do otherwise How are we fallen from our first love by prophaning the Sabbath either through Schismatical Petulancy or Idleness and Security snorting on a Bed or walking in the fields forgetting that he which on this day gathered sticks was paid home with stones Considering therefore the judgement of God that hangs over our head for this particular sin it is Christian Prudence to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law Secondly Another Sin that pulls down God's vengeance on us is that of Pride Boetius sayes excellently well Cum omnia vitia fugiant à Deo sola Superbia se Deo opponit When all Vices flye from God Pride alone opposes it self to God In other vices men seek some imaginary good but in this they endevour to dethrone God it is an opposition to his very Being as he is Alpha and Omega the first Efficient and last End no wonder therefore if he blasts the persons and designs of those that harbour this Monster which beginning first in heaven will never forget its old Attempt And therefore St. Prosper in his Excellent Epistle to the Noble Virgin Demetrias says finely Cum aliae cupiditates ea tantum bona quibus adversantur imminuant haec dum omnia ad se trahit simul universa corrumpit That whereas other Lusts waste only that Good and Virtue to which they are contrary Pride whilest it arrogates all to it self corrupts all at once God therefore scatters the Proud he maketh them like Smoak to speak with the Psalmist which perisheth in ascending and vanisheth in dilating of it self I shall not need to tell you how he hath punish'd it in Wicked men as in Nebuchadnezzar Herod and Antiochus for he will not allow it in his own people And therefore if Corah Dathan and Abiram will be holier than Moses and Aaron and tempt the Jewish Congregation to a Contempt of their Superiours he will presently open the Earth and bury them alive They were ante Sepulti quam Mortui as the African Father Optatus speaks If David out of pride will number the People and sure it was so for the Text saith 1 Chr. 21.14 his heart was lift up to number the People God will send his Plague and sweep away seventy thousand of them 3. A third sin is that Cursed one of Swearing so much in Practice Because of Oaths saith the Prophet the Land Mourneth Jer. 3.10 And how can we but expect that God will send the lightning of his judgements from heaven when we do so thunder out Oaths on Earth This is a Reigning Sin not only amongst the Basest but those that would be thought the Ornaments of the Age as if Gentility consisted in belching out blasphemy If the King be spoken against it is high treason and deservedly punish'd with Death if a Noble man be traduced or slandered it is punishable by the Statute of Scandalum Magnatum yea a private man in cases of Obloquy hath his remedy by Action only the name of God though dear to him is not so tenderly regarded but is most grievously rent and torn by this common and Soul-ruining Sin of Swearing But let me advise the black mouthed Swearer to have a care of swearing in jest as men are apt to pretend lest he go to Hell in earnest for every Oath he swears gives his Soul a wound and that wound will be vocal enough to peirce heaven and call for vengeance on the Swearer Have not many of us uncharitably and blasphemously wish'd that the Plague of God would light upon our Brethren How justly now hath it overtaken us Curses and Execrations have proceeded from us like Arrows shot against heaven and now they are returned back upon our own heads Fourthly I must name that of Vncharitableness to one another upon occasions that should rather administer grounds of Repentance then of Malice The Apostle tells us Charity covers a multitude of Sins but we as if we were true Children of Noah delight in our Relations Nakedness What heart-burnings are between us upon small differences of Judgement The Turk cannot hate a Christian with a more Vatinian hatred then we persecute one another though baptized into the same Faith and equally professors of the same Gospell Is not the Plague come upon us that our Lord foretold that Father should be against Son and Son against Father will an Independant endure a Presbyterian or the Anabaptist and Fifth Monarchist one of the Episcopal persuasion No no we have known to our grief what blood hath been shed upon this account and that their mutual animosities have boyled to as great a height as those at present between Turk and Persian Constantine the Great when he summoned the first General Councel at Nice to extinguish the Arrian Heresie concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ with his Father caused all the private Contentions and Strifes that were enflamed amongst the Bishops themselves to be drawn up into a Compendium of Articles before they should deliberate about that grand Affair which being done he sealed them up with his own Royal Signet and kept them in his bosome for a while as a Secret afterward in his Speech exhorting them to unity of Spirit and a serious discussion of those things that concerned the Cause of Christ he burnt all those envious Libells together Car. in Nice Conc. Appar pag. 45. in 16. Ne innotesceret ulli odium sugillatio Sacerdotum as Caranza informs me Let us that serve at the Altar imitate this Pious Prince and if there be any unchristian uncharitable fends amongst us bury them in Eternal Oblivion left they hinder us in the prosecution of the Cause of God and not only prove our shame but a stumbling block of Offence to the Enemies of the Faith Our Lord and Saviour at his departure left us this New Commandement that we should love one another but we have so affronted this Injunction that it is no marvel if he says he is come not to send Peace but a Sword a Sword that shall draw out our vitals and render us the victims of his fury Fifthly That Rebellious murmuring humour with which we have outraged Prince and Priest The Sacred Scripture never gives us an Account of Murmurers but it tells us likewise their Punishment Pharaoh murmured at the Israelites and God entombed him and his hoast in the Red Sea Joseph's Brethren murmured at him and their reward was vassalage they became his Servants Saul murmured at David's ten thousands and God left him to be his own Executioner Judas murmured at the Box of Oyle that was poured on his Masters head and what was his reward he hang'd himself And is not this our Case When King Charles the first lived though we may say of him as Homer said of Greece that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pap and Dug of the Earth He the Cream and Excellentest of Princes how did our ungodly and malicious humours load him
hooded Hawkes if she could flye yet she would want an eye to pursue her game Let us therefore if we would be taught by this great Schoolmaster approach him with all humility and he will not only teach us those things which are of Eternal Import but cure the Wounds which Sin hath made in our Souls in our Bodies in the Church in the State And so I come to the second Ingredient which is Prayer If my People pray and seek my face c. First then Being to speak of Prayer it will not be amiss to enquire in the first place what Prayer is L. 3. de Fide c. 4. St. John Damascen answers the Question and says It is the Elevation of the mind to God And St. Austin In Ps 85. Your Prayer is a speaking to God When you read God speaks to you when you pray you speak to God therefore Prayer is the Souls Colloquy and conversation with God So that when we pray we Elevate our spirit to God and familiarly yet with all reverence communicate our Condition unto him with a greater confidence than any Child can do to his Mother To him we unbowel our selves and lay before him what is most dear unto us and what most oppresses us in our Spiritual combats our failings and our desires the temporal blessings we would have and the Evils we would eschew as one friend doth to another in whom he most confides And this is that which the Divine Writ terms a pouring forth the heart like water before the Lord the Text doth not say like Oyle some of which will ever be sticking to the vessel that contained it but like Water to signifie That all our thoughts our whole heart must go out of it self and ascend to God And truly if ever now we have need to make this self-examination for when our Souls have as it were quitted their Mansion and travelled to the throne of Grace to beg Mercy and a ceasing of Judgments we may be confident Plagues will be crippled and not suffered to infect our clayie tenements in our spiritual absence For the truth of this we have our Lord and Saviours own Word If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So powerful is fervent prayer with God that it binds his hands and to speak with reverence as it were fetters the Omnipotent one We see it likewise in the case of the Israelites Moses was gone up to the Mount to receive the Law and his stay being longer than the peoples expectation they gather themselves together and will needs have Aaron make them new Gods He out of their golden Earings to gratifie their importunity made them a Calf This accursed peice of Idolatry God resolving to punish says unto Moses Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them c. whilest thou prayest thou bindest me do not thus manacle me let my hands be at liberty that I may cut off this stiff necked generation Suitably to this Salvianus commenting upon Psal 33.18 Oculi Domini super justos Aures ejus in preces eorum says when the Scripture affirms the Ears of the Lord to be always on the prayers of the just not only his readiness to hear but a kind of Obedience in God is pointed at as if God were so ready to hear the prayers of his faithful ones that he seems willing not only to hear but to Obey not only to grant what they desire but ready to perform what they command Thus though the Sun comes forth like a Giant and rejoyces to run his race yet He and his fellow Luminary the Moon the bright Mistress of the night by the force of Prayer are arrested and made to stand still till Joshuah and the Israelites had avenged themselves upon their Enemies Josh 10.12 Yea at the prayer of Hezekiah attended with the Divine Rhethorick of Tears the same Sun must recoyle back It might have been enough for Hezekiah's faith to believe the words of Isaiah without any Sign But God to let us see how much he was pleased with the King 's earnest Address stops the very course of Nature and by no less than a miracle declares That he had heard and accepted the voice of those Royal Tears for behold I will bring again the Shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the Sun-Dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward Isa 38.8 And as Prayer hath a power to invert the Course of Nature so likewise can it make Nature act contrary to its own self For fire which naturally towers upward at the Prayer of Elijah descended downward and consumed a Captain and fifty men 2 Kings 1.12 Neither is Prayer the weapon with which we only wound our Enemies but it is to speak with St. Ambrose telum quo vulneramus Cor Dei a weapon with which God himself is wounded as the Spouse in the Canticles speaks Charitate vulneror no other Artillery but this can batter the Cittadel of the great King This is a Truth so evident that the dim light of Nature taught the very Heathens it and therefore as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us they called their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Protr from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one should say a God who delighteth in the humble Prayers of hearty Petitioners So that we may well say with Luther Oratio hominis res est potentissima It overth ows Armies turns the course of Nature obtains the greatest blessings averts the greatest Evils and even conquers God himself Let us therefore offer this incense offering this Spirituale thymiama In Matth. Carthusian to its honour observes That the Style of Incense is attributed to no other Theological virtue so truly as to Prayer Nulla justitia thymiamati comparatur nisi sola Oratio for as Incense fired in the Censor mounts in perfumed Curls and casts a grateful odour about the Altar so our Prayers proceeding from hearts fired with holy Zeal ascend to the throne of God and make a sweet smell in his nosthrils But to speak more particularly since prayer is of such a power First Let us pray that we may show our selves Christians Tertullian calls Christians the Candidates of the Celestial Kingdom He alludes to the custome of those Roman Senators that stood for the Consulship who ever visited such as had any votes in their Election and by fair entreaties endevoured to win them to their Side The same we do by Prayer we acknowledge the Supremacy that Christ hath over us and that all our felicity depends upon his only Vote Now as among the Gentiles some were called Platonists others Aristotelians and from the Masters they acknowledged their Instructors so by practising this excellentest of virtues we justly wear the name of him that taught it us Secondly Let us pray That we may not only show our selves Christians but good and pious Christians How
many are there in the World that pass from month to month yea from year to year that scarce ever pray as if there were neither a God to reward nor a Devil to be his Executioner and yet if you tell them they are not Christians they will esteem you the most injurious persons in the world But we must not be content with the bare name of Christianity and think it is enough that our Parents brought us to the Font and that there we received our Christian Livery We must come up to the life of christianity which is Prayer it is that in the Soul which Springs are in Clocks and Watches if they be broke the motion of all the Wheels ceases and if we devote not our selves to prayer all our Theological virtues are idle and as it were pinnion'd in us and therefore St. Chrysostome says excellently Tom. 1. de fide as when a Queen enters a city not only a great Retinue but an amass of Wealth comes along with her so likewise when the Soul is enflamed with a love of prayer all other virtues croud and throng in upon her Of Men it makes us the Temples of Christ Now as gold and precious stones and the richest Marbles constitute the Palaces of Princes so Prayer builds up these Temples of the Son of God that he may dwell in our hearts as in a Sanctum Sanctorum the noblest Seat of his Residence That we may therefore pray aright and like good christians that God may cease the plague and heal our wounds I shall show you what qualifications are necessary First then Our Prayer must be an earnest fervent Prayer it is St. James his character The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much indeed it peirceth heaven and is Clavis Coeli as St. Bernard speaks the Key that unlocks the Treasuries of heaven that it may showre down its blessings upon us We may learn the Nature of this effectual Prayer from the Royal Prophet when he says Ps 141.2 Dirigatur Oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense in which words he briefly comprehends all the requisites of a fervent prayer by comparing it to Incense First In the Incense was Frankincense Onyx Galbanum Oyle of Cinnamond or Myrrh and Mastich so our Prayer if it be effectually fervent must be mingled with Faith Humility Charity Confidence in God and Patience these as lesser Stars must wait upon this Queen and Mother of virtues this Breviary of the Gospel Secondly This Incense was appropriated to the Temples and lodged in the Holy of Holies so likewise the Soul of Man is the Temple and House of God as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost we therefore must burn this Incense of Prayer in the inward'st and purest part of this Temple Thirdly This Incense was to be offered by none but the High Priest so likewise all our prayers must be offered up by our High Priest Christ Jesus if we hope they shall prevail for upon this account the Church teaches us to conclude all our prayers with this clause Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly This Incense was to be fir'd before its grateful perfume could be sented If the High Priest flung never so many handfuls of it on dead coals there came forth no odour so our Prayers are altogether frigid and no way pleasing until kindled by the flames of the Spirit where heat and fervour is wanting in him that prays the very Soul of prayer is absent Fifthly says David Dirigatur Oratio mea c. let it mount let it tend towards thee he that will pray fervently and effectually must have a good end a sincere intention and a constant attention he must not pray like Pharisees to be seen of men that he may purchase the Repute of Religious and holy he must make God and his interest his ultimate end and therefore our Lord the Great Master of Prayer says When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy dore pray to thy Father which is in Secret By which he would teach us rather to acquit our selves to God than Man God only being able to reward our Integrity with better blessings than vulgar applause can afford Secondly But in the second place as our Prayer must be earnest and fervent so it must be without ceasing If we would have a Truce with God's judgments it is an argument of an evil heart to proportion our Prayers to the increase or decrease of Judgments for though the rule in Philosophy be That Oratio is quantitas discreta yet in Divinity it is most certain That Oratio ought to be quantitas continua according to the Apostle's Maxime Pray continually and indeed now 1 Eph. 5.17 if ever we had need to be constant in Prayer when thousands dye in a week and every parish yea every street is the fatal Theatre of so many sad Tragedies Is not this a time of trouble when the rich and abler sort are fled citè longè tardè and the poorer through necessity are oblieged to tarry notwithstanding infinite dangers surround them their Servants and their poor children Is it not a time of trouble when Tradesmen become poor and poverty enforces beggary and that unhappy profession cannot keep them from Starving Is it not a time of trouble when trade in general is so Dead that the Sexton and the Grave-maker have the most Employment in the parish Surely this is a time of trouble and this time is our time O therefore let us take up holy David's Resolution and give neither sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our Eyelids till the Lintells of our dore-posts are annointed with the blood of sprinkling that the destroying Angel may pass over our habitations Ask and give not over till you find seek and leave not till you find knock and cease not till a dore of Salvation be opened unto you 3. But thirdly We must lift up pure hearts and holy hands unto God in Prayer It is the work of the Seraphims to be continually crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth to express the ardent affection in them and the ready adoration of the Holyness so repeated by them it being that noble attribute that indeed is only proper to God Now if we would take a part in this Seraphick Consort we must endevour to have holiness and purity in our hearts and hands and then our addresses will be musical in God's Ears To this purpose the Schoolman Victorinus observes That a reasonable Soul is the chief and principal glass wherein to see God Ric. Victor lib. de Patriar This the Israel of God must continually hold wipe look on hold lest falling down it sink to the Earth in love wipe lest it be sullied with the dust of vain thoughts look on that it divert not the eye and intention to vain
be thus wounded if we consider that the Jews did but once crucifie him but We by the committal of fresh sins and Impieties crucifie him every day and grieve his holy Spirit It is therefore infinitly necessary we should have this due sense this holy wounding of heart if we expect God should repent of the evil done unto us and heal our Land 2. The second branch of Repentance is Confession As we must be sorrowful for sin so we must make a true confession of sin Now in confession we must observe these Rules First Our confession must be humble and self-accusing Non vis ut ille damnet Tu damna Vis ut ille ignoscat Tu agnosce Wouldst thou not that God should Condemn thee condemn thy self Say with the Publican Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Wouldst thou have God pardon Do thou crye guilty We must not imitate our Grandfather Adam that cryed The Woman thou gavest me presented me the fruit and I did eat We must take the sins we have committed upon our selves it being altogether unjust we should file that Evil on anothers score of which we have been the Authors How many are there in these days that when they are accused of any Vncleanness lay the fault upon Nature as St. Austin complains many in his time did and consequently accuse God himself We ought rather with the Prophet David to cry out Lord it is I that have done this Great Wickedness and with Jeremiah confess our ways and our Evil doings have brought all these miseries upon us Secondly We must not put our sins to the Devil's Account He may tempt us but he cannot force us to sin The Devil might have offered Eve a thousand of those beautiful Apples without prevailing had she not been as willing to tast that forbidden fruit as he ready to perswade her it was good If he could force us to sin we might justly lay the fault at his dore and make the very necessity of sinning our Apology But the Apostle St. James bids us resist the Devil and he will fly from us to teach us we have a power to combat and through Grace baffle his pernicious temptations Thirdly Neither must we make God the Author of our sins He is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and what blasphemy would it be in us when we have committed sins that even some natural men would abhor to father them upon God the source of all purity and goodness The Psalmist steers another course when he says I will confess my sins unto the Lord Psal 32. He doth not say he will accuse God as the author of his Lust to the Wife of Vriah or of his Pride in numbering the people no but I will confess to him against my self he is righteous and I have done wickedly God cannot be tempted to evil neither tempts he any man it is a principle of corruption within us that brings forth this viperous brood and we must wholly acknowledge God righteous when he punisheth for Sin Fourthly Our Confession must be Integra perfecta There are many that will be ready to acknowledge those Sins which they see the best of Men are obnoxious to but their Dallilah's their darling Sins like the true name of Rome they keep concealed But this is not the Confession that will do our work a lame half-confession is no more acceptable to God than if we should offer him half our heart when he requires the whole Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart which he can never truly be said to do that leaves some Sins unconfess'd and as it were hid in the inward recesses of his Soul because God being a profess'd enemy to every Sin such a concealment is a taking part with that which he most hates Thirdly The third part of Repentance is Conversion Now there is a two-fold Conversion 1. A Turning and total Conversion of a Sinner from Sin to God and in this Signification is comprehended the whole work of Grace Psal 51.14 And Sinners shall be converted unto thee this is passive Conversion wherein God is the Chief Agent but our selves by our natural power work nothing unless it be to hinder the work of Grace 2. There is a turning from some particular Sin or Sins whereby we have offended God or Man Luke 22.32 When thou art converted and Jer. 31.18 Convert thou me and I shall be converted This is an active Conversion performed by men who being already renewed by Grace do work together with this Grace Now this conversion is a turning of the heart unto God whereby we contract a perfect aversion to those things which we formerly delighted in and have such an alteration in our will and affections that we desire nothing and affect nothing but what we find agreeable to his blessed will It is not a turning of the Brain an alteration of this or that opinion that is Vertigo Capitis not Conversio Cordis but it is a meer alteration and turning of 〈…〉 of our hearts So that the perfection of this conversion consists in the turning of the whole heart This true turning is a thing no way pleasing to the Devil If he could he would not have us turn at all he sowes pillows under our Elbows and perswades us we are in a blessed condition but if we will needs turn he will persuade us to Turn any whether rather than unto God If he cannot effect this yet his Artifice and cunning is to make us leave our hearts behind Now if that will not do but we will Turn with our heart in Corde yet he labours all he can it may not be in toto he would have us have some private ends some Lusts to gratifie he would have our affections broken and not entirely subservient to the Divine Will But Beloved if we would remove these judgments that lye heavy upon us we must not divide our hearts between God and the Devil but must turn to God with our whole hearts for he is the great Physician that only can heal our diseased Souls And thus I come to the fourth and last Branch of the Text the Physician prescribing the Medicine GOD in these words I will hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land St. Chrysostome tells us that Christ the second person of the Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his death became Physician of the Dead in his very humility and state of Exinanition he baffled Sin and Death and the Balsam of his Blood shed upon the Cross closed up the Serpentine wound received in Paradice If this be true of Christ as without doubt it is whilest he was in the form of a Servant we ought not to question the performance of the promise made us in my Text by the whole Trinity I will hear from heaven c. I God the Father I God the Son I God the Holy Ghost I one yet three at whose presence the