of Both ever be able to prevail against it And this brings me to the other thing I am to speak to Our Encouragement to this Duty II. For God is Grciouas and Merciful slow to anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. It is not at all needful for me to enter on any particular Explication of all these Gracious Attributes and shew what Arguments every one of them affords to engage us to Repentance Two things in General there are which will at first sight arise from them to excite us to it viz. 1st The Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance God is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness 2dly His unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against them and his readiness to recal them if they repent He is slow to Anger and Repenteth him of the Evil. And 1st Of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the Greatest of Sinners upon their Repentance He is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness When God Proclaimed his own Name in the midst of the People of Israel we read in the xxxiv of Exodus that he chose to do it not so much in the terrible Attributes of his Majesty and Power as in the soft Idea's of his Mercy and Goodness The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin And if we look into all the following Representations which he makes of himself whether by his Holy Prophets under the Legal but especially by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles under the Christian Dispensation we shall find there is no Character he so much delights in as this of being Good and Gracious not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Peter iii. 8. And now what more forcible Encouragement can any one desire to bring him to Repentance than to be thus assured of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest of Sinners if they Repent That he will not only forgive him upon his return but will even assist him with Grace and Strength in the doing of it That he desires not the death of the most Profligate Offender but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live In a word That he has promised forgiveness without exception to the most wicked Men upon their Repentance so that if they will but yet break off their evil Course and keep his Statutes and do that which is lawful and right they shall surely live they shall not dye Ezek. xviii 21. Many are the ways and excellent the Methods that God has taken to convince us of his Mercy and the time would fail me to enter on a particular Consideration of them Sometimes he declares not only that he is ready to pardon us if we repent but that he even desires we should repent that he may forgive us And least his Word should not be sufficient he confirms that desire with an Oath Ezek. xxxiii 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your Evil ways for why will ye die O House of Israel Sometimes he Expostulates with us in the way of Reasoning to see if by that means he may be able to bring us to consider his Love and Affection to us Isai. i. 16. Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Tho your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll If he Exhorts us to Repentance he always does it upon this Promise that he will Pardon us if we repent If we turn from our Sins Iniquity shall not be our ruine If he threatens Judgments yet still he keeps a reserve for Mercy to triumph over Judgment and will rather be thought inconstant in his most Peremptory Decrees than inexorable to Repenting Sinners Thus he commanded Jonah to go to Niniveh and to pronounce an utter destruction against it He fix'd the very time too Yet fourty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown But what now was the issue of all this Why the City believed and feared God and turn'd from their Evil way And God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3. And what must the Consequence of all these Reflections be but to engage us not to dispise the Goodness of God whereby he thus Graciously invites us to Repentance but to conclude with Holy David Psal. cxxx 3. If thou LORD shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O God who may abide it But there is Mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared And what I have now said of Gods mercy in General will yet more hold in the other Part of this Character wherein is set out to us in Particular Secondly his great unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against Sinners and his readiness to recal them upon their Repentance He is slow to anger and repenteth him of the Evil. And because I would now were I able speak not so much to your Reason as to your Sense and Experience to your Consciences and Affections I will for the Proof of this no more lead you back to the Israelites in this Prophecy to Past-times and unknown Countries but will rather desire you to consider your own Times your own Country and if you will allow me freely to add it your own Souls Which of all these will not afford me an evident Demonstration of the Patience and long-suffering of God And speak him in the words of the Text to be a God slow to anger and that repenteth him of the Evil That after so many Sins as we have every one the very best of us committed we are yet alive this day whereas God might if he had pleased long since have cut us off in the midst of our Sins That after so many calls and invitations as he has sent to bring us to Repentance he is still pleased to call and to invite us to it That notwithstanding we have so far abused his Goodness and long-suffering as to improve that which above all things should have the most engaged us to our Duty into an encouragement to go on the rather in our Sins he nevertheless still continues to us the Offers of Pardon and Peace if we will even now in this our day consider the things that make for our Peace What is all this but a most Demonstrative as well as a most Affectionate Proof that God is indeed slow to anger not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance That he has deliver'd us out of so many
Mr. WAKE 's SERMON BEFORE THE House of COMMONS June 5th 1689. Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689 Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5th 1689. Being The FAST DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN's Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING By WILLIAM WAKE Chaplain in Ordinary to their MAJESTIES and Preacher to the Honourable Society of Gray's-Inn LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard and William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street 1689. JOEL II. 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the Great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jewes for their Sins But that which is yet more surprizing is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldaeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before them his Judgments if they continu'd still impenitent and to encourage them by repenting not only to prevent their Ruine but to assure themselves of his Favour That though they had so long neglected him yet if they would now even now at the last return with a true Zeal and a sincere Affection to their Duty they should not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance from him Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil It is not my intention to seek a Parallel of all this either in the sins or in the danger of our own Countrey I would willingly hope that neither our Guilt nor our Incorrigibleness have been so heinous as theirs nor shall any such deplorable Judgment as this ever I trust be made the punishment of what our Iniquities have indeed but too justly deserved No blessed be God who by a wonderful Concurrence of great and singular Mercies seems rather to call upon us to celebrate his Goodness than to deprecate his Judgments to praise his Name in Hymns of Triumph and Eucharist than to weep between the Porch and the Altar in melancholly Litanies to avert his Anger and implore his Mercy But yet since the Goodness as well as Judgments of the Lord are designed to bring us to repentance and that whether we look back into our own particular Actions or consider those Publick and National Transgressions whereby we have so long and loudly call'd to Heaven for vengeance we must with shame and indignation confess our selves some of the greatest of Sinners I cannot but think both the Solemn Occasion of this Day and the Design of my Text to be a most proper and seasonable Admonition to us to turn unto the Lord our God and to implore his Blessing upon our present Enterprises that those vile Insects the Locusts and Caterpillars that have so barbarously consumed our Neighbours round about us our worse than Assyrian or Babylonian Enemies may not be able to prevail against us And indeed however it has pleased God as at this time to give us some Encouragement to trust in his Mercy yet we cannot so soon forget that we have also born the punishment of our sins For not to repass upon the things that are at a greater distance from us let the Instances still fresh in all our
well enough that St. Paul has told us that Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our Mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be consider'd by him When Jonah denounced Gods Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and Proclaimed a fast and put on Sackcloath from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God. For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient for Mens Salvation and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin comitted with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Pennance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our forgiveness 3. In short thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God. This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn even unto him and with all our Heart Words very Emphatical and which offer to us two great Conditions which are absolutely necessary to render our Conversion every way such as it ought to be First That it must be hearty and sincere There must be nothing of the Hypocrite mix'd with it our Souls must go along with our outward Performances and these penitential appearances be the true Declarations of that real inward sorrow which we feel in our Hearts for our Offences For God is not a Man that he should be mocked He sees into our very Souls and knows the secrets of all the Children of Men. And Secondly That it must be intire and without reserve As we must be sorry for every Sin we have already committed so we must resolve against ever committing any for the time to come For God is of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity and if our Repentance be sincere so shall we be too The same Piety which moves us to hate any Evil will equally fill us with an Aversion against all And if we desire to continue but in one Offence it is because that we do truly repent of none So that now then if we will answer the design of this day if we will render our fast such as the Lord has chosen and has promised to reward with the Blessings both of this life and of that which is to come we must not think it enough that we comply with the outward Ceremonies and shew of Repentance but we must indeed resolve to bring forth the fruits of it Whilst we Address our selves to God for Pardon we must take heed to dispose our Souls in such a manner that we may be fit to receive it And if we thus improve the great Solemnity of this day we shall not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance at the Throne of Grace God will be jealous for his land and pity his People He will perfect the great Deliverance he has begun for us and once more render us the fear and the terror of all our Enemies round about us Our Faith which has so often triumph'd over all the Arguments of its Adversaries shall now no less triumph over all their black Designs to root it out and to destroy it and shew to all the World that though for our Tryal God may sometimes permit the Winds to blow and the Flouds to rise and the Storms to beat against our Church yet has he founded it on that Rock that shall never fail Nor shall the gates of Hell either the Power of France or the Cunning of the Jesuit or the Malice
dangers in which but for his Providence over us we must long since have perish'd That he has smitten us in Mercy not in Judgment to correct and admonish not to ruine and destroy us That upon our deprecating his Anger he has at any time heard our Prayers and answer'd our Desires What is this but a plain Evidence that he smites not willingly nor loves to afflict the Children of Men and so is a God repenting him of the Evil that he is at any time forced either to threaten us with or to bring upon us And if we look into his Dispensations towards us in the common concern of our Country and our Religion How slow must that God have been to Anger who after so many years Attendance nevertheless still calls upon us as at this day to turn from our Evil way and from the violence that is in our Hands that our Iniquity may not be our ruine And for his repenting him of the Evil which we have sometimes forced him by our continual Provocations to send upon us Let the Instances which we our selves have known suffice to tell us how unwilling he has shewn himself to bring us to an utter desolation When it pleased God for our iniquities to despise in his indignation both the King and the Priest and by the deplorable Judgment of Civil Confusions had proved and exercised us about Twenty Years with what a Miracle of Mercy did he turn again the Captivity of Sion and restore to us both our Government and Religion as before When this would not do but our Sins and our Prosperity return'd together so that we were again in a very few years become ripe for judgment He called forth a destroying Angel He put a new Sword into his Hand and commanded him to slay his Thousands and Ten Thousands in our Streets The PLAGUE consum'd our Strength and hardly was that pass'd when another Vengeance a devouring FIRE such as scarce any Age or Country has ever heard of burnt down our Dwellings And had not the Hand of God wonderfully interposed we must have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah And yet how did he then cover us with his hand in that day of his displeasure He neither suffer'd our Enemies to invade us from abroad nor any Domestick Quarrels to embroil us at home He preserved us in Peace he sent again the Blessings of Plenty and Prosperity among us and our City is risen more Great and Glorious out of its Ashes What shall I say to the fears and jealousies we have labour'd under since from a restless Party Enemies to the Name of Protestant and by Principle conjured if they can to root it out of the World In how many dangers has God delivered us And how many Designs for ought we know may he have prevented which have not yet been brought to light And when at last either to awaken us the more effectually to a Repentance of our sins or it may be to accomplish the number of their Iniquities he deliver'd us over for a little while into the hands of our Enemies and to convince the most incredulous among us what the true Spirit of prevailing Popery is suffer'd them with such an inconsiderate Fury to pursue our Ruine that no Ties either of God or Man were sufficient to restrain them but all Obligations whether of Justice or Conscience were equally trampled under their feet How did it then please our Almighty Defender to assert his Character of being a God repenting him of the evil that he had brought upon us in a manner that is the Wonder and Astonishment of the present and that I am perswaded shall be the Praise and Triumph of his Church in all succeeding Generations He raised us up a Deliverer out of the House of his Servant David He touch'd his Princely Heart with a Generous Sense both of the Evils which we had suffer'd and of the greater that we apprehended His Honour and his Zeal enflamed him to do somewhat worthy Himself and that might answer the mighty Hopes God had prepared us to conceive of Him. He meditated the great Work of delivering our Countrey from Oppression and our Religion from Destruction And by the Blessing of God he accomplish'd it in a manner so extraordinary in all its Circumstances as I think should not suffer us to doubt from whose Providence it was that this Redemption was sent to us This was the Lord's doing and whatever it is I am sure ought to be marvellous in our Eyes And may I think be a final I hope it shall be an effectual Confirmation to us of this Great Engagement of our Text to turn to him with all our hearts viz. That he is a God repenting him of the evil and therefore whose Mercy if we now truly do so we may securely depend upon both for the forgiveness of our sins and for our deliverance from those dangers which our sins have so justly exposed us to And now what remains but that having all these great Encouragements such Promises or rather such an Earnest of God's Favour to us we resolve every one of us seriously to comply with the great Design both of this Day and of this Discourse and by our sincere Repentance for our past Offences obtain that Blessing we so much desire both for our Countrey and for our Religion Never was there a time wherein we had greater Reason to hope for God's Acceptance than at this Day and such an Occasion as this to implore his Favour there may not perhaps again occur in the Course of many Ages For indeed what is it that we are now assembled to recommend to His Mercy but in Effect the preservation of our Selves our Laws our Liberties and our Religion against the Violence of those who have long conspired both Their and Our destruction That he would preside in our Councils and go forth with our Armies and so direct the one and prosper the other that we may again enjoy the Blessings of Peace and Security that there may be no decay no leading into Captivity and no just complaining in our Streets And this he will do if we be not our selves wanting to our own preservation Only let us act as becomes Good Christians and True Englishmen let us do all things for the Glory of God and for the Safety Honour and Welfare of our Country In the words of Joab to his Brother Alishai upon an Occasion not much different from our own at this time Let us be strong and of good Courage and let us play the Men for our People and for the Cities of our God and then he will not fail us nor forsake us But if instead of pursuing the things that make for our Peace we shall still go on to precipitate our own destruction If when we are call'd this Day to turn unto the LORD our God with all our hearts and with fasting and with weeping and with