of his field is as full of stinking weedes vile affections as the Apostle calls them the best fruits of him are but as a briar to scratch himselfe and to catch and intangle others with sin Lastly Fallow ground is an hardned part of earth extreamly compacted by the influences of the sun and windes and by its owne native inclination so that it is not an easie thing to sever it and dispose it for a better use just so is a naturall or sinfull heart It is so troden and seared obdurated partly by the frequent repetition of sinful acts and partly by the intension of sinfull delights that it is not only defective of good but also very active against it unyeelding resisting and fighting against all heavenly counsels and motions The man is evill and will be so he is not good nor will he be so unlesse God by an insuperable vertue of his own spirit makes him to be so We have found what the fallow ground is let us in the next place inquire what the breaking of it up The breaking up what is Then the Fallow ground is broken up when the Husbandman comes with his Plow and enters that plow into it deepely enters it even into the Bowels of the ground and then rents and teares it and turns it upside downe Not in one Furrow but in every Furrow once twice perhaps thrice if need so requires Even so the sinfull heart is broken up when the Almighty and gracious God whom Christ calls the Husbandman comes with his Word and Spirit and Alta voce as St. Austine speaks or virtute magnifica Iohn 15. 1. as Ber. speaks enters into the heart or soule of a sinner by irresistable convincings and by efficacious humblings which are as rentings and tearings to the ground and by rooting up the dominion and love of all sins The Scriptures sometimes call this worke a touching sometimes a pricking sometimes a troubling Acts 2. 37. 1 Sam. 1. 5. Psal 34. 18. Prov. 18. 14. Isa 42. 3. Ioel 2. 13. 2 King 22. 19.
sometimes a wounding sometimes a bruising sometimes a breaking sometimes a renting sometimes a killing and sometimes an humbling and melting of the heart And this is it which God calls for in the Text from the Iewes as a meanes to prevent their utter destruction by the sword of the Caldeans whence the proposition which I shall in the first place insist on is this Doctr. 1 That the breaking up of sinfull hearts Is a singular meanes to prevent the breaking downe of a sinfull Nation THere are three things unto which I shall speake for the explication of this assertion Namely 1. What the right breaking of a sinfull heart is which is so availeable to prevent the breaking downe of a sinfull Nation 2. Some demonstrations that it is a preventing meanes 3. The Reasons why it is so For the first quaere what the right breaking up of a Quest 1. a sinfull heart is Be pleased to know that there is a twofold Breaking of a sinners heart Sol. 1. One is specious only and formall supersicie tenus The heart broken for sin 2 Wayes 1. Formally as Saint Bernard speakes as Artificiall Juglars seem to wound themselves but do not or as Players seeme to thrust themselves through their bodies but the sword passeth only through their clothes There is something done about sins but nothing is done against sins peccata raduntur sed non eradicantur as the same Auhor speaketh which he truely calls a Fiction and vanity As when men onely lop the Trees which thereupon in time grow the faster and thicker Against this breaking the Prophet of old much complained They in Isaiah hung downe their heads and afflicted their soules for a day but for all that they Esa 58. 5 3 still afflicted their poore brethren And they in Hosea did howle but yet they did still rebell against the Hosea 7. 14. Lord And they in Malachy did cry out and cover Malach. 2. 13. 11. the Altar with Teares and yet for all their pretended contrition they did profane the holinesse of their God And though the Pharisees did assume unto themselves a most mortified garbe of humbling especially in their dayes of Fasting disfiguring their faces as Christ reports of them yet their hearts were as loose as full of pride and covetousnesse and envie Matth. 6. 16. and opposition of Christ as ever 2. Another is serious and Reall which is acted most in the hidden man and pierceth like the word Hebr. 4. 12. even to the dividing of soule and spirit of which likewise there are two kindes one is stiled Attrition and the other is styled Contrition by the Schoolemen the former by our Casuists is called a legall breaking and the latter an Evangelicall breaking They difference them thus partly 1. By their objects Penall evill is the object on which Attrition doth worke and sinfull evill is the object on which Contrition worketh the one is conversant about passive evill that is the evill which wee suffer but the other is conversant about Active evill that is the evill which wee have done For sinne hath in it two qualities one to make us unhappie and this Attrition lookes at another to make us unholy and at this doth contrition look 2. By their causes legall Attrition is onely the pinching of servile feare and despaire for it seeth nothing but Sea all that will teare and distract the Conscience but Evangelicall contrition is the melting and lamenting of filiall Love and Hope The frownes of a Revenging Judge causeth that but the smiles of a gracious Father raiseth this In the one the heart is shivered by the flashes of Hell In the other the heart is melted by the beames of Heaven A stroke from guilt brake Judas's heart into despaire but a looke from CHRIST brake Peters heart into teares 3. By their effects an Attrite heart may for that space of time whiles the Conscience burnes and flames with wrath become negatively penitent Non proponit peccare It doth not purpose to sin the sensible anguish for former sinnings may suspend delightfull intentions for future sins but the contrite heart out of a contrariety of nature becomes positively holy proponit non peccare It doth Cordially purpose not to sin any more All which if I mistake not is the same that Cajetan aimes at when hee saith that Attrition produceth velleitatem an imperfect motion of the will but contrition produceth voluntatem a compleat and direct will against sin But this discourse I feare is too speculative for this dayes worke give mee leave therefore to open the nature of this penitentiall heart breaking in a more practicall and profitable way There are severall workings which ordinarily concurre to the full constituting of this heart-breaking worke whereof some are Antecedent some are formally ingredient and some are inseparably consequent 1. The Antecedent workings are such as previously lead the way to the Evangelicall breaking as Antecedents to heart breaking three the Needle doth to the threed and the breaking by the hammer doth to the melting by the fire by way of order only and not by causality These are principally three 1. A Notionall Irradiation The Lord never breakes a sinners heart before hee hath opened a sinners 1. Irradiation eyes the day breakes before the heart breakes light breakes to elevate the soule thus far to discerne and distinguish of evill till then sin is no burden to the Conscience nor trouble to the affections As no good wrapt up in darkenesse excites desire so no evill swath'd up in Ignorance strikes any trouble or sorrow unknowne things have not motive faculty because they are as non entia no things at all And therefore God ever keepes this method to make sin appeare to be sin and afterwards to humble and break our hearts for it 2. A practicall conviction which is nothing else but a personall application of guilt wrath without 2. Conviction which the notion of sin would be no trouble let me open my minde thus unto you That drunkennesse or swearing or whoredome or murder or Sabbath breaking c. are sins And that such persons who are guilty of them without Repentance shall not inherit the kingdome of God All this the sinner knowes already and yet is not troubled for as long as light rests in a bare Notion it is only an addition to his understanding It is no burden at all to his heart But when this light slips downe and chargeth this sinne and this wrath upon this very person and shines so clearely in this charge that the person cannot for his life deny it thou art a drunkard thou art this swearer c. And hereupon in the name of God arrests him with that wrath which God hath threatned unto that sinne and sinner now the sinner begins to consider and tremble and breake When Peter closed with the Jewes and convinced Acts 2. 36 37. them that they in particular crucified Iesus
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
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