have lost or spare to be left to ruine 3. For others but more especially for Sion for Jerusalem for the Church and people of God we should for such mercies be very importunate as these here and the Prophets and people of God elsewhere as the Prophet Isaiah 62. 1. For Sions sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake will I not rest untill the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth Here the Prophet professeth his serious purpose of an unwearied constant sollicitation of God for his Church of which Sion was a type and it is till its righteousness go forth c. And thus earnest zealous and importunate should we be for the Church and people of God we should not onely propound our desires but press and enforce them as it is said afterward of the watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem v. 6. I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night and then it follows ye that make mention of the Lord or nearer the Hebrew Rememorantes Dominum vel qui reminiscimini Domini Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers or ye that mind the Lord to wit of his Church whose office it is to be still minding and solliciting him in its behalf it is a term borrowed from the manner of Princes who have certain Officers called their Remembrancers to mind them of such matters as concern the publick weal and welfare and what an honour and priviledg is it to be remembrancers to the King of Heaven and this honour have not onely his Ministers but all his people not that God is subject to forgetfulness or can forget his Church and the things that concern its weal but for his own glory and his peoples greater comfort God will have it be thus viz. that he be earnestly sollicited and sought to and these now are bid to give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth i. e. they must continue instant and constant in prayer be urgent and importunate with God untill he hear and put his Church into such a condition that all may praise her or for which she may become famous throughout the whole world And thus let us both Ministers and people resolve to do not to hold our peace day nor night nor keep silence nor give the Lord rest till he establish and till he make our Jerusalem a praise to the Earth Let us not onely call upon his name but stir up our selves to take hold of him let us put forth all our strength put out our selves to the utmost yet to stay him with us for wo to us if he depart from us Want of this the Prophet Isaiah complains of and acknowledges as a great sin Is 64. 6. And we all says he do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and yet there is none v. 7. that calleth upon thy name that addresseth himself unto thee at least aright or but very few so few as that they were not as it were seen nor did appear but were hid in the multitude or if more did call upon his name yet they did not stir up themselves to take hold of God to stay him with them though he threatened Emphasis est in verbo tenendi sumptâ metaphorâ á patre irato manum ad ferulam expediente cujus manum apprehensam alius teneat conhibeátque nè feriat filium Arular in locum and was upon his departure from them or they took not hold of his hand to stay him from striking them in his anger for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities And so the particle is used elsewhere or as some when thou didst hide thy face from us c. and so it is an heavy aggravation of their stupidity sluggishness and security thà t though the Lord did manifest his displeasure against them by the withdrawing the light of his countenance from them and consumed them because of their iniquities as he hath done us yet such was their stupor and sluggishness that notwithstanding they did not stir up themselves to take hold of him though he seem'd to be a going and truely not to stir up our selves at such a time does stir up the Lord the more against us such neglects do much provoke for at such times we should be more than ordinary zealous earnest and importunate sollicitors for Sion not onely proposing our desires but enforcing and pressing the same with all fervency And such let us be O let every prayer be a pleading a wrestling with strong resolution not to let him go till he return in mercy unto Sion and with a smiling and favourable countenance look upon it How earnest and sollicitous was Daniel for Jerusalem in that prayer of his Dan. 9. 3. And I set my face to the Lord God this shews his earnestness setting all other things aside to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and v. 17. Now therefore O our God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications Supplication differs from prayer as being a further degree of enforcing our petitions either by redoubling our suits or pressing them with arguments And cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary for the Lord's sake i. e. shew thy grace and favour by the effects thereof in restoring thy publick worship to the people and v. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and defer not for thine own sake O my God for thy city and thy people are called by thy name here is further fervency earnestness and holy zeal in prayer uttering strong cryes So David Psal 14. 7. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion or who will give the salvation of Israel c. or O that some would give it is a Non tam privatim de se cogitat quam de communi Ecclesiae salute sollicitus form and phrase of earnest wishing usual with the Hebrews and often used in Scripture elsewhere and it gives us to see how sollicitous David was for Israel's salvation he forgot himself as it were for to remember that and so should we CHAP. V. The several points of Doctrine observable from the words as more particular and as being implied Doctr. 1. We are all by nature turn'd aside and gone away from God Else what needed this being turn'd again and this is observable from the words as they respect those who were never yet turn'd and therefore are here prayed for that they may be turn'd or converted Indeed as God at first made us he was with us and we with him and our faces were unto him but now having sinned our backs are upon him and we are gone away from him and by going on in sin we go away still further from him and this the Scripture every
to their capacity and whatever is the stile or language know that the remedy it self here propos'd is not mine but of his making and prescribing who is the great Physician and healer of Nations and he therefore that rejects or despises rejects and despises not man but God onely he 1 Thes 4. 8. hath spirited me and bid and appointed me as he hath some others to mind you of it and to put you speedily upon it yea and to betake your selves to him to help and assist you in it that so the Nation may not perish and so soveraign a remedy at hand for want of being applied and made use of as unto which if any thing here dictated shall prove subservient or any ways adjutant it shall ever be acknowledged as a singular mercy to him from the God of mercies who is and remains A studious well-wisher of Thine and the Nations weal R. P. To the Christian Reader SAlvation is the most sutable and the most desireable mercy for sinners for sinful persons for sinful Nations Salvation as it imports deliverance from evil and that it imports most properly is a very great mercy but as it implies the gift and injoyment of good of the highest good so it is far better Temporal salvation is a signal favour but how unspeakable a favour is Eternal Now as questionless salvation with all the appurtenances and consequents of it is the greatest mercy that can be desired so the greatest question that can be asked is that of the Jaylour Sirs what must we do to Acts 16. 31. be saved Reader the worthy Authour of the ensuing Discourse having I doubt not well weighed and deeply laid to heart the doleful condition of many thousand souls in city and countrey who remain in a state of sin and persist impenitently in the practice even of the grossest sins considering also with himself possibly with others the dangerous state of the whole Kingdom by reason of those much to be lamented overflowings of sin he I say having laid to heart and considered these things hath studied and in this Treatise freely held forth a remedy indeed an unfailing and the onely remedy whereby the souls of men may be saved and delivered from wrath and damnation and the whole Kingdom from ruine destruction and desolation There needs no more for the saving either of persons or Nations but the Lords effectual turning of our hearts from sin by the working of his powerful grace in us and the sweet manifestations of his favourable grace towards us or as the Authors Text hath it the causing of his face to shine upon us A remedy compounded of these two Gospel-ingredients both the fruits of Christ's bloud and death for the cure and help of sin-sick dying souls and Kingdoms thou wiâ—t find Christian Reader ready at hand for thine and the Kingdom 's benefiâ— in the doctrinal part of this book if thou hast an heart to make use of it And that thine heart may be drawn out to make a right use of it thou wilt find it stor'd with many clear directions to guide thee with strong reasons to convince thee with many cogent motives to quicken thee all fetcht from and grounded upon the holy Scriptures many Texts whereof are not onely as thâ—y all are pertinently alledged but solidly pithily and largely paraphrased and expounded I commend all to the blessing of God and thy diligent perusal praying that all may turn not onely to thy souls profit and everlasting salvation but to the temporal salvation of these Kingdoms from those impending evils of punishment which our abounding evils of sin threaten us with and may quickly bring down upon us unless the Lord God of hosts according to his super abounding goodness turn us again to himself and cause his face to shine upon us then and not till then we shall indeed be saved or dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil This Christian Reader is the apprehension this the daily petition of Thy friend and servant in the Lord JOSEPH CARYL Good Reader WE learn from the story of the Fall that man was first a fugitive from God and then an exile first Adam ran to the bushes and then God drove him out of Paradise and ever since besides the aversion of mans own heart there lieth a legal exclusion on Gods part Man in this condition is become a stranger to God and his own happiness and not only a stranger but an enemy but though we are enemies to God we cannot make good our quarrel against him the Lord of Hosts will be too hard for poor worms Alas what will our many lusts do against his mighty Angels God cannot be overcome yet such is his Grace he is ready to be reconciled Turn unto me saith the Lord of Hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 1. 3. The same stile is used both in the exhortation and the promise 'T is the Lord of Hosts who inviteth us to turn to him by a serious repentance and the Lord of Hosts who promiseth to reward us with all manner of felicity and happiness If we turn not we find him a dreadful adversary but if we have an heart to return to him we shall find him as powerful and delightful a friend Woe to him that striveth with his Maker But blessed he that submitteth to him We keep off from him out of carnal liberty not liking the strictness of his precepts and also out of legal bondage fearing the strokes of his Justice and we are hardened in our alienation from God by patching up a sorry happiness in the creature apart from him our remedy must be fully correspondent with our disease therefore our cure consists in turning from the creature to God from self to Christ from sin to holiness Do this and it shall be well with you sin shall be pardon'd and everlasting happiness shall be your portion But who is sufficient for these things The legal exclusion is taken off by the merit of the Lord Jesus and the straying disposition is cured by the all powerful and converting grace of his Spirit and in conversion we find him to be the Lord of Hosts aswell as in destruction as he conquereth and subdueth mans heart to himself for surely God never made a creature too hard for himself But his grace must be sought after by us in the use of all holy means Gods complaint against his people was that they would not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord surely they do the work of Christianity who most labour in this very thing especially in a time of general defection and corruption of manners when a people temptingly and daringly put it to the tryal whether God will be so severe against sinners as his word representeth him to be in such a time we need cry aloud both to God and men to God that he may turn us by his preventing grace and turn to us by his rewarding grace to
from him 1. There being no iniquity in him nor ever any injury done unto us by him What iniquity have your fathers Jer. 2. 5. Micah 6. 3. found in me O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee c. 2. There being no want of any good in him so that there is no need to go from him he being all-sufficient hence the Lord reasons the case with David when he had revolted and tels him I did so and so for thee and I gave such and such things to thee and if that had been too little 2 Sam. 12. 7. says the Lord I would moreover have given thee such and such things and wherefore then hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord c. what cause or ground was there for it what hast thou to say or what canst thou alledge So we find that the children of Israel disobeying the voice of the Lord the Angel of the Lord that is the Son of God he pleads with them I have done so and so for you why then Judges 2. 4. have ye done this and there being no true cause nor ground for it they answer with tears for it is said that they lift up their voice and wept 3. Can we mend or better our selves and who would change but for the better But to be sure if we go from God it will be for the worse When many that profest themselves the disciples of Christ went back and Christ said to John 6. 68. the twelve Will ye also go away you know what Simon Peter answered the Lord To whom should we go thou hast the words of eternal life As if he had said Lord where can we mend our selves to whom shall we go to be better This was the Argument that Samuel made use of to keep the people from turning aside to follow the Lord. And turn ye not aside for then should you go after 1 Sam. 12. 21. vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain It is as if a man for warmth should go from the Sun to the shade or for water from the fountain to the broken cistern or from the spring to the puddle or as if a man for fresh air should leave the open field and sweet refreshing gales in a garden to go to a smoaky cottage But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit and they Jer. 2. 11. are gone far from me and walked after vanity Will a man leave the pleasant cooling snow of Jer. 18. 14. mount Lebanon for a dry bare rock of of the field or shall the cool flowing waters be forsaken 4. Let 's consider what respect God has for such as abide with him and turn not aside from him Noah was upright in his generation and Gen. 6. 8. walked with God when all flesh had corrupted their way and it is said Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So my servant Caleb because Numb 14. 24 he had another spirit with him and hath followed me fully him will I bring into the Land c. And ye are they says Christ which have continued Luke 22. 28 29. with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a kingdom c. Rev. 3. 5. 5. What a comfort will this be in the evil day and at the hour of death if we have not turned back from God as it has been to the people of God formerly Ps 44. 17 18 19. Job 23. 11 12. and Is 38. 3. c. 6. The Lord doth not turn away our prayers nor himself nor his mercy from us and why Psal 66. 20. Jer. 32. 40. should we turn away from him yea he hath made an everlasting covenant with us that he will not turn away from us to do us good c. 7. If ever he do turn away from us for a time it is not till we first turn away from him He is first in coming but last in going he is ever with us while we are with him as the Prophet told Asa 2 Chron. 15. 2. but if we forsake him and turn away from him he will turn away from us yea against us as the Church complains Lam. 3. 3. Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day 2. Let us be 1. vigilant and very circumspect else if we be careless negligent and secure we shall be in great danger to miscarry 1 Cor. 10. 12. wherefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall None are likelier to fall than such as are most self confident and secure and therefore let us carry a holy jealousie continually over our selves how many caveats have we in Scripture to this purpose Matth. 26. 41. Luke 21. 36. Heb. 3. 12. c. 3. Let us be much in prayer that the Lord would keep us for if he leave us we shall soon Jude 24. leave him Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling c. he alone is able and therefore we must watch and pray both c. 4. Let us remember and urge the Lord with his promise viz. that he will put his fear in our Jer. 32. 40. 3. 19. hearts that we shall not depart from him and that we shall not turn away from him 5. Let us exhort one another daily c. This the Apostle prescribes as a good help to keep us from departing from God Take heed brethren Hebr. 3. 12 13. lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin and Heb. 10. 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together but exhorting one another c. 6. Let us in the strength of Christ and begging help of God take up strong settled and sincere resolutions of heart to cleave to the Lord and to continue and abide with him who ever turn aside from him as Joshua but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord this that Joshua 24. 15. good man Barnabas exhorted those to that believed and turned to the Lord that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. And when Acts 11. 23. at any time we have or do turn aside as we are very prone to do let us never rest till we return again as these here how earnest are they upon this they thrice importune Turn us again c. O should not a people return to their God the spouse to her husband children to their father The Prodigal as soon as ever he came to himself Luke 15. 17 18. he resolves I will arise and go to my father Turn O back-sliding children saith the Lord Jer. 3. 14. why for I am married unto you And it can never be well with us indeed till we do this he being the rest
of Ehypt untill they came to that place they had been rebellious against the Lord. Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath and at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattavah And when the Lord sent them from Kadesh-Barnea saying go up and possess the land which I have given you then they rebelled yea says Moses you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you In the 33. of Numb Moses there reckons up no less than two and fourty journeys that they made as from Rameses to Succoth from Succoth to Etham from Etham to Pihahiroth c. and yet all these changes of place made no change as to their manners and dispositions but still they carried their sins along with them and the holy Ghost Quidam ex Hebraeo vertunt juxta mare in mari rubro ut sensus sit illos non solùm in littore sed etiam dum ipsum mare pedibus transmitterent de Deo conquestos esse c. Flaminius in locum Vix dum egressi ex Egypto in ipso maris transitu contra suum redemptorem protervè insurrexerint Calvin in locum calls the whole time of their journeying in the wilderness where they removed and changed place so often the provocation Harden not your hearts as in the provocation that is in the time when ye sinned and walked forwardly offending me and provoking me against you breaking my laws vexing and grieving my Spirit and fourty years long was I grieved with this generation c. How often in that time did they change their places and yet still the same yea it is said Psalm 106. 7. They provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea there they sinned against him yea in the red Sea not onely whiles they were on the bank but even while they were passing through the Lord by a wonderful miracle having made it to them as dry land to walk upon and one would have thought such a place might have made some change in them but it did not there they still continue their murmurings and their mutinings and thus some read it they provoked him in the Sea even when they saw that glorious work and there lies the Emphasis that they provoked him even in that Sea which God carried them through There was a turn and change indeed in the Sea that goes back and becomes dry land and in the waters they are divided and are a wall on the right hand and on the left but none Jerem. 24. in them And thus the figs which were so very evil in Jerusalem continued evil still in Babylon And how many in this great and populous city who upon occasion of the late dreadful and never to be forgotten Fire changed their places still retained their sins and the change of their places have made no change of their conditions but still retain their old frames and dispositions their old pride and luxury and vanity c. and though many have of late changed again their places are they not still the same and though they have new houses chang'd them have they not still their old hearts and therefore this turn and change here is not of places but of Quantum homo à suis consuetis vitiis recesserit tantum in resipiscentiae usu exercitio processit sed qui idem est manetque qualis fuit sanè nunquam resipuit ideoque est damnationi proximus quality when one and the same man is quite turned from what he was before I mean in the present frame state and disposition of the whole man both body and soul and all the parts powers and faculties both of the one and the other as from sin to holiness from iniquity to righteousness from Satan to God from hell to heaven and that I say in the whole man and whole conversation Thus old things are past away and all are in quality and disposition become new There are new hearts and new spirits c. as the Lord promises not as to their essence or substance or powers or faculties but gracious new qualities and inclinations The instrument is still the same and so are the strings but the tune is chang'd and mended the waters are the same but they are healed so that in some sense the man is now quite alter'd and turn'd from what he was before and he is not the same but there is a strange spiritual metamorphosis in and upon him and he has another spirit as is said of Caleb but my servant Caleb because he had another spirit that is an excellent Numb 14. 24. spirit and 2 Cor. 3. 18. we are chang'd into the same image from glory to glory c. Thus in general but now more particularly and distinctly This turn 1. It must be such as is of God as the Lord Peccatoris conversio est opus quod creatae naturae vires excedit God of Hosts himself works and is the author of as is his gift and wrought by his Spirit and not meerly of man or from our selves which is yet all the turn of many and cannot therefore be right it being neither wholly to God nor from God Turn thou me says Ephraim and I Jer. 31. 18. shall be turned then we are turned indeed and not till then 2. Such as is joyn'd with kindly contrition and humiliation and this occasioned by a thorow and sound conviction of sin which the Holy Ghost is the Author and efficient of Joh. 16. 8. and this contrition and humiliation is as it were the foundation and conversion the superstructure and both together contrition and conversion humiliation and reformation are the two main essential parts of repentance a kindly brokenness of heart for sin and a breaking off from sin when we grieve and are deeply humbled for it and depart from it are sorry for it and forsake it and hence we read of repentance of sin or for sin and repentance from sin and the former of these is called in Scripture godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 10. For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of that is we feeling indeed the bitterness of our sins and being truly touched in conscience for them that we have offended so great and holy a God and so gracious and loving a father we come by the help of God's Spirit to alter and change the purpose and resolution of our hearts before set on sin and turn them to the Lord and now avoid forsake and abandon sin and this is called godly sorrow or as it is in the Original sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 10 Qui secundùm Deum tristis est eo dolore qui à Dei Spiritu manat de peccatis suis dolet idque non poenae formidine territus sed hoc ipsum aegerrime ferens quód Deum clementissimum patrem offenderit c. Beza according to God that is 1. which proceeds and comes from God which the Spirit of God is the Author
cure If I shut up heaven says the Lord that there be no rain or if I command the Locusts to 2 Chron. 7. 13. devour the Land or if I send pestilence among my people that is whatever judgments I inflict on a people for under these are comprised all other if v. 14. my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves c. So if they shall confess their iniquity c. and their uncircumcised hearts be humbled c. At what instant I shall Levit. 26. 40. Jer. 18. 7 8. speak concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them Is there says the Prophet no balm in Gilead is there no Physician Jer. 8. 22. there Gilead was a place where there was plenty of Balm and it was famous for the soveraignest Balsams for from thence they were wont to be transported into other countreys and there were also store of skilful Physicians and therefore it was strange and matter of wonder indeed that Balm and Physicians should fail and not be had there But admit there should be no Balm no not in Gilead yet is there Balm with God and that all Physicians fail on earth yet is there a Physician in heaven who whatever are a peoples maladies if he do but undertake the cure will be sure to bring remedy Psalm 60. 11. 68. 20. who gives help from trouble when vain is the help of man and unto whom belong the issues from death For we have no might against this great 2 Chr. 20. 12. company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee who yet canst help us and save us from above though no help nor way of salvation appears from beneath Thus there is a way for a people to be saved whatever is their case and truly this is a great mercy and that the Lord is pleased also to point a people to it when their case hath been exceeding deplorable and seem'd almost desperate as Joel 2. in the first chapter and the former part of the second what sore and terrible judgments had God threatned and yet v. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me c. So Return thou back-sliding Israel saith Hos 14. 1. the Lord c. Who says the Lord would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would Jer. 3. 12. go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may Isa 27. 4 5. make peace with me and he shall make peace with me How desperate seemed Ninivehs condition Jonah 3. 4. yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed and yet there was a remedy and they betaking themselves to it are saved And as it is with people so with a particular person and as in regard of their miseries so their iniquities as Shechaniah said We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the Land directly against God's express Law Dent. 7. 3. yet now there is hope in Israel Ezra 102. concerning this thing our case is not desperate but we may yet be brought to repentance and pardoned Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in these is continuance that is in those Isa 64. 5. ways of grace and mercy thou art still the same and if thou pleasest thus still to shew and manifest thy self we shall be saved So wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings c. Isai 1. 16 18. and then Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool These were the deepest Dies implying whatever their sins were though never so great yet upon their repentance they should be graciously and fully pardoned Let Israel hope in the Lord for with Ps 130. 7. the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities There is a way for the wicked and most unrighteous man to be saved which the Lord calls and invites him to Let the wicked Isaiah 55. 7. forsake his way and the unrighteous man his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et vir iniquitatis thoughts Hebr. The man of iniquity or made up as it were of iniquity or the man of wrong or vexation as some render it one word signifies both that hath so much wrong'd not onely his own soul but God vexed his holy and good Spirit yet there is a way for such a one to be saved Let him but forsake his way and his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Hebr. he will multiply to pardon So that his pardons shall infinitely exceed his sins there shall be pardons and to spare as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superabundavit plus quà m abundavit supermultiplicata est Paul expresses it 1 Tim. 1. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant or redundant superabundant more than enough or as it were overfull enough and to spare it abounded to flowing over as the Sea doth above Mole-hills And because we are ready to be measuring God by our selves and to think this cannot be done because we cannot do it we cannot our selves pass by so many and great provocations and therefore how should God hence God foreseeing our low conceits of him he answers v. 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord v. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts 2. If this be the onely way for a people to be saved this lets us see in what an unlikely way and posture we of this Nation are at this day to be saved And O that we had hearts to bewail it I am sure we have cause even to have rivers of waters to run down our eyes as they did Ps 119. 136. Jer. 9. 1. Davids and to wish with the Prophet Jeremy Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night c. and to say as the Prophet Isaiah Isa 22. 4. Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me c. For are we turned again to the Lord or do we turn from our sins Surely as to the generality of people amongst us nothing less no nor yet though God hath inflicted upon us so many sore and heavy judgments such as scarce have been heard of nor have been in our days nor in our fathers days before us
one truth then were the hearts of the fathers turned to the Flectet suâ efficaci praedicatione omnium hominum ordines ad poenitentiam c. Tossan in loc children 3. Others as Tossanus a learned Expositour understand it that John by his powerful preaching should bring all forts and orders and degrees of men whether fathers or children to repentance and to serve the Lord with one accord c. And some of the Ancients as Austin and Jerom by the Faithers understand Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets and by Children the Jews and thus expound it That when by the preaching of John the Jews should be brought to believe in Christ in whom the fathers had believed then should their fathers hearts be turned and affected towards them which otherwise were averse from them but then should they acknowledg them or then may the hearts of the fathers be said to be turned to the children when being converted themselves their earnest desires are to their children that they might be converted also 5. Others thus that whereas at this time when John came all was out of order and there were many corruptions errours schisms sects Docet Angelus Johannem suo ministerio patres filios existo dissidio in unitatem fidei adducturum c. Winckelm as Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Samaritans c. and many differences divisions and heart-burnings thereupon John by his preaching being made effectual by the Holy Ghost should so turn and convert all orders and degrees of men from the errours of their ways as to heal and reconcile the differences and divisions among themselves and to bring them to an holy union and mutual love and amity one to and with another so as to joyn together as one man to serve the Lord so that Ephraim should no more Isa 11. 13. envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim c. And what a blessed work was this thus in this sense to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and of the fathers to the children And oh that God would do this work for England that he would send some Johns filled with the holy Ghost to effect this that the hearts of all that profess his name might be turned to God and turned one to another that all might be one in the father and the Son as the father and son are one in John 17. 21. themselves as Christ prayed that all might serve him with one shoulder or one consent and Zephan 3 9. his way and name might be one in the earth and there might be no other strife but who might serve God best and love one another most the performing of this work upon Mount Sion and on Jerusalem how would it further the conversion of the Jews and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentils and how soon then would God subdue our enemies and turn his hand against his and our adversaries round about And this now which way soever we take or understand it it being the work of the ministery the design of the preaching of the Word to turn people to the Lord to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and as it follows the disobodient to the wisdom of the just that is to the wisdom of true converts to that repentance and conversion which they have already been brought to whereby they are brought to themselves and to a sound mind and to be wise indeed as also it being the work of the ministery of the Word to reconcile people to God and to bring them again into favour and friendship with him and to be at peace with him and therefore is it called the ministery and word of reconciliation What a choice mercy and singular priviledg must it needs then be for a people to enjoy it and how much should people prize and esteem and value it and as it is said of those Acts 14. 48. glorifie it If a Traveller was out of his way and travelling in dangerous paths where robberies and murthers used to be be committed what a good work was it for one to inform this Traveller of his danger and to set him into a safe and right way So if he was fallen to have one to raise him up again and this is the work of the ministery Psalm 19. 7. The law of the Lord or the doctrine of the Lord that is his holy Word is perfect converting the soul it says this is the way walk in it and what a mercy is it to enjoy such a word this makes it to such as experience this blessed effect of it better to them than thousands of gold and silver as David Psalm 119. 72. says it was to him The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver that is many thousands though never so many for was it the gold and silver of many worlds what could it do or contribute in the least as to what the Word does 10. This speaks very highly of God's turning a people again and causing his face to shine there being so much in them and that flows from them that when God vouchsafes these to a people they are then saved they are then blessed and happy and it is well with them and it shall be well with them for ever hereafter they are safe and all shall happily succeed they are freed from all evill and in the way of all good and what blessed things are they that put people into such a condition O how well does God deal with those he vouchsafes them to they may well say Thou hast dealt well Ps 119. 65. 65. 4. 63. 3. with thy servant O Lord c. and Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee whom thou turnest to thee and turnest thy face unto him for this is beter than life and man's onely true felicity and soveraign way of being saved c. And therefore how excellent is thy loving kindness O God says David Psal 36. 7. that produces such excellent effects 11. This justifies and much commends solemn days of fasting and humiliation this being the great work and business of them to seek God's face and to further our turning again to him and this being the onely way to be saved this speaks such days to be good days blessed days and such duties to be good duties and such a work to be a good work and it is good for people they tending so much to their weal to be much in them such fasting days proving many times effectual for conversion and so to salvation which makes them * Lachâ—ymae poenitentium vinum Angelorum dum hîc ex animo lugemus commissa diem festum Angeli agunt in coelesti curiâ festival days to the Angels in heaven who rejoyce so much as you heard before in the conversion of sinners and to whom penitents tears become as refreshing wine c. 12. This speaks afflictions not to be such sad things as many
step further in those dangerous ways in which while you go on hell is gaping for you and utter destruction is ready to come upon you yea and which unless you turn from you cannot escape O seek ye the Lord while he Is 55. 6. may be found and call ye upon him while he is near and Give glory to the Lord before he Jer. 13 16. 2 Cor. 6. 2. cause darkness c. Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Remember the watchman's answer when he was enquired of as concerning the night Watchman what of the night watchman what of the night The Is 21. 11 12. watchman said the morning cometh and also the night yea it hastens and it will quickly come upon you and therefore says he if ye will enquire enquire ye return come that is do it speedily least the night surprize you O to day and while it is called to day as the holy Ghost saith hearken to his voice else know if you shall still despise the grace and mercy of God inviting you to repent you will be sure to find and feel too his power in punishing you for refusing to repent Thus though you cannot convert your selves nor of your selves turn again to God yet there are several things you see which you may yea and ought for to do as in reference to this turn and which if you do not do you will be found wholly without excuse and self-destroyers and your bloud will be upon your own heads because you did not do what you might For you must not think God should do all and you do nothing hence in Scripture conversion is spoken of not onely as Acts 11. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 25. c. God's work as most truly and properly it is but in some sense as man's he really indeavouring it and making use of all ways and means Ezek. 33. 18. Zach 1. 3. c. prescribed to further it not that we can turn our selves but that we to our utmost use the best means and take the most effectual course for to do that in some sense we may be said to do And thus though the work of conversion be properly God's work yet as one well observes it is sometimes ascribed to our selves that we should not be negligent sometimes to Ministers and instruments to shew we must not contemn their help and sometimes to God that we may not be self-confident or unthankful And the great reason indeed why sinners do not repent nor turn from their sins to God is not because they cannot though they cannot but because they will not for they think they can and yet will not nay they will not try whither they can or no nor use the power which God hath given them they can do more than they do but will not do it they are slothful and negligent and will not set themselves to use all the means they might and besides they are content with their Cannots and therefore they may thank themselves that they perish and do not repent nor turn to God But for farther satisfaction as to this great point I shall refer the Reader to that excellent Tract of Mr. William Fenner called Wilful impenitency the greatest self-murder and shall here answer an objection that may arise in our way viz. this that if we cannot convert our selves nor turn again to the Lord why are we then so often called upon and exhorted to this as if it was in our power To this I answer 1. It is true indeed we cannot turn our selves no we may as soon create a world as do it the work of Conversion is a greater work than the work of Creation and man that cannot so much as make one hair of his head black or white nor adde one cubit to his stature nor do the less how should he do the greater And therefore for any to interpret those Texts that call upon man to turn to God as if it was in man's power to convert himself as the Papists Arminians and some others do it is to misinterpret and pervert the true sense and meaning of them But 2. though we cannot convert our selves yet that we are so often exhorted and called upon to do that which is not in our power to do viz. to turn to God it is not in vain For 1. these mind us and shew us our duty not our ability what we are and ought to do A praecepto ad posse non valet consequentia sed docet quid fieri debeat c. not what we are able to do what must be done not what we can do they are a measure not of our power but point out to us our duty which we once had ability to but wilfully depriv'd our selves of but that does not hinder but that God may yet require his own 2. They are to convince us of our impotency Si in manu nostra positum esset quicquid Deus requirit supervacua esset gratia Spiritûs sancti and inability that so in and under the sense thereof we might be humbled and laid low and look out for ability and help elsewhere which had we of our selves the grace of the Spirit would be in vain and of no use 3. Though we cannot convert our selves yet these exhortations calls and commands are not in vain for God many times works in them and by them and makes them effectual as to the work as to turn sinners again they are ways and instruments in and by which the Spirit putteth forth his power and comes into the heart As when God at first said Let there be light there was light and when Christ said to Lazarus come forth he came forth thus God many times by his Spirit and grace and the secret virtue and power thereof is pleased so effectually to operate in and by those means as to make them effectual as to that great work so that while a man speaks to the ear he many times speaks to the heart and does so accompany what is spoken with his own power as to make it the power of God to conversion and salvation as while Peter spake the holy Ghost Acts 10. 44. 16. 14. fell on them which heard the word and as Paul was preaching and Lydia hearing the Lord opened her heart Thus such as are dead attending on the means of life come to be quickened and live according to that Hear and your Is 55. 3. soul shall live c. and God in speaking does at once both direct what to do as also inable for to do it calls and converts counsels and makes to obey and comply c. says turn and he turns and be converted and converts 4. Though we cannot convert our selves yet Deus jubet quae non possumus ut noverimus quid ab eo petere debeamus Aug. there are several things as you have heard that we may do as in reference to conversion for God does not exhort
without hurt and though six and seven troubles throng us not any the least evil toucheth Job 5. 19. Ps 25. 10. us but all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth Thus when we turn to God with a holy turn God turns to us with a gracious turn and when God turns to us all good is afloat towards us and all evil is ebbing and hastening from us all in heaven and earth will become turned for our good Deut. 30. 3. The Lord tells Israel that if they shall return to the Lord their God then the Lord their God will turn their captivity and have compassion on them and will return c. But let me a little more particularly and distinctly hold forth some of the benefits of this turn 1. This is the great blessing of the Gospel even the blessing that Jesus Christ himself being raised up and exalted by his father is sent to bless with in the preaching and dispensing thereof Vnto you first God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every Acts â— 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si vos converteritis c. So Syriack and Arabick c. one of you from his iniquities Some indeed read it if you turn or every one of you turning c. and so make being blest an argument and motive to turn And this is a true and a good sense that when we turn away from our iniquities though not by any strength of our own that then Jesus Christ will bless us But first Jesus Christ must bless us in turning us before he bless us being turn'd and therefore others render it as here in turning you as declaring the way and manner how Christ blesses and this agrees well with the word bless for iniquity being that alone which brings the curse the onely way to be blest must needs be to be turned from it and while people are not turned from their sins but still go on impenitently in them they cannot be blest Thus conversion is the great Gospel-blessing and the way to be further yea for ever blest and it prevents the curse which else we cannot evade And he shall turn the heart of the fathers c. Least I come and smite the earth with a curse Mas 4. 6. 2. Upon this follows that great and glorious and inestimable mercy and priviledg of pardon that mercy of mercies which makes 〈◊〉 and the want of which makes hell yea which if not enjoy'd every thing else as one expresses it even our very boards and beds and fields and houses are but as an hell to us David having been for a while under the sense of God's cispleasure for his sins but feeling at length the Sun-shine of God's favour breaking forth through the clouds upon him in this mercy O how jowfully does he break out and how admiringly does he speak of the blessedness of those who partake of so great a mercy of so glorious a priviledg Blessed is he whose transgression Ps 32. 1 2. is forgiven whose sin is covered that is by the Lord for man must not cover it but acknowledg it Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity c. Blessed or as others O blessed O happy or O the blessednesses or O welfares the man it is a joyful acclamation for such a man's felicity Dutch read it right happy or happy indeed he is so indeed whose transgression is forgiven c. We have here in several words the same benefit repeated because of the greatness of it and though here is Autology yet not Tautology for these several Metaphorical expressions are wonderfully comfortable 1. Sin is a burden and the first word signifies an easing or taking away and blessed is he that is eased of such a burden 2. Sin is most loathsome and filthy in the sight of God and he is of purer eyes that he can behold or look on it but with utter detestation and abhorrence and the second word notes a covering of it and aâ—â—â—tting it out of his sight contrary to that Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance To set us our selves there is our happiness but to set our sins there is our wo and misery and there cannot be a greater And cover not their Neh. 4. 5. iniquity c. 3. Sin is a debt and the third notes a not imputing or reckoning it and what a blessed thing is pardon that does all this does sin trouble as a burden pardon eases and takes it off as loathsom pardon covers it as a debt pardon does not impute it and this follows upon repentance this priviledg of remission upon the grace of conversion not as the cause of it but as the way and order in which God will have it to behad And hence we find them joyned together Luke 24. 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name c. Acts 5. 3. To give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin c. And be Joh. 12. 40. converted and I should heal them Mark has it c. 4. v. 12. And their sins should be forgiven them which is the souls healing That 's a full place Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The former of these words repent seems to import conviction and contrition the latter conversion and amendment one repentance of sin or for sin the other repentance from sin And this is to repent indeed to do both to bewaile what we have committed and not go on still to commit what we have bewail'd and what follows upon this the Deleta non ut non sint sed ut non imputentur propter imputatam sponsoris nostri obedientiam Tossan blotting out of our sins that your sins may be blotted out that is pardoned our sins are in Scripture compared unto debts and these are registred as it were in God's book and there stand upon record and now the Apostle tells them that if they did repent and were converted these debts should be blotted out God's Metaphora sumpta à creditoribus qui debita vel interveniente satisfactione vel gratis remissa delent book cross'd all scores quit and that hand-writing which was against them should be cancell'd which is so choice a priviledg and mercy of mercies that this if there was no more might seem motive enough to put people upon repenting and turning to God that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall come from the presence of the Lord. There are by the way times of refreshing or cooling as the Greek hath it to come to the people of God after the heat of their afflictions and persecutions here compar'd to fire As there 1 Pet. 4. 12. remains a rest for the