of She-â—hem Jndg. 9.7 Hearken I beseech you unto me that the Lord may hearken unto you I know the desire of your soule is to doe good to your poore Country your hearts cannot but yearne towards your distressed mother and I hope with many of you as this is the time of Jacobs trouble so 't is of Iacobs wrestling too Hos. 12.4 by strong cries and teares that the Lord would turne away from his fierce wrath compose our bloudy distractions and heale our Land Do you desire that God should heare you Why then hearken unto him 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God he will heare the prayer of the humble and what ever our present condition be he will exalt us in due time Ps 10.17 if your owne hearts tell you that you have not beene humbled even unto this day why then write the name of this day let your hearts be humbled before the Lord this day God forbid that any one of us should carry an unhumbled heart out of this house of mourning but when we are gone hence let us enter every one into his owne Closet and there powre out his afflicted soule in sighes and groanes and teares and prayers before the Lord for his owne sinnes and the sinnes of the Kingdome Oh let us make this day a day of Attonement for our selves and this whole nation When Benhadad was quite vanquish't By Ahab he sent his servants with sackcloth upon their loynes and ropes upon their necks which came to the King of Israel and said Thy servant Benhadad saith 1 Kign 2â— 32 I pray thee let me live the incouragement they had to do this was because they heard the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings Let us do so this day humble our selves in fasting and teares and begg our lives and the life of this poore Kingdome at Gods hands he is a mercifull God say unto him This expiring Church and dying Kingdome say we pray thee let us live O let us not deferre any longer to humble our selves I have heard of thee by the hearing of the care saith Iob but now mine eye seeth thee Job 42.5 6. wherefore I abhorr my selfe in dust and ashes we have heard long since by the hearing of the care what destructions God hath wrought upon the Earth we have heard of the Desolations of Jerusalem and many other Cities and Kingdomes of old and of Germany and Ireland of late the report is still bleeding new Oh distressed Ireland and happy had we beene had their examples awaked us that we our selves might not have beene made an History to others but now that we have seene him by the eye in the way of his judgements what will become of us if we do not humble and abhorre our selves It is sayed Rev. 9.20 That though the third part of men were killed yet the remnant that were not slaine by the plagues repented not of the workes of their hands neither repented they of their murthers nor of their sorceries nor of their fornications nor of their thefts O let it not be sayd of us of this Nation us of this place that though the sword and the sicknesse have slaine shall I say a 3d part of the Kingdome we know that many thousands are already fallen in England the sword is not yet put up into the sheath nor the coÌ„mission to destroy taken from the pestilence O let it not I say be sayd of us that are as yet spared from destruction that we have not repented of the workes of our hands much lesse let that be verified of us which is spoken of the Nations Rev. 16.8 9. That when the fourth Angel had poured out his viall upon the Sunn and power was given him to scorch men with fire the men were scorched with great heate and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over those plagues and they repented not to give him the glory The destroying Angel hath poured out the viall of Gods wrath upon the Sun of our peace former prosperity Through the anger of the Lord of Hosts is the whole land darkened the fire that is kindled in all our dwellings hath scorched some of our persons consumed many of our estates the Lord forbid that this great affliction should enrage our spirits to blaspheme the name of that God who hath power over those plagues or that this great sin should be laid to the charge of the inhabitants of this Kingdome that notwithstanding all the judgments upon them yet they repented not to give God the glory But let us rather make them our patternes who are propounded to us as examples of repentance in times of distresse and wrestle with God this day by unfained contrition for that blessing which we cannot obtaine at the hands of men Oh what would many of us give had we it to give for that blessing which lately was as a price in the hand of fooles Now what more doth God require of us for the redemption of this inestimable Pearle but onely this that we should humble our selves Honourable and Beloved there have beene many hopefull wayes taken for the recovery of our lost Peace your endeavours have exprest your hearty desires to compose our unnaturall divisions by an happy accommodation the Royall tongue hath prevented me in the acknowledgement of your paines this way the Lord reward it unto you and all those that are thus minded and the blessing of the Peace-makers ever rest upon you But the many and great sinnes of this Nation have blasted the successe and as yet hid these good things from us What remaines now but that Ye and We and all of us by uncessant prayers and teares importune the throne of grace and humble our selves before the God of peace for the blessing of peace Oh but methinkes I heare some say Alas my heart notwithstanding all that hath beene said is yet hard and unhumbled Can you give me some receit that may break it and melt it into teares of Repentance Take this breise prescription and carry it home along with thee in the first place Zech. 1â— 10 pray to God that he would poure out upon thee the spirit of grace and supplication Begge a looke from Christ there is a vertue in Christ his looke to peirce the hardest heart Luke 22.61 62. Respice Domine Iesu ut sciamus nostrum de â—lere delictum Ambrose Psal 147.18 Ios 15.19 and to soften it into godly sorrow and remorse for it's sinnes Jesus looked backe and Peter went out and wept bitterly The fountaine of penitent teares is in heaven our hearts are naturally dry like the desarts of Arabia untill he that turnes the wildernesse into a standing poole and the dry ground into springs of waters causeth his spirit to blow up on them and then the waters shall flow Goe to God with that request which Achsa did to her Father Give me O Lord the springs of water the upper and the nether springs that I may weep for our distresse but more for our sinnes In the next place raise up thy soule upon the wings of heavenly meditation and fly up to Mount Golgotha and there looke upon him whom thou hast peirced Consider him in his bitter agony sweating drops of bloud trickling downe to the ground In those consternations of spirit trembling under the unsupportable burden of his Fathers wrath hanging upon the Crosse nail'd hands and feet forsaken of men and in his owne sense of God too breathing out his afflicted soule in a loud cry And then reflect upon thy selfe not onely as the Author of all Heb. 6.6 but also as one that by thy knowne wilful presumptuous sinnes hast often crucified him afresh and put him to an open shame The fountaine of bloud opened in Christs side for the expiation of sinne will open a fountaine of teares in thy heart for the commission of it They shall looke upon him whom they have peirced and they shall mourne for him as one mournes for his onely sonne and shall be in bitternesse for him Zech. 22.10 as one is in bitternesse for his first borne Now the Lord in mercy bring home and settle that which hath beene spoken at this time upon every one of our hearts Amen FINIS
stormes of bloud would blow over and the sunne of Gods favour which is now hidden shine forth that we which the Lord in mercy grant and this whole Nation might see the salvation of our God I come now to the point When Gods wrath is revealed from heaven against a Nation in the way of his judgements then 't is high time for them to be humbled For the carrying on of which point I shall propound and endeavour to resolve these 3 Questions 1. What it is to be humbled and consequently what the sin is of which the Jewes stand charged in the Text they are not humbled 2ly Why 't is said that when Gods Judgements are upon a people then 't is high time for them to be humbled These 2 in Thesi And 3ly In Hypothesi to put our owne Case what cause we of this Nation have to be humbled at this day Having dispatcht these I shall then by Gods grace close up all with a seasonable application For the first what it is to be humbled I answere that it is not to be understood passively in this sense never Nation more humbled then they in the Text they were humiliati à Deo a people formerly exalted in Gods favour above all other in the world indeed they were his only by way of eminency and distinction His people but now not only degraded from that dignity but expos'd as the greatest object of contempt and wonder How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast downe from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstoole in the day of his anger Lam. 2.1 All the Chronicles in the world cannot match the sad downefall of this People Peceatum humiliaverat sinne had taken off their Crowne from their heades and deprived them of their exellency they were humiliati but not humiles ipsi se non humiliaverunt they did not humble themselves 't is an active humiliation the neglect whereof is upbraided here unto them and of which God and the Prophet complaine They are not humbled even unto this day This active humiliation or selfe humbling implies 3 things 1. A sense both of sinne and the punishment a tendernesse of heart oppos'd to that the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Tertullians language Duricordia the hardnesse and unmalleablenesse of heart uncapable of any horror of sinne or impressions of wrath that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or indolentia stupidity and desperate senselessenesse of our hand against God and his against us when though the fierce wrath of God lies upon us yet we feele it not Heb. 12. â— a despising of Chastisement a not laying to heart of our owne wayes and of Gods our sinnes and his judgements a stupidity frequently charg'd against this people one place only I shall mention it comes home to our present case Esa 42.24 25. Who gave Iacob to the spoile and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walke in his wayes neither were they obedient unto his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battell and he hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Here is a perfect and full Character of an unhumbled people to lye under the guilt of the greatest sins and the pressure of the sorest Judgments and yet to remaine insensible of either not to lay them to heart 2ly Contrition Tremelius and some others render it nondum attriti and upon our owne Margent according to the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrivit comminuâ—â— we have contrite for humbled in the Text They are not contrite even unto this day The heart is then humbled when it is broken in peices hence those two phrases are joined together in Scripture Psal 51.17 The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a contrite and broken heart cor contritum humiliatum O Lord thou wilt not despise It is called an abhorring of our selves in dust and ashes in Iob's phrase a rending of the heart in Ioeumll's a being in bitternesse in Zecharie's Afflicting of the soule in Moses Confusion of face in Daniel's a laying of the mouth in the dust in Ieremie's it is called Compunction or the pricking of the heart when sinne becomes as a thorne in the spirit and as a dagger at the heart it is said of Saint Peters hearers Act. 2.37 That they were pricked at the heart when the heart is smitten within the thigh without Ephraim's posture whom we find Jer. 31.19 thus bemoaning himselfe under his chastisement Surely saith he after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth When the inward greife of the heart doth expresse it selfe outwardly in sighes and teares the affliction of the soule in that of the body by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Is Pelusiot termes them Fasting and Sackcloth I clothed me with sackcloth and humbled my soule with fasting Psal 35.13 When the soule and the body which like Simeon and Levi were confederates in sinne shall sympathize in their sufferings and exercise a mutuall revenge upon themselves for the offences they have done when with David we shall wash that bed with our teares which we have defiled with our sinnes when those eies which before darted out rayes and sparkles of Lust shall streame forth waters to wash and those haires curl'd and frizl'd up to provoke dalliance shall hang downe to wipe our Saviours feet as Mary Magdalens In breife when the soule comes to be surprized with the horror of it's owne guilt and the feare of Gods Judgments and is more afflicted with bitternesse at the review of the dearest and most adored sinne then ever it was affected with delight in the commission of it The 3d thing implied in this active humiliation is a taking of shame to our selves and giving God the glory of his Iudgments according to the Counsell of Ioshuah to Achan My sonne give God the glory Joâ— 7 19. This is called the confession of our sinne and acceptance of our punishment as in that signall place Lev. 26.41 a place very worthy our notice as in which we may read both our duty and hopes in this our present distresse The Lord having there mustered before the Children of Israel a whole Army of plagues which he threatens to let in upon them in case of disobedience and from time to time to recruit against them with the vast accession of new and seven times greater calamities in case of Rebellion opens a doore of hope unto them even in the very worst condition If they shall confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers and their trespasses which they have trespassed against
Oh there is a transcendent malignity in that sin which God that is infinite in mercy as it were knowes not how to pardon The Psalmist mentions it as the greatest aggravation of the Israelites Rebellion against God that they sinned yet more by provoking the most High in the wildernesse a place wherein God had given them so many ocular demonstrations of his indignation against their Rebellion Psal 78.17 yea 't is added if it be capable of any further degree of guilt The wrath of the Lord came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote downe the chosen men of Israel yet for all this they sinned still vers 31 32. There is onely one place more I shall minde you of I beseech you to lay it to heart I almost tremble to recite it because I greatly feare and I am perswaded your owne hearts will beare me witnesse this day that the guilt of that sinne lyes heavy upon the most of us the place is Isa 22.12 and some verses following In that day viz. a day of trouble and treading downe and perplexity by the Lord of Hosts as 't is called vers 5. did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloath and behold joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheepe eating flesh an drinking wine eating and drinking for tomorrow we shall dye And it was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord of Hosts ly Not to be humbled in times of distresse is the Character of a hopelesse People the blacke marke upon a man or Nation designed to ruine It is the property of the damned in Hell to be tormented and sinne to be tormented and to blaspheme God because of their torments To be more obstinate under plagues and to drive on then in sinne when God takes off their Chariot wheels and declares himself manifestly from heaven against them is the signe of a Pharaoh's heart and of that people that God will drowne in the red Sea of his wrath For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them neither doe they seeke the Lord of Hosts Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile branch and rush in one day Isa 9.13 14. This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth Cut off thine haire ôh Ierusalem and cast it away and take up a lamentation upon high places for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath Jer. 7.28 29. A Father that after all gentle wayes frequently tried without successe at last finds his child obstinate under the rod gives him over as a lost child A Chirurgion that after all corrosions and lancings and mutilation of joints finds the Gangrene to spread further into the body lookes upon his patient as hopelesse of Cure And King Ahaztrespassed yet more in his destresse and the Holy Ghost points him out to the world as an eternall object of reproach and wonder This is that King Ahaz as if he had said Oh all ye that passe by did ye ever heare of such a man as this did ye ever read of one whom the sense of judgements embitter'd into the height of impiety why this is the man This is that King Ahaz These severer remedies are the last course God takes if that faile Conclamatum est the case is desperate you may write upon their Gates THE LORD HAVE MERCY UPON THEM The Lord shall smite Egypt saith the Prophet Isaiah he shall smite and heale is and the shall returne even to the Lord and he shall be intreated of them and he shall heale them Isa 19.22 Gods Rod as 't is said of Achilles speare hath a vertue to heale those wounds it makes Now how the Lord smote Egypt to heale it we read at the 2d verse of that Chapter I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight every one against his brother and every one against his neighbour City against City and Kingdome against Kingdome The Example applies it selfe This one would thinke a strange course to make whole by dashing in peices to bring things into order by confusion to reconcile by dissention to raise up the happinesse of a people upon the foundation of a civill Warre Yet this is the course sometimes of the great Phisitian of Nations who can bring light out of darkenesse and allay the most violent poyson into an Antidote he will smite and heale them if this way succed not we may conclude then that their wound is greivous and their bruise incurable Ier 30.12 The Scripture sets forth this Method of Gods dealing with Nations under the type of sundry most expressive Metaphors Hos 6.4.5 O Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Iudah what shall I doe unto thee I have hewen them by my Prophets and slaine them by the words of my mouth and thy judgements are as the light that goeth forth A Trope taken from the Mason or Carpenter who doth square and cut the stone or timber to make it sit for the building or such purposes as they are designed to by the Artificer unto which if after all their paines they prove uselesse and unserviceable then he throwes them away as good for nothing I have slaine them by the words of my mouth The Prophets I have sent have denounc't against them all the curses in the booke of the Law and declared to them that they are but dead men if they perservere in their sinnes yea moreover and thy Iudgements have beene like the light that goeth forth Thou Lord hast made knowne thy displeasure against them in the sight of the Nations but they like men have transgressed they have dealt treacherously against me God having ran his whole course with them seemes not now as it were to know what further to doe O Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee The Lord in Ezek. 24.3 sets forth the desperate filthinesse of Ierusalem by a pot whose scum could not be consumed the Prophet there is commanded to set on a pot Set it on and also poure water into it then to put in the best pieces of flesh every choice bone after that to make them boile when this course prevailes not to get out the scumme the Prophet from God pronounceth a Woe against it Wherefore thus saith the Lord God Woe to the bloudy City to the pot whose scumme is therein and whose scumme is not gone out of it But yet God doth not give it off here there 's one course remaines yet to purge out the scumme and that he takes if any thing can doe it 't is that He commands the Prophet to empty the pot to make the pile for fire great to heape on wood and kindle the fire and then to set
you and they as much united in guilt as Conjugall Contract will dye together in the same sinnes have ye no compassion upon your poore Infants those innocent sucklings that have not as yet contracted the guilt of your Rebellion Are ye content there should remaine no other remembrance of Iudah but onely of your sinnes and my wrath would ye willingly stand as an eternall monument to the whole world of divine Fury a reproach and a Curse So that posterity shall make mention of your name onely in their solemne Execrations The Lord make thee a Curse and an astonishment as he did Ierusalem and Iudah Or what doe you flatter your selves with hopes of impunity in Egypt doe you thinke to find security in that place whither you have carried downe with you my Curse and your old sins is Jerusalem destroyed and shall Egypt goe free Have all my Judgements upon you beene like the beating of the aire by the wings of a bird in his flight that leaves no footsteps or remembrance behind him Have ye forgotten the wickednesse of your Fathers and of your Kings Have your Fathers nay your Kings been made to drinke deepe of the cup of my Fury and shall you escape who were kept alive onely because ye were the poorest of the people Cannot all the Calamities you have suffered bring you upon your knees and melt your hearts into contrition for your sinnes I should have thought that the long tract of time and the severe discipline I have used might long e're this day have led you quite home to repentance But alas what shall I say of you you have not even to this day so much as set one foot in the way thither Nondum humiliati all the Judgements you have suffered have not made any no nor the least impression upon you God himselfe seemes amaz'd at this and to be at a stand as well as the Prophet and to want an expression to reach the height of this obstinacy and therefore breakes off in an admiration at the desperate perversenesse of this People by way of Epiphonema in the words of the Text They are not humbled even unto this day These words are Onus Iudae in terrâ Aegypti The Burden of those Jewes who contrary to Gods prohibition and their own protestation were gone downe into Egypt In them you may please to observe with me these three particulars 1. A duty implied the performance whereof the great Judgements of God so long upon them call'd for all their hands and the want whereof he here upbraides to them by way of admiration and that is Humiliation they should have beene humbled 2ly The neglect of that duty censured They are not humbled 3ly The Aggravation of that neglect 1. from the persons guilty They the Jewes Gods owne people that could not pretend Ignorance of their duty nor of the equity thereof 2ly From the Circumstance of time even unto this day Time they had and teaching enough to have learn'd their duty but yet after all instructions and invitations thereunto by the tenders of mercy all comminations against them for their obstinacy yea moreover and not onely after some scatterings of wrath upon themselves in lesser Judgements but also after as dreadfull a Tempest of vengeance as ever fell upon a people Even unto this day They are not humbled even unto this day These are the parts of the Text the sense whereof may be resolved into these three propositions 1. From the duty implied that which this people ought de jure to have done when Gods hand was against them in those terrible Judgements the Inference is That when Gods wrath is revealed from heaven against a 1 Propos people in the way of his Judgements it is high time then for them to be humbled 2ly From the neglect of this duty in that the Jewes de facto in their greatest distresse under the sorest Judgements were not humbled I conclude That a people in outward Covenant with God 2 Prop. may even under the extremity of the greatest Judgements remaine unhumbled 3ly From the aggravation of this neglect both in respect of the guilt it laies upon such a people in this verse and the wrath it drawes downe upon them at the next The Result is 3. Propos That it is the highest aggravation of the sinne of a people an evident token they are designed to ruine not to be humbled under the mighty hand the great and continued judgements of God They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my Law nor in my Statutes that I set before you and before your Fathers therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evill and to cut off all Iudah But should I insist upon all these propositions severally I feare I should graspe more matter then I should be able to hold within the compasse of the time should I omit any I might seeme to trespasse upon the Text. I shall therefore take a middle way to reconcile both pitching upon the first as the head streame the other two as the lesser into which it runnes that as bearing the inscription of this dayes duty for the doctrinall part of this dayes exercise the other two will fall in either by way of proofe or Application In the handling of which I shall indeavour to follow St Hieroms counsell to Nepotian Ita docere ut non clamor populi sed gemitus suscitetur so to speake as to provoke the teares not the applause of my hearers such thoughts are unworthy to ascend this mount at any time much lesse at this words conceived only in the brain and born in the lips of the Speaker for the mos part dye upon the eare of the hearer they which come from the heart are likeliest to descend thither To feast the eare by an eloquent discourse this day were to breake the Fast while we are at the Church The eare and the eye every member of the body and faculty of the soule must beare a part in this dayes affliction as well as the belly The golden eareings were the matter of which the golden Calfe was made 't were an abomination to bring them into the house of mourning The children of Israel in the day of Gods displeasure and their sorrow Exod. 35.5 were commanded to plucke off their Ornaments that God might know what to do unto them till then they were not so much as in a posture for mercy sackcloth and ashes are the best Ornaments sighes and teares the best Orators of this day could I but mourne out a Sermon and you sit before the Lord this day weeping it would be best preacht and heard the word sowne in teares would be reapt in joy then might we hope that this Fast would prove a blessed Eve to some glorious Festivall the dismall cloud of wrath that now darkens the whole land and almost every day falls downe in
me and that they have walked contrary to me and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the Land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity Then I will remember my Covenant and I will remember their Land An humbled spirit is most severe to it selfe translates not the fault upon others much lesse chargeth God with severity Job 7.20 I have sinned and what shall I doe unto thee oh thou preserver of men saith Job upon the dunghill He putteth his mouth in the dust saith Ieremie if so be there may be hope It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed Lam 3.22 29. I was dumbe and opened not my mouth because thou Lord didst it saith David Psal 39.9 Rehoboam his Princes and people humbling themselves though God threaten to leave them in the hand of the Egyptians now come up with a great Army against them yet acknowledge The Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 12. O. O Lord to us belongs confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee was the confession of Daniel setting his face to seeke God by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloath and ashes but to our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him Dan. 9.8.9 I will beare the indignation of the Lord saith the Church in Micah because I have sinned against him Mic. 7.9 It is the course of some of our Courts of justice that the delinquent after sentence can obtaine no mitigation of his punishment nor discharge from his imprisonment till he acknowledge his offence and the justice of their proceedings against him this may seeme hard 't is possible in the Courts of men the innocent may suffer no injustice possible from the Court of heaven It is the rule of that Court no relaxation or mercy to be expected thence till we confesse the demerits of our sinnes and the righteousnesse of Gods Iudgements and therefore the Prophet David held this course in the confession of his sinnes and supplication for pardon I acknowledge my transgressions and my sinne is ever before me against thee only have I sinned and done evill in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and cleare when thou judgest Psal 51.3 4. The Lamenting Prophet in that Sea of wrath let in upon Iudah gives God the glory of his justice Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his commandement And this he doth by way of Proclamation too Heare I pray you all people and behold my sorrow my Virgins and my Young men are gone into captivity It is the Lord saith Eli let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 This acceptance of their punishment was imported in the posture of the penitents standing before the Lord. 2 Chron. 20.13 Nâ—hem 9.2 It is storied of Mauritius the Emperour that when his children were murdered before his eyes as once were Zedekiahs before his and himselfe after received the sentence of death he cryed out Iustus es Domine rectum judicium tuum Righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy judgements These the speeches this the deportment of an humbled spirit And thus much in answere to the first Question what it is to be humbled the neglect whereof stands here charged against the Iewes They were not humbled unto this day I proceed to the 2d. Why when Gods judgements are up on a people then 't is high time for them to humble themselves For the satisfaction whereof I must desire you to take notice that after sins committed there are 3 seasons for a man or Nation to humble themselves The first immediately upon their Commission this indeed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best opportunity repentance in the Fathers language is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great medicine to salvation and we know that a Soveraigne remedie will speed the cure if applied while the sore is fresh 'T is in the wounds of the soule as those of the body those that are long delayed are healed with more paine and difficulty That humiliation never miscarries of the blessing which as Jacob did Esau shall take sinne by the heele when they shall come as twinnes into the world sinne the first borne shall be destroyed like those of the Egyptians and the elder not only serve the younger but as Josephs brethren or like Dagon before the Arke shall fall downe before him Alexander being askt how he made himselfe master of Greece returned answere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by making no delay should we put the same question to David and demand how he obteined pardon for his sinne in numbring the people he would make us the like answere by not deferring to humble himselfe no sooner was the fact done but his heart smote him 2 Sam. 24.10 This was Saint Peters season after the abnegation of his Master and perjury The Cocke crew Iesus look't backe and Peter immediately went forth and wept bitterly Matt. 26.75 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same night was conscious both to his sinne and repentance his wound and his cure Chryshom 53. This indeed is the handle of opportunity the locke of time to humble our selves and blessed are they that lay hold upon it The second season of humiliation is then when the conscience convinced of sinne committed beginnes to be affrighted with the apprehensions of wrath when the soule comes to see its guilt and is affraid of Gods judgements and therefore makes hast to agree with God offended while he is in the way and to stop the Decree of wrath before it come forth this opportunity deserves it's praise but as 't is said of some of Davids worthies in the second place That person under the Iudiciall Law that being guilty of man slaughter recovered the City of refuge before he was overtaken by the avengers of bloud saved his life so shall that man that nation theirs who understanding themselves in danger of Gods wrath by reason of sinne shall fly to the throne of grace and by unfained contrition lay hold upon the hornes of the Altar before the messengers of wrath have layd hold upon them But unto the King of Iudah which sent you to enquire of the Lord thus shall ye say unto him because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy selfe before the Lord when thou heard'st that I spake against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof that they should become a desolation and a curse and hast rent thy cloathes and wept before me I have also heard thee saith the Lord. Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evill which I will bring upon this place it was spoken of good King Iosiah 2 King 22.19 The third and last opportunity for a people
the pot thus empty upon it that the brasse might be hot and burne that the filthinesse might be molten in it and the scumme consumed now because after all this her filthinesse remained and her great scumme went not out of her The Lord concludes her as an incurable City under that dismall sentence at the 13 vers In thy filthinesse is lewdnesse because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse any more untill I have caused my fury to rest upon thee The Prophet Jeremy yet further illustrates the desperate estate of that people whom the extremity of distresse cannot reclaime from their wickednesse by a most apposite similitude taken from the Refiners who by melting their mettall in the fire make a seperation of the good mettall from the drosse Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them for what shall I doe for the daughter of my people as if he had said If there be any thing sound or of worth in a drossie cankred people it cannot be preserved but onely by melting them in the furnace this currupted Nation cannot otherwise be saved but onely by the fire Now with how great labour and exactnesse God performes this triall the Prophet expresseth Jer. 6.28 29. where he brings in God complaining against Iudah They are greivous revolters walking with slanders they are brasse and Iron they are all corrupters the bellowes are burnt the lead is consumed of the fire the founder melteth in vaine for the wicked are not plucked away Malitiae corum non sunt consumptae their wickednessees are not consumed and purged by the refining fire of Gods Judgments Their iniquity is so incorporated that though the bellowes be burnt i.e. the voyce of the rod as well as the Prophet made hoarse and quite spent with crying unto them to humble themselves the lead used for the separation of the drosse from the better mettall was all wasted in the fire yet they were not purified their drosse did still cleave unto them no extremity of calamity could part them and their sinnes and therefore it followes at the next verse Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Fourthly God doth especially observe the severall deportments of the inhabitants of a land when his judgments are upon them his pure eye runns to and fro to see how men stand affected and to take notice what men do and say in the times of distresse It was a fearefull visitation which God threatens Iudah with Ier. 8.3 where the prophet tells them that so great should their calamity be that Death should be chosen rather then life at the 6 verse he represents God as it were going frō City to City from house to house and from company to company and there listening to heare what the people would doe and say in the day of their feares I hearkened and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of the evell saying what have I done They spake happily much as God helpe us too many now but they spake not as they should they spake not aright for they repented not of their wickednesse no man sayd what have I done What a paucity is there in the world who in times of distresse speake that which God expects and desires to heare amongst all the talke of the times how rare is that of repentance the erre of teares and the voyce of weeping those sighes and groanes which the penitent soule sends up to heaven as Ambassadours to the throne of grace for mercy How few such speakers as the Prophet Malachi mentions Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a booke of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name Mal. 3.16 Where shall God find a selfe-humbling selfe-condemning sinner who sensible of his owne guilt saith What have I done Beloved that great God before whom all things are naked that knowes the secrets of all hearts is present amongst us at this time in the midst of the Temple and sees with what devotion or with what want of it we stand in his Courts he takes notice how the pulse of every one of our hearts beats there 's never a thought which he marks not never a sigh fetcht in private but he sets down in his book never a tear shed in our Closets that he saves not in his bottle he observes too who stands off and comes not in this day to afflict his soule as if he had no sinnes to procure the Judgements that are now upon us or no sence to feele them There 's never a person carowsing at the Taverne nor swearing in the streets no Zimri and Cosby acting their Lusts none idle or happly worse imployed in the house when the Assemblies are mourning at the Church that he observes not Never a sinne this day committed but he seales up in his bagge the sinnes that at other times might be mitigated by an excuse committed on this day grow into a presumption beyond an Apology God writes them in Capitall Letters with a pen of a Diamond he doth at all times abhorre a proud and unhumbled soule such a one this day is an abomination the soule that is not afflicted at such times as this shall be cut off from the people a contrite and broken heart is the onely sacrifice that can propitiate him in this day of attonement If we consult the sacred Records we shall not find a more perfect Register of any thing then of such both persons and People as humbled themselves under Gods mighty hand stretcht our in Judgement against them and of such as at these times remained obstinate and impenitent those he remembers to their advantage and mentions with praise these he records with indignation and sets a stigma a brand of infamy upon them for their lasting reproach so long as those sacred monuments shall remain in the world I can but point at one or two instances of many In 2 Chron. 32.25 we read of Hezekiah whom God had miraculously recovered from a dangerous sicknesse and granted 15 yeares more to his life when his terme was expired that he rendred not againe according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himselfe for the pride of his heart both he and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the dayes of Hezekiah In the next Chapter we have the story of the unparallel'd wickednesse of Manasseh his Son and how vanquish't by the King of Assyria he was carryed away captive in fetters to Babylon and there when he was in affliction how he besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly On the other side it stands as a perpetuall blot upon the name of Amon the sonne of Manasseh
the Church and Kingdome rather then the time of the great perplexity and distresse of both the very names of our womens tackling would fill up the whole third Chapter of Esay Neither Gods Ministers nor yet his Judgements can preach downe this sinne no not so much as their blacke spots and their paintings Is it such a blackensse as this thinke ye that the Prophet Ioel speakes of Ioel 2.6 All faces shall gather blackenesse Consider that and be affraid ye know not how neare that day is and remember the fate of painted Iezabell Hath it not beene almost the Eccho of every Sermon against oathes and blasphemies and those cursed imprecations Oh doe not this abhominable thing that God bates and indeed should we be silent the very stones in the streetes would speake and the timber out of the house would answer them yet the wicked know no shame those sinnes are growne to a presumption both against God and the King The children of Israel faith God could not stand but turned their backe before their enemies because they were accursed Jos 7.12 Alas then how shall these stand in the day of battaile that doe so often curse and confound themselves It is said of the Thracians that when it thunders they shoot up their Arrowes as it were in defiance against heaven these men their oathes and execrations That excellent Law we have against this sinne hath beene strengthened by two pious Proclamations of late Oh that there were a like care and zeale in the execution Honourable and Beloved let me in the name of God and in the behalfe of this poore Kingdome beseech you as the Father in the Gospell sometimes did our Saviour for his child possessed with an uncleane spirit If you can doe any thing have compassion on us and helpe us I would I could say with our Prophet Mark 9.12 Surely those are poore and foolish they know not the way of the Lord nor the Iudgements of their God Jer. 5.4 5 I will goe to the great men and speake unto them for they have knowne the way of the Lord and the Iudgement of their God Oh ye heads of our Tribes 2 Chron. 28.10 and ye the sonnes of Levi as the Prophet Oded sometimes spake are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God Pardon me I beseech you if I speake freely The Sacrifice of this day is a sinne offering and 't is Gods expresse command Lev. 5.11 that neither oyle nor frankincense be put upon it it is a sinne offering Lay your hand upon your heart and tell me what Reformation doe you find every one in his owne heart what one sinne have you forsaken of which before you were guilty what one duty doe you now make conscience of which you formerly neglected doe you find a Frame of spirit in your selves answering the sad and trembling condition of the Land in a word are ye humbled even unto this day I would I could heare a good answer from you that I might yet hope for better times as your persons are representative so are your sinnes too your sinnes are the sinnes of a whole Towne a County a Diocesse and so should I account your humiliation I doubt not but here are many which are exil'd from their houses and â—ifled of their Estates your condition is sad but let me put the Question to you Are your hearts humbled O Humiliation Humiliation what 's become of thee where shall I finde thee that thou mayst be a Pella a City of refuge to protect us from the Avengers of bloud a Noahs Arke to save a sinfull nation from the flood of Gods wrath The City says she knowes thee not the Court complaines thou art a stranger there and the Country cries thou art gone out of the Land Though the two great destroyers the Red the Pale horses have march't through the whole Land multitudes of people every day swept away the cries of our oppresed wounded spoyled undone freinds Fathers Brothers kinsmen sound every houre in our eares the sighes and teares and groanes of our dying nation are fresh and loud the ruine of the Kingdome and desolation as it were in sight yet are not most of us like that stupid judge in the Acts Act. 11.17 And Gallio cared for none of these things The truth is when these cloudes first began to gather together there was much perplexity amongst us where the tempest then hanging over our heades would fall we were all in great feare what the event of those distractions would be but now that our feares are come upon us we cease to be affraid like those Froggs in the Fable when Jupiter threw downe the logg amongst them it put them in a great fright for a time so that they held their croaking but after a while when the feare was a little over they came neare to the Log and leapt upon it The most of us seeme to be sicke of Ichorams disease 2 Chron. 21.15 our bowells of compassion to others nay which is yet more of pitty to our selves are fallen out We relent not at the murther and undoing of so many thousands of our brethren we can heare the passing-bell tole and see the panges of death upon our owne Country with dry eyes and unhumbled hearts and not so much as say Alas my mother what Jeremy nay what seas of teares even teares of blood are sufficient to lament this obstinacy Jonah 4.11 Should I not have compassion on a great City wherein are six hundred thousand soules that know not the right hand from the left the greatnesse of the multitude was a motive that prevailed with God to spare Ninive and should not this be an Argument as prevalent with us to withdraw us from sinne and to perswade us this day every one to humble himselfe Exod. 10.3 O my wretched heart How long Pharaoh like wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe If thou hast no pitty upon thy selfe yet shouldst thou not have compassion upon a perishing Kingdome Shall I carry to my grave nay to Hell with me the guilt of the bloud of so many thousand Innocents Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that walke in their sleepe they will venture upon dangerous precipices because they know not their danger but when they are awakened and come to see what they have done they are astonish't and even strooke dead with the apprehension of the danger escaped it is a wonder to see that men awakened by the loud cries of Gods judgments or if we be asleepe still we are in a dead sleepe should dare to go on in such desperate wayes as many of us do that we should have our eyes open and see our danger and yet not be affraid that the wrath of God should be so long upon the Land and we not humbled even unto this day In a word to close up all I have already tyred both you and my selfe as Jotham sometime spake to the men