chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Afflictions are spiritual Physick Now Physick we know at present often discomposeth and disturbs Nature and puts the whole Body out of Frame it makes the Patient sick before it cures him And so it is with the Physick of the Soul you cannot discern the Benefit of it till it hath done working It makes you sick for the present but afterwards you come to see it was a good Sickness that made way for Health and ended therein 7. In the mean time that you see not that you in some measure profit by your Afflictions and that they are by degrees doing you good is very much your own Fault 1. You have a Prejudice against your Afflictions you have an ill Opinion of those Courses which God takes with you for your Good and this much hinders the kindly Operation of them upon you as an ill Opinion of your Physician or his Prescriptions hinders the working of your Physick and deprives you of much of the Benefit thereof 2. While you are under these Prejudices and perverse Misapprehensions you do not apply your self to endeavour to profit by your Afflictions improving God 's Providences and doing what in you lies to further the Success of the Means which he applies and makes use of for the Cure of your Soul While your Prejudices continue and you are thereupon still sluggish and unactive how can you expect to be sensible of the Benefit of your Afflictions Cast off your Prejudices have good Thoughts of God's Methods of Cure firmly believe that the Course which he takes with you is the best and fittest to do you good arise and be doing what you can towards the promoting of God's Design in afflicting you search your Heart try your Ways endeavour to get a Sight of your Sins a true Hatred of them serious and firm Resolutions to forsake them renew these your Resolutions often still endeavour to confirm and strengthen them more and more and above all be earnest and uncessant in Prayer to God that he would be pleased to bless your Endeavours and then say if you see any Cause of complaining that your Afflictions are such as can never do you any Good The Ninth Sermon LAM 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. I Am now fallen upon the second part of the Text setting before us our Duty in time of Affliction Let us search and try our VVays and turn again to the Lord. The Duty is twofold First That we search and try our VVays And secondly That we turn unto the Lord. The former of these Duties as 't is first in the Order of the Text so 't is in Nature We must search after our Sins find them out and discover them and then turn away from them 'T is impossible that we should forsake them until we have a sight of them He who sees not his Sins what should he else do but still go on boldly and fearlesly in the practice of them What hath he to hinder him or reduce him I shall speak something of both these Duties and first of that which hath the first place in the Text. But before I come to speak of the Duty it self of searching and trying our Ways in time of Affliction in order to the finding out of those our Sins for which God hath laid his Hand upon us I shall speak a little in a more general way of that which is near of kin unto the Duty of the Text I mean of Self-reflection or a looking back upon our selves and a reviewing and consideration of our Thoughts Words and Ways And that which I shall say concerning it shall be touching the Excellency and great Usefulness thereof and touching the Mischiefs of the neglect of it I. As touching the Excellency of Self-reflection or reviewing of our Thoughts Words and Actions I need say no more than that 't is a Perfection which only Men and Angels are capable of All other Creatures even those of them which are most perfect in their Kind and seem to have as it were some Shadow and Resemblance of Reason in them yet fall short of this excellent Perfection They cannot review what they have done or take into consideration the Quality of their past Actions they cannot reckon with themselves and call themselves to an account of them And indeed they need not do it for they are under no other Rule or Law beside that of their Nature and those natural Instincts which God hath put into them by these they are ruled and swayed and according to these they act They are under the Command of no moral Law and consequently their Actions are not capable of moral Good or Evil. But Man being under a moral Law and accountable to his Creator for the Breaches thereof for the better regulating and ordering of his Thoughts Words and Actions according to the Prescriptions of that Law God hath endowed him with a Faculty of reviewing his Actions and of considering them with relation to the Rule to the end that where he finds he hath done well he may be comforted and encouraged and where he hath done ill he may be humbled and reformed Thus hath he a Tribunal within his own Breast before which he can as often as he pleaseth summon himself to appear demand an account of all that hath been done by himself whether good or evil At this Tribunal he can judg and pass Sentence acquit or condemn himself according to the moral Nature and Quality of his Actions Here he can rebuke and admonish as there shall be cause recal and reduce himself where he hath gone astray and lay stricter and severer Charges and Injunctions on himself of greater Care and Watchfulness for the future as in respect of his former Negligence and Remissness shall be necessary A most excellent and never-sufficiently-admired Faculty of Man's Soul What a rich Treasure have we herein if we knew how to value it and make use of it But alas how little Improvement do we make to our selves of this noble Faculty And this brings me to the second thing the great Usefulness of Self-reflection I have already in what hath been spoken on the former Head said something of the Usefulness of it in general I shall now descend to some Particulars and speak briefly to them 1st By reflecting on our selves and taking a view of our past Actions we come to know our selves We understand the State and Condition of our Souls what Case we are in and what Opinion we ought to have of our selves Hereby we come to be acquainted with our spiritual Concernments whether we be in the State of Nature or in the State of Grace whether we be in the Way to Heaven or in the Way to Hell Hereby we come to know what our Declinings and Decays what our Advances and Improvements in
motions to sin at least such of them as go before the consent of the will the motus primo primi as the Schools call them 2. The Law makes a more full and clear discovery of those very sins which were in some measure known by the light of Nature 3. The light of the Gospel goes yet further in the discovery of sin and in some respects as much exceeds the Law herein as the Law doth the light of Nature For 1. The light of the Gospel as 't is far greater and clearer so 't is of a more piercing and penetrating nature to find out and discover sin as the Noon-day light looks into many a dark corner and exposeth those things to our view which before could not be discerned 2. Gospel Administrations are accompanied with a more full Effusion of the Spirit than was ordinarily under the Law Now one special part of the Spirits work being to convince of sin John 16.8 we may well conclude that the Spirit 's Discovery and Convictions of sin under the Gospel are more full and effectual 3. The Gospel furnisheth us with several Glasses in which we may behold sin represented to us in a more lively manner than by the Law alone and this whether we consider the filthiness or the heinousness of sin These Glasses are the Holiness and the Justice of God 1. The Holiness of God is so displayed and set forth in the Doctrine of the Gospel and in the Life of Christ as never before Hence it is that the Scripture seems so to speak of this matter as if God were little known until Christ by his Heavenly Doctrine and Holy Conversation revealed him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father John 12.45 46. he hath declared him He that seeth me seeth him that sent me I am come as a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness Mat. 11.27 No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him 2 Cor. 3.18 And the Apostle discoursing of the Glory and Excellency of the Evangelical Administration beyond the Legal saith That whereas they of old had a vail upon their Hearts and saw things but darkly we all with open face as in a glass behold the glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ And that he there chiefly intends the Glory of his Holiness we may collect from what followeth and we are changed saith he into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now contraries affording mutual light to one another the more we discern of the Holiness of God the more filthy and loathsome will sin appear to us This we see exemplified in the Prophet Isaiah Isa 6.3 5. who when he had seen the Lord sitting upon his Throne and heard his Holiness proclaimed by one of the Seraphims crying Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory in the sense of his sinfulness he cries out Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips 2. Another Glass to behold sin in is the Justice and Severity of God against sin As the Holiness of God shews us the filthiness of sin so doth his Justice and Severity shew us the Heinousness and abominable nature of it But now the Justice and Severity of God against sin was never so much discovered by all the dreadful Threatnings of the Law and terrible Judgments that have been inflicted upon Sinners ever since the Fall of Adam to this day nor will ever be so much discovered by all the Sufferings of Millions in Hell to Eternity as by what God for our sins hath laid upon his own Eternal and most dearly beloved Son who is over all God blessed for ever The reason hereof is manifest and undeniable for the Creature will never be able fully to satisfie the Justice of God by its endless Sufferings in Hell if it could why might it not be released and let out of Prison But Christ hath made full satisfaction to his Father's Justice so that we have in that satisfaction which he hath presented to his Father in that satisfaction of infinite value and in that alone an exact and adequate measure by which we may take the full dimensions of the heinousness of Man's sin Indeed what higher thing is imaginable by which we might be led to the sight of the heinousness of sin than that unparallel'd severity of the most Righteous Judge of all the Earth against it which induced him to lay such a weight of punishment upon his only begotten Son who is of the same Divine Essence with himself when having taken our Nature on him he undertook to bear what was due to us for our sins By what hath been said we see that the Gospel not only discovers sin but also doth it in a very signal way making such lively representations of the filthiness and heinousness thereof as neither the light of Nature nor the Law of God nor all the dreadful Examples of God's Justice and Severity that ever have been or ever shall be can make Let us now in the next place add hereunto That men are naturally most unwilling to see their sins and to be convinced of them and then it may be presumed we will easily grant that the light must in that respect be very unacceptable to them Such is every man's natural Pride and Self-love that he hath no mind to know how bad he is He is willing if it be possible to shut his Eyes against his own deformities that he may be able to hold up a good Opinion of himself Besides as men desire not to know too much of their own defects so they would not have them known to others Seeing therefore the same light that discovers them to themselves doth also lay them open to others it is a thing not at all strange that men as long as they are wicked and indulge themselves in sin should be no great Friends to the light It concerns those who have bad Wares to get them into dark Shops which may not discover the faultiness of them And so much of that first thing The light especially that of the Gospel makes discovery of mens sin and that is it which they cannot endure 2. The light of the Gospel doth not only discover mens sin but calls upon them to leave it Mat. 3.2 Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand was the substance of his Preaching who prepared the way for Christ and ushered in Evangelical light Though God never in the least approved of sin yet in former Ages before the coming of his Son into the World he much winked at it at least in the Gentile World but now he commandeth all men every where to repent He lets the World know Acts 16.30 that in times of Gospel-light men
nothing again if he pleased so continuing it in being he might lay any such Pain or Anguish upon it without relation to Sin We see what Anguish the unreasonable Creatures endure which yet are not capable of Sin And why might not God inflict the like on any rational Creature though no Sin had occasioned it or made way for it It is not easy to give a Reason why he might not for even an innocent Creature being a Creature however must of necessity be in Subjection to the Power and Dominion of the Creator from whom it received its Being 'T is true such Evils could not then have the Nature of Punishment because Punishment properly so called hath relation to Sin but yet there could be no Injustice in such a Dispensation no more than when by many tormenting and lingring Pains God takes away the Lives of brute Beasts whose Nature is not a Subject capable of Sin or moral Evil. Now in such a Case the Creature would have no just Cause to complain or murmur because no Injury could possibly be done it by God's using that just and rightful Power and Dominion which he hath over the Work of his Hands Whence we may thus argue to our present Purpose If God's absolute Power over the Work of his Hands be such as calls for humble Submission to his Providence and silent bearing of whatever he inflicts how much more should his Justice strike us dumb and effectually restrain us from all murmuring or muttering against him If we ought not to complain or murmur though we had no Sin how much less reason have we to do it when we have so much Upon this Consideration it was that the Church took up her Resolutions of patient Submission to the Hand of God Micah 7.9 I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Now I come to apply what hath been spoken Vse 1. Let us in all our Afflictions observe the Frame of our Hearts and be humbled for all the secret Grudgings and Risings of our Spirits against the Providence of God And especially if the inward Distempers of our Souls should be at any time so great as to break forth and vent themselves in any unmeet Language if our inward Discontents and Heart-burnings should discover themselves by complaining and murmuring against God and by making such Representations of him to others as if he had dealt hardly with us and as if we might have expected other measure at his Hands This is a Miscarriage which we are very apt to run into when our Afflictions are severe and lasting when they smart much and continue long But however it fare with us the Sinfulness of our murmuring against God is so great that no Circumstance of our Sufferings can render it excusable and therefore we cannot be sufficiently humbled for it To the end we may the better discover the Evil of it and see what reason there is why we should be humbled for it let us first look upon it in its Cause and the Root whence it springs then let us behold it as it is in it self and consider it in its formal Nature And lastly let us view it in its Effects and Consequents 1. Let us look upon it in its Root We loath and abhor some things the more when we know whence they are and what gave Birth to them the wicked Offspring for the cursed Mother that bare it and brought it forth Now the Root of our murmuring is our Pride we have entertained too good an Opinion of our selves we think we have deserved better things at the Hands of God and therefore we murmur and complain as if we were injured Were we throughly sensible of our Sinfulness were we convinced that we are worthy of far sorer Evils than those which we groan under instead of murmuring we would not only accept of the Punishment of our Sins as the Phrase is Levit. 26.41 take in good part meekly and patiently bear whatsoever God lays on us but from our Hearts acknowledg that we are mercifully and kindly dealt with in that no more is inflicted on us 2. If we behold it as it is in it self and consider the formal Nature of it our murmuring is in effect nothing else but a Degree of Insurrection and Rebellion against God As discontented Subjects or mutinous Souldiers sharpen their Tongues against their Prince or General and thereby heighten their own and other Mens Discontents to dispose them to make Resistance So when we murmur against God we set our Mouths against Heaven doing what in us lies to strengthen in our selves and instil into others Principles of Disaffection against the highest Majesty and to withdraw them with whom we converse from their Obedience and Loyalty 3. Let us view it in the Effects and Consequents of it We are so far from easing our selves by murmuring that it both increaseth and prolongeth our Afflictions 1st It increaseth them for our Unquietness and Stubborness under God's Hand provokes him to lay more Load upon us that is all we gain by our Untowardness as the Child that struggles swells and murmurs when he is corrected doth but thereby procure to himself the more Stripes Besides our fretting and murmuring doth of it self make those our Afflictions much more grievous which might be undergone with Ease if with humble Silence and Patience we submitted our selves to the Chastisement of our heavenly Father 2dly It also prolongs our Afflictions for our murmuring diverts us and takes us off from applying our selves to that Course which if any thing would put a speedy End to our Troubles And that is the Course which we are put upon in the Text namely a serious Reflection upon our selves and a diligent Search and Enquiry after the Sins which have procured our Afflictions and a turning from them unto God whom we have forsaken As long as we are taken up in murmuring this Work is not minded and so our Afflictions are protracted and drawn out to a greater length than they should have been if in stead of murmuring against God we had seasonably and narrowly searched into our Hearts and Ways found out our Sins judged our selves for them and forsaken them Thus we see what Reason we have to be humbled for this Sin But though in these Respects all that are guilty of it have Cause to be humbled yet have they most reason to be humbled for murmuring who have least reason to murmur such as are 1. Great and notorious Sinners whose Offences and Enormities have been such that whatsoever they suffer unless they be wilfully blind or strangely partial to themselves they must be inforced to confess that they suffer justly Should they complain of hard measure who are so bad that no Punishment is severe enough for them And yet these are oft-times as ready to complain as any else 2. Those who have drawn such Afflictions upon themselves as in which they may plainly read their Sin written in legible Characters
our former Sins For 1. Hereby we shall come to know what and how many and great those Sins are for the Pardon whereof we are to act Faith on Christ 2. We shall be the better able to value that Pardon of so many and so great Sins which he is pleased in that Ordinance to seal to us and consequently we shall the better understand how much Love and Thankfulness is due from us both unto Christ who hath with his Blood purchased the Pardon of our Sins for us and to God the Father who for Christ's sake hath bestowed it on us 4thly If this Search and Trial of our selves were constantly and duly made before the Sacrament of how great Advantage would it be towards our Growth and Increase in Grace By this Course we should 1. Discover whether we thrive in Grace or no we should evidently perceive whether it be better or worse with us since our last appearing before the Lord at his Table 2. We should with Thankfulness acknowledg any further Degrees of Grace or Strength against Corruption that we have attained 3. We should be humbled for our Backslidings and Declinings after our solemn Engagements to the contrary at our last partaking at the Table of the Lord. 4. We should renew and strengthen our Resolutions against our Sins and engage our selves to a more conscientious Performance of whatsoever Duties God requires of us If any Man think there is small Benefit to be expected from such a Course he is certainly one who hath been little acquainted with it or hath not observed it with Care and Constancy Many of those who come to that Ordinance make no Conscience at all of preparing them selves but as 't is to be feared oush upon it inconsiderately and profanely Others prepare themselves out overly and carelesly or if sometimes they take more Pairs than ordinary in searching and trying their Ways and in other Parts of that Preparation which is requisite for a due 〈…〉 God in that Ordinance yet it is but very seldom that they are at this Bains For the most part they suffer one thing or other to divert them and take 〈◊〉 off from bestowing time that way and so the great Business of preparing themselves being put off to the last is but half done or as good as wholly omitted Reflect and ask your own Conscience how it hath been with you and if you find this to have been your very Case then never object that there is little Advantage from such a Course until you have practised it better and with more Constancy But to return to the Business of the Text the searching and trying of our Ways in time of any extraordinary Affliction You will say perhaps you have searched and done it with all the Seriousness and Diligence you could and earnestly implored God's Assistance therein and this you have done often and yet you cannot understand what particular Sin or Sins God aims at in the Afflictions which it hath pleased him to lay upon you You discover Multitudes of Sins that you have been guilty of but among them all to discern which they are which God at present corrects you for above others is that which by all your Enquiry you cannot attain Answ I answer It may so be that you cannot single out any one particular Sin neither it may be did God ever intend it He sometimes by Afflictions intends to humble you for Sin in general to correct your general Carelesness and Slackness in the whole Course of your Life and to engage you to walk every way more strictly and humbly before him He intends also perhaps to mind you of old Sins which you have almost forgotten and to provoke you to renew your Repentance and Humiliation for them Wherefore when at any time you cannot find out any particular Sin for which above others God should at present have a Controversy with you fall upon Sin in the general and improve your Affliction towards the attaining of greater Measures of Humiliation and Reformation judg and humble your self for old Sins as if they had been lately committed and let the Sight of all your other Sins lead you up to the Fountain of all Actual Sin to your Original Corruption and bewail that and loath your self for it Moreover you must remember that God hath other Ends in afflicting his besides the chastening of them for Sin he also by Afflictions tries exerciseth and improveth Faith Patience and other Graces He by Afflictions stirs you up to Prayer weans your Heart from the World helps you the better to relish and savour Heavenly things the Sweetness whereof you taste not when you are glutted with outward Prosperity If you be any way a Gainer by your Affliction you have reason to take Comfort therein and to be thankful Thus I have done with the former Duty in time of Affliction namely the searching and trying of our Ways I come now to the latter Duty in those Words And let us turn unto the Lord Of which I shall speak briefly because I have in good part prevented my self in what hath been spoken concerning the former Duty From the manner of Expression or Phrase of turning to the Lord we learn the true Nature both of Sin and Repentance Sin is an Aversion and turning away from God and Repentance consequently is a returning to him This is manifest from the usual Language of the Scriptures which call Sin a forsaking God a departing from God a revolting from him and the like The Scriptures thus expressing Sin are so frequent that I need not stand to mention them And the Scriptures setting forth the Nature of Repentance by returning unto God are as frequent That the Nature of Sin lies in an Aversion from God and Conversion to the Creature will better appear if we descend to some particular Instances Worldly Joy what is it but a Joy in the Creature instead of the Creator who is the proper Object of spiritual Joy Carnal Confidence what is it but a confiding in and reliance on the Creature instead of God And so 't is no other than a leaving of God to betake our selves to the Creature for those Supplies and Assistances which we stand in need of So the Prophet sets forth the Nature of that Sin Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man Jer. 17.5 and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. And although this our departing from God and betaking our selves to the Creature be not so apparent in divers other Sins yet if we consider the Matter throughly we shall find the thing is still the same For in all Sin 't is some kind of Profit or Pleasure or Content or Satisfaction in one kind or other that we look after Now we sin when we seek these things in the Creature turning aside from God in whom there is most eminently whatsoever the Creature can afford us towards our Satisfaction and infinitely more Hence may be inferred several things 1. The
of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession