unto him in better words We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have finned against thee The remembrance of these ought to be very grievous to us and the burden of them intolerable VVhich if we feel sensibly it will dispose us to cry to God with the greater fervency and frequency and to beseech him the more earnestly to spare us saying as Baruch a great Friend of Jeremiah teaches us III. 1 2. O Almighty Lord the soul in anguish the troubled spirit cryeth to thee Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art merciful have pity upon us for we have sinned against thee And if he do condescend to our request we shall the more magnifie his mercy and his clemency will be the more admirable in our eyes when we have been made thoroughly sensible how little we deserved it nay how justly we had incurred his severest displeasure 3. The sense also of our ill deservings will help another way to make our Prayers effectual because it will move us wholly to depend upon God for our deliverance That 's a third thing necessary to make our supplications prevalent We must in this humble manner apply our selves to God and quitting all confidence in any thing that we can do even in our Prayers desire him to save us merely for his own sake there being nothing in our selves to move him to any thing but only displeasure against us This Jeremiah also teaches us in the next words to those now mentioned v. 21. Do not abhor us though we and our Fathers have been great sinners yet do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory Which argument he uses also a little before my Text v. 7. O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us do thou it for thy Names sake A most excellent Form for us to imitate who may and ought to say as it there follows Our backslidings have been many we have sinned against thee O thou hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble we have provoked thee to resolve that thou wilt save and deliver us no more but do it for thy Names sake do it for thy Truths sake disgrace not thy holy Religion here established among us though we be wicked that is pure though we deserve to be deserted that is worthy of thy defence and protection And may we take the boldness to add as thy Servants heretofore have done thou hast many holy devout Worshippers among us for whose sake we beseech thee to do it O look not upon the sinners of thy people but on them which serve thee in truth 2 Esdras III. 28.31.34 and VIII 26. Are their deeds any better who inhabit Babylon that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion Weigh thou our wickedness now in the ballance and theirs also that dwell in the world and so shall thy Name be found no where as it is in our Israel Psal CXV 1. Not unto us therefore O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth sake Remember not the iniquities of our Forefathers but think upon thy Power and thy Name now at this time For thou art the Lord our God and thee O Lord will we praise and for this cause hast thou put thy fear in our hearts to the intent that we should call upon thee These last are the words of Baruch III. 5 6. who imitates you see his Friend Jeremiah as they all do the Psalmist with whose words I shall conclude this particular LXXIX 8 c. O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of thy Name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy Names sake Wherefore should they say where is now their God Let him be known among them in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy Servants which hath been shed That 's the third thing Let us profess our sole dependence on him and expectation meerly from his goodness and for his glory disclaiming all confidence in our selves and let me add in man too that is in all humane help and Counsels For which end let me recommend that Form of Prayer to you for perpetual use Psal LX. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man I say perpetually 4. For we must pray to God in this manner with perseverance continuing instant in Prayer as the Apostle speaks Rom. XII 12. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Ephes VI. 18. That is we must not be discouraged if we obtain not our suits presently but pray still with all prayer secret private publick and in the Spirit with earnestness and fervour watching thereunto i. e. borrowing some time from our sleep or our business rather than neglect this Duty of fervent prayer resolving not to be weary but with all perseverance to cry mightily to him till he have mercy upon us This is our Saviours Doctrine Luke XVIII 1. where he spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not faint or grow weary For if as he shews an unjust and impious Judge may be moved by importunity to do a poor Widow right shall we think that God will not avenge his Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily v. 7 8. And this was the course that Jeremy here resolved to take in their great distress for want of Rain ver last of this Chapter Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles give Rain or the Heaven give showers Art not thou he O Lord our God therefore will we wait upon thee And so truly must we praying in the Psalmists words Psal CXXIII 2 3 4. Behold as the Eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the Eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress So our Eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Let every soul here present put up at least this short petition to God day by day for this Church and Kingdom besides those he makes for himself and Family And as often as you can set apart some time for more solemn importuning of his mercy towards us 5. And let us be sure to take care of one thing more without which all this labour will be lost viz. to make all our supplications with hearty resolutions to reform every thing that we know to be amiss in our hearts and lives This was the course to which the King of Nineveh directed his People by
his Proclamation requiring all in the place I mentioned before high and low to fast and put on Sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn every one from his evil way saith the Royal Edict and from the violence that is in their hands Who can tell if God will repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not A Heathen Prince you see had more sense than to hope he should prevail meerly by fasting humiliation and earnest cryes to God for mercy And therefore it would be a burning shame as they speak if we who are better instructed should trust to these things alone without a sincere and thorough repentance and amendment of life This was the unpardonable stupidity of the Jews whom I hope you will no longer imitate that when they had fasted and cryed to God and implored the intercession of the Prophet also who here beseeches God not to leave them they imagined the business was done and took no further care to bring forth the fruits that God expects from Penitents For which reason God bids Jeremiah hold his peace and say no more in the behalf of such a naughty Generation as it follows immediately after my Text v. 10 11 12. Thus saith the Lord unto this people thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord will not accept them c. Read the rest and you will see his resolution was this that if they intended no more than they had done neither their cries nor Jeremy's should obtain his mercy though they were never so importunate The main thing was still wanting which is this I am pressing upon you most humble addresses to God with hearts fully purposed to amend This and this alone will do the business and undoubtedly prevail though the condition of a Nation seem hopeless For it is plain Jeremiah doth not cease to pray for his people as you may read here v. 19 20 21. but notwithstanding the prohibition now mentioned in the 11. v. continues to be their Intercessor with God Which is a sign that he did not understand it as if he were absolutely forbidden to pray for them but only in case they remained impenitent Let them but forsake their sins and love no longer to wander in forbidden paths and he was confident God would hear his Prayers and not depart from them To this remedy therefore we must fly as the chiefest of all if we would have Gods gracious presence still continue among us and not imagine we are safe because we have kept a solemn day of fasting and prayer and resolve perhaps to continue instant in prayer when this day is done We have been told often enough there is some thing more which God requires of us and cannot be ignorant that not all prayers not all importunate prayers but the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous Man avail very much Which makes it the more strange that of all things we cannot be perswaded to becom truly righteous and good men but are averse to nothing so much as to that which alone can do us any good It is a sad thing that we will still split upon the same rock where we see so many wracks before us And our condition let me tell you will be the fadder because we have no excuse left us if we will not beware and in time make use of this effectual remedy which hath been so long prescribed us We are in a far worse condition than the stupid Jews if we still neglect so powerful a means of our deliverance For mark I beseech you how much Jeremy had to plead for his Country-men Which God indeed would not allow for a sufficient reason to free them from blame and yet there is no such thing to be alledged in our behalf You read v. 13. how Jeremy sighed and said Ah Lord God behold the Prophets say unto them ye shall not see the sword neither shall ye have famine but I will give you assured peace in this place As much as to say this people are to be pitied for though they are bad alas for them they are very bad yet this is not so much their fault as the fault of their Prophets who have assured them they are not in such danger as I tell them and that none of the judgments I have threatned shall come upon them This he thought might at least alleviate their guilt that they were cheated and abused by their guides who soothed them up and dandled them in their sins But God would not admit of this Apology but declares that they and their Prophets should all perish together v. 14.15 16. Then the Lord said unto me this was the reply the Prophets prophesy lyes in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them c. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning those Prophets which say Sword and Famine shall not be in the land by Sword and by Famine shall those Prophets be consumed And the people to whom they prophecy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword c. For the people ought not to have believed those that flattered them in their vices which natural reason without the help of Prophecy teaches us to be pernicious And they ought not to have given up themselves so easily to beileve those who brought no sufficient testimonials along with them to convince serious minds that they were sent by God to them It was their love to wickedness which made them so readily assent to lyers and resign up their faith to bold deceivers who preached only the dreams of their own deceitful hearts What a case are we in then if we do not reform in whose behalf there is not a syllable of this though alas but a feeble refuge that can be pretended to diminish our crimes There is not one of the Ministers of God among us that hath preached peace unto us No they have said it over and over again with one voice that God is exceeding angry with us and that he is not yet reconciled after so many sore judgments as he hath sent upon us and that there is no way to atone him but by unfeigned repentance and that our repentance is but feighed and insincere without amendment of life They have caution'd the Nation also against all false Prophets as we may call them particularly against the Romish deceivers who would lull you asleep and promise no body knows what golden days if we would but return into the bosome of their Church They have discovered likewise all the impostures of mens own naughty hearts and have alarm'd the whole Kingdom and bid them beware of danger and uprightly shown the way to escape it And therefore if God would not spare such a poor deceived hood-winkt besotted people as the Israelites who were led blindfold into destruction because they loved to be deceived How can we think he will spare us who are
guilt who have such a Religion to defend as will not let you be Cowards if you understand the difference between it and that which opposes it Consider it I beseech you beforehand that if any body should attacque you with Arguments to desert it you may be stedfast and unmoveable in nothing terrified by your adversaries when they tell you Popery will prevail notwithstanding all our endeavours to keep it out Resolve it shall never prevail over your souls whatsoever may become of your bodies But as you now pray solemnly God will not leave us so you will fortifie your selves impregnably against all perswasions to leave him by quitting your Religion Do not so much as stoop to hearken to any such seducement but considering as I said well beforehand what it is you must leave and for what if you forsake the Communion of this Church stand fast in one spirit with one mind in perfect unity striving together for the Faith of the Gospel So I may truly call our Religion here established from which if you should depart you leave the old way of serving God for new inventions For you forsake a Religion wherein God is purely worshipped for one that joins Saints and Angels with him You forsake a Church that prays to God alone through the intercession of Christ Jesus for one that prays to Saints in the very same form of words wherein they pray to him You leave the holy Scriptures to follow uncertain Traditions and part with your Bibles for Legends and fabulous Stories You go away from Prayers and Hymns you understand to a Service in an Unknown Tongue Instead of the whole Sacrament you must be content with half or rather with none at all For it is certain where the Blood of Christ is not imparted to you as shed or poured out of the Body as it is not in the Roman Church it is not communicated at all and the people have no fellowship with Christ in his death being deprived of his blood which was shed for the remission of sins Instead of sure and certain comfort you must rely in all holy Offices upon meer uncertainties for if the Priests intention be wanting of which none can be sure there is no Baptism no Communion no Orders no Priesthood no Church And consequently you leave the worshipping of Christ for a Worship which for any thing you can know may be meer Idolatry For in case there be no Transubstantiation but the Bread and Wine still remain after the Consecration they themselves have acknowledged it is Idolatry to worship them Now we are sure there is no Transubstantiation and it is impossible that they should be sure there is even according to their own principles because they can never be sure the Priest actually intends to do what Christ commanded and then nothing is done and therefore they can never be sure that they are not Idolaters If you join with those of Rome all the ancient Councils must signifie nothing with you in comparison with one late Conventicle which was no better than a Conspiracy of a few men against the Church of Christ You must quit a Church which teaches you to be subject to the King as Supreme for one that teaches you to be subject in the first place to the Pope Exchange a Church that requires of all its Members the strictest obedience to their Governour for one that at least suffers the most rebellious principles to pass for Christian Doctrine and the most bloody murders to pass for Christian if not meritorious actions You must leave a Church that bids you look about you and see that you be in the right for one that would put out your eyes and bids you blindly follow them A Church that in St. Paul's words requires you to prove all things for one that requires you to renounce your Reason nay common sense that you may believe the greatest absurdities If you leave the established Religion you forsake a Church whose Service is performed in a plain and grave a comely and decent manner for one that is burthened with more Ceremonies by far than are contained in all the Law of Moses You depart from a Church which only seeks the good of your souls and the glory of God in all its Ministrations for one that is apparently contrived for enriching the Priests and for the glory of the Pope You leave a Church which teaches you to live piously or else gives you no hopes of salvation for one that indulges men to live as they list and yet not utterly perish at the last A Church you abandon that is mild and gentle to those that are deceived for the sake of one that prosecutes all those who dissent from it with Fire and Faggot Massacres and unheard-of butcheries Nay you relinquish a Church that is very charitable in her Opinions and Censures for one that damns all those to the pit of Hell though never so blameless in their lives and stedfast believers of the three ancient Creeds if they be not of their Communion You leave a Religion which proclaims that Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge for one that strictly forbids her Priests to marry but connives at their Fornication That is you leave a Religion in which you are taught to have the greatest regard to the Commands of Christ for one wherein you may more safely break many of his Precepts than one of the Laws of the Church To conclude you leave a Religion which is sincere and void of all deceit and fraud for one which cheats men with hallowed Trinkets such as Roses Beads Swords Agnus Dei and other waxen ware whereby they draw vast sums of money from the simple for meer toys and bables They that consider not the case may look upon all this as an invective which in truth is but a bare Narrative and no more than is necessary to be said our enemies themselves being Judges at such a time as this For they would look upon us I am confident as a company of despicable wretches if we should not dare on such an occasion to speak for our Religion Which teaches us after the example of St. Paul to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie fearing lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. XI 2 3. In which you ought to preserve your selves and not admit of the Romish mixtures whereby the simple Religion of Christ is adulterated if you have any regard either to your Souls or your Bodies or your estates which are all in danger Be zealous therefore in your Religion and for your Religion Show that you mean not to leave it for that is in effect to leave your reason that you may be rob'd of your faith nor to leave off your most vigorous endeavours to preserve it And truly we have the greatest cause to