easily appeare our Heavenly David though hee march never so furiously Repentance is so acceptable to God that he rewarded Ahab for his hypocriticall repentance that others by his example might be provoked to turne truely to God who knew not his repentance to be hypocriticall I have here a large field of matter for a yeare rather than a day But as a little Boat may land a man into a large Continent so a few words may suggest matter sufficient to a judicious eare for a whole lives meditation I shall not spend time in unfolding the nature of this duty of turning from sinne or in shewing the reasons why this turning is so potent to divert judgements and procure mercies this is the worke of every Sermon I will onely make one Use of exhortation for it needes application more then explication To beseech you to turne the doctrine into practice and to expresse the sincerity of your Repentance by two duties which are as the two poles upon which our turning from sinne doth move By humiliation and reformation Humiliation for sinnes past Reformation for the time to come Humiliation without Reformation is a foundation without a building Reformation without Humiliation proves often a building without a foundation Both of them together comprehend the Essentialls of this great duty which is the very quintessence of Practicall Divinity 1 Let us turne unto God by humiliation for sinnes past This day is a day of humiliation A Sabbath of weeping and mourning Wherein we should wash the feete of Christ with our teares wherein we should weepe bitterly before the Lord powre forth our hearts like water and strive who should put most teares into Gods bottle I beseech you let us turne unto God with true penitent teares drawne from the Well of a broken heart fetcht out with the backet of Gods love Let us sanctifie a fast and afflict our soules before the Lord that this day may become a day of attonement And because the Well is deepe and our hearts are very hard and some it may be want buckets to draw water withall Give mee leave to offer unto you seven buckets which will serve as seven helpes to humiliation 1. Let every man consider his owne sins which hee himselfe is guilty of Have wee not broken the holy and righteous Commandements of God a thousand times and shall not this break our hearts Have wee not broken our vowes and covenants which wee have often made with God and will not the meditation of this break our hearts God in Scripture is said to have a bagge and a bottle A bagge to put our sins in and a bottle to put our teares in Have wee not filled Gods bag with our sinnes and shall wee not now fill Gods bottle with our teares Doth it not grieve us that wee have so often grieved the Holy Spirit of God Are we not heavy laden with those sinnes with which God himself is pressed as a Cart with sheaves Is not God himself broken with our whorish hearts and will not this break our hard hearts Have wee not had yeares of sinning Oh let us have one Day of mourning Have we not trampled the bloud of Christ under our feete and shall not the bloud of this Scapegoate melt our adamantine hearts It is an excellent saying That in all the sins we commit we must not so much consider the sin that is committed as the God against whom it is committed And this will provoke us to great Humiliation for little sins as well as great sins For there is no sinne simply little There is no little God to sinne against The lest minimum spirituale the least offence is committed against an infinite God and therefore deserves infinite punishment There was no little price paid for little sins the least sinne cost the shedding of the bloud of the eternall God There is no little disobedience in a little sinne For as there is the same rotundity in a little round Ball as in a great one So there is the same disobedience against God in a little sinne as well as in a great one To dis-obey God in a little is no little dis-obedience There is no little unthankfulnesse in a little sin For the lesser the thing is in which wee offend God the greater is the unthankfulnesse that we will sin against God for so little a matter There is no little pollution and defilement in a little sin A little puddle may dirty a man as well as a great one A little Bodkin may wound a Caesar to death There is no little punishment for little sins For the wages of sin is death The wages of sin as sin and therefore of every sin A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia Non est distinguendum ubilex non distinguit And therefore let us I beseech you mourne with a great lamentation for our little oaths our idle words our omissions of good duties and defects in good duties c. Can we mourne for the losse of our estates for the death of our Children And shall we not mourne that we have lost God and the peace of a good conscience by our sins and that our hearts are so dead and dull to goodnesse Can wee cry for the stone in the bladder and not for a stony heart The stone in the bladder can but kill the body but a stony heart will cast body and soule into Hell Weepe for those diseases that will destroy soule and body for ever Wee have beene often in the valley of Hinnon sacrificing our sonnes and daughters unto Divels by their wicked educations improoving our parts and mercies to the service of the Divell Oh let us this day descend into the Valley of Bacah and let us make this Church a Bochim a place of weeping We have many Church-sins Sermonsins Sacrament-sins Let us have Church-tears for our Church-sins A second help to humiliation is the consideration of the sinnes of the Nation wherin we live This Kingdome is an Island incompassed with three Oceans not onely with an Ocean of water but also with an Ocean of mercies no Nation more exalted in mercies and I may as truly adde with an Ocean of sinnes And that which makes our sinnes the greater is because our mercies have beene so great We have sinned under mercies we have provoked God at the Sea even the red Sea This was a great aggravation of the Israelites sin and so it is of ours Wee have sinned not onely under mercies but with our mercies wee have made a golden Calfe with the jewels of mercies which God hath bestowed upon us We have taken the Members of Christ and have made them the members of a Harlot What sin is there under the cope of Heaven whereof any Nation is guilty which we have not ingrossed to our selves Let us weepe for the beastly drunkennesse of this Nation But why do I call it beastly for generally beasts are sober It deserves
a name inferiour to beasts for so it makes a man for the time Austin saith that in his days drunkennesse was growne to that heigth as that there was no remedy against it but by calling of a Synod And in our dayes it is growne to that Gyant-like bignesse as that there is no hope of redresse but in the Parliament Woe to this Land because of this sinne this is that which will make us unable to stand before our enemies and to stagger like a drunken man For this sin God gives a Land over to the spirit of giddinesse Let us weepe for the blasphemous swearing that is in the Nation wherein if in any thing there is a pride taken in offending God for other benefit of it I know none For this sinne the land mourneth and let us mourne Weepe for the adultery and fornication which as an Epidemicall disease hath overspread the Nation Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge If man will not God will He that divorceth himselfe from his wife and joyns himselfe to a harlot God will divorce himself from such a man and divorce his mercies and blessings from him VVeepe for the covetousnes of the Nation This sinne is the root of all evill and for this sinne God will root out a Nation He that is swallowed up with earth as Corah and his company his eares stopped with earth his heart stuffed with earth God will give him earth enough when he dyes and they that love earth so immoderately are likely to have little enough of Heaven Weepe for the oppression Extortion Bribery Lying Griping Usury Cousenage and Deceit in trading These sinnes will cause a fourth Ocean to encompasse this Island and that is an Ocean of misery Let us shed teares for the innocent blood that is shed in the Land for the divellish pride that is amongst us Pride of heart pride of apparell in following the fashions of every Nation almost How justly may wee expect that God should make us slaves to that Nation whose fashions we so eagerly follow Mourne for the great prophanation of our Christian Sabbath-day how can we expect that God should give us rest in this Land if we will not give him a Sabbath a day of rest Oh let our eyes gush downe with rivers of teares Oh that our heads were fountaines of teares for the Idolatry that Land-devouring sinne of Idolatry for the superstition the Apostasie the contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministers and Ministery of it that raignes amongst us It is time for God to deprive us of Manna when we begin to be weary of it the time may come we may have Sermons few enough that neglect them so much as some doe The Confessors that fled for their Religion in Queene Maries daies acknowledged as Vrsinus relates that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them for the neglect of and unprofitablenesse under the Gospel which they had enjoyed in King Edwards dayes And if they were so severely punished for a few yeares contempt of the Gospel what a superlative degree of punishment doe we deserve that have had the Gospel of Peace and the peace of the Gospel for almost an hundred yeares and yet are so unlike the Gospel in our conversations The time would faile if I should make a catalogue of our Nationall sinnes Oh let us be one of the mourners in Sion for the abhominations of the Land that so we may be mark't out for safety And let us take this rule to perswade us Those sinnes which we know others to commit and yet mourne not for them these sins become our owne sins And therfore we may well pray with Austine Lord deliver me from other mens sinnes which for want of mourning and grieving for I have made mine owne A third bucket to draw the water of teares withall is the consideration of the great breaches that are in Church and State We are divided in minutula frustula as Austine of the Donatists Let these breaches break our hearts Let these rents rend our hard hearts For the division of England let us have great thoughts of heart A fourth helpe to humiliation is the consideration of the miseries that are like to come upon us as the woefull consequent of these breaches As our Saviour Christ when hee came neere Ierusalem and beheld the sinne of it and the desolation that was impendent over it he wept saying Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes c. So let us contemplate the sins of England and the destruction which wee may justly expect as the fruite of our sinnes and let us weepe over England and say Oh England England that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace It is reported of Xerxes that having prepared 300000. men to fight with the Graecians and beholding so great a multitude of Souldiers hee fell a weeping out of the consideration that not one of them should remaine alive within the space of an hundred years Much more ought we to mourn when we consider the abundance of people that are in England and the abundance of sin perpetrated among us and what shall become not onely of our bodies within these few years but what shall become of our souls to all eternity A fifth Bucket is the contemplation of Germany which is now become a Golgotha a place of dead mens sculs and an Aceldama a field of bloud Some Nations are chastised with the sword Others with famine Others with the man-destroying Plague But poore Germany hath been sorely whipped with all these three iron whips at the same time and that for above twenty yeares space Oh let us make use of this Bucket and draw out water and poure it out before the Lord this day let us send up our cries to Heaven for Germany It is a signe that we are not true members of the body of Christ because we have no more fellow-feeling of the miseries of the same body A dead member hath no sense of its own misery or of the bodies distemper If wee be living members we will simpathize with the calamities of Gods people A sixth helpe to Humiliation is the consideration of the bleeding condition of Ireland I need not relate you have great reason to know it better than my selfe the inhumane barbarous Canniballisticall and super-superlative out-rages butcheries and massacres that are there committed by those bloudy Rebels Oh let us send up one teare this day as an Orator to the Throne of Grace to plead for mercy for poore Ireland This is one chiefe cause of this generall Fast to pray and weep for Ireland Help it Right Honourable Oh helpe it vvith your Prayers and Tears Tears have voices as vvell as words
I thank thee oh Lord saith David that thou hast heard the voice of my weeping Where note weeping hath a voice And as musicke upon the waters sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the Land So Prayers joyned with Tears cry louder in Gods eares and make sweeter musicke then when teares are absent When Antipater had written a large letter against Alexanders Mother unto Alexander the King answered him Dost thou not know that one teare from my Mother will wash away all her faults So it is with God A penitent teare is an undeniable Embassador An object look't upon when it is in the water seemes bigger than when it is out of the water Let us looke upon Irelands misery through the water of our teares and this will represent it in its due proportion Let us weepe because we cannot weepe let our hearts weepe because our eyes cannot weep To move your hearts a little more suffer mee to propound three examples 1. The example of Abraham who was so zealous for the preservation of Sodome that by an humble importunity he brought God down to these terms that if there had beene ten Wheat-ears in Sodome all the Tares should have been spared for these ten mens sake And when God was gone from Abraham he continued so solicitous for the good or Sodome that as Luther thinks he could not sleepe all night I am sure the Scripture saith He gate up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and he looked toward Sodom to see what was become of his Prayers If Abraham did thus much for Sodome for wicked Sodome ought not you to be much more zealous for the Protestants in Ireland who professe the same faith and are under the same Government with us in England 2. Let me offer the example of Nehemiah who though for his owne particular he was in great prosperity and in great favour at the Court yet when he heard of the afflict on and misery of the people of God at Ierusalem hee sate downe and wept and mourned and fasted and never desisted till hee had obtained leave to goe and helpe his brethren at Ierusalem 3. I shall propound the example of Hierome who was writing a Commentary upon Ezekiel but when hee heard of the besieging of Rome a place wherein he had formerly lived and of the death of many godly people he was so astonished and amazed at the newes that for many nights and dayes hee could thinke of nothing Et in captivitate Sanctorum se esse captivum putabat He thought himselfe taken captive amongst those that were taken captive I might adde the story of Phineas wife but I forbeare Let these examples be your instruction and encouragement Me thinks I heare a voice in Ireland like the voice that was heard in Rama Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not Me thinks I see do not you so also the poore people of Ireland looking out of their windows and crying out as the Mother of Sisera Why is his chariot so long in comming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Why is aide so long delayd where are Englands bowels Me thinks I see the very flames of this great fire that is kindled in Ireland Oh let this fire melt our hard hearts into pitty and compassion I doubt not but this Bucket will draw out a great deal of water this day There is one Bucket more the last but not the least and that is the consideration of the Lord Jesus Christ His body was rent and torne for us Oh let this rend and teare our hearts that ever we should sinne against such a Christ His bloud was poured forth as a sacrifice for our sins Oh let us pour forth our tears for our offences against him Beloved in the Lord This is a day wherin we ought to make conscience to get our hearts affected with deep sorrow for sin otherwise we do but take Gods name in vain Now there is no way more powerfull to produce this effect then by going to mount Calvary and by burying our selves in the meditation of Christ crucified There is a story of an Earle called Elzearus that was much given to immoderate anger and the means he used to cure this disordered affection was by studying of Christ and of his patience in suffering the injuries and affronts that were offered unto him and he never suffered this meditation to passe from him before he found his heart transformed into the similitude of Jesus Christ Wee are all sick of a hard and stony heart and if ever we desire to be healed of this soule damning disease let us have recourse to the Lord Jesus Christ and never leave meditating of his breakings kings and woundings for us till we finde vertue comming out of Christ to break our hearts Let us pray to the great heart-maker that hee would be the heart-breaker So much for the duty of humiliation The second duty wherein wee must expresse our turning to God is Reformation Humiliation is not sufficient without Reformation It is not enough to be broken for sinne but we must also be broken from sinne As a bird cannot flie with one wing nor a man walke with one leg no more can we get to Heaven by Humiliation without Reformation Both of them conjoyned are the legs and wings by which we walk and flie to Heaven And therefore let me most earnestly exhort you to repent from sin as well as for sin The Crown we fight for this day the Garland we run for the Marke we aime at is Mercy this is our joynt suit That God would shew mercy to England and Ireland Now the way to obtaine mercy is clearly expressed Prov. 28 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy This God cals for from Heaven this all the faithfull Ministers in the City preach for this day Reformation Reformation Reformation As Master Bradford at the stake cried out so do I at this time Repent O England repent repent There is a three-fold Fast a Fast from meat from mirth and from sinne The two first will not suffice without the last A beast may fast from meat The Divels fast saith Ambrose The old World as some thinke did never eate Flesh and yet they were all drowned Though we could fast till we were perfect Anatomists though we could pray and kneele till our knees were as hard as Camels knees as it is reported of Iames the brother of Christ yet all were to no purpose without this turning from sin This is jejunium magnum as Austin saith This is jejunium totius anni jejunium omnium partium This is the great and the everlasting fast to fast from sin by reformation Now this Reformation it must have two Properties vvhich are both of them mentioned in the Text 1. It must be Personall 2. It must be