THE ONLY REMEDY, THAT CAN CURE A PEOPLE, When all other Remedies fail.  
By F. ROUS.  HOS. 6. 1. Come let us return to the Lord: for he hath torn us, and he will heal us. 
LONDON, Printed for JAMES BOLER at the sign of the Marigold in Paul's Churchyard. 1627.   

To my Country.  
BRethren, my hearts desire for this our Israel, is, that it may be saved: Saved temporally, saved eternally. And from the abundance of this desire in my heart, my mouth speaketh. True it is, that I am not willing to increase the unnecessary burden of words, under which the world groaneth; yet therefore necessary words may not be retained. And as I said in the former, so may I not say yet in this latter, Is there not a cause? Is there not yet a cause to take more physic, as long as there are yet more diseases? Nevertheless, these are thrifty additions, both in measure & manner. That is added which seemeth to be necessary; and where things are already done, men are directed to fetch new health out of old Medicines. But indeed a Medicine should not be accounted old as our Fashionists term oldness, as long as new health is to be gotten out of it. In bodily sickness, a man will not loathe a Medicine that can cure him, because he knows it: much less will he avoid to be throughly recovered by it, because in part thereby he hath been already recovered. And least of all should any man think, that the reading of a Receipt without the taking of it, is able to cure him. This were to use it for a Charm, and not for a Medicine. Yet the fashion of men now a days, is in these kinds most unreasonable, and most lamentably to their own loss: For they read things profitable, only for pleasure; and so being content with a vanishing shadow; they willingly lose a solid and substantial good. The pleasure of newness, or some handsome shape, wherein wholesome matter doth appear, is the tentation of their reading. But this is the very folly of children, who love to play with guilded Pills, because they are guilded, but will not take them as Pills, or means of health. Surely, I wish that these men who profess to hate oldness, would hate this fashion; for it is an old one, even as old, as the captivity of Israel. Thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voice, 
Ezek. 33. 32.  and can play well on an Instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not. But though this wantonness may fall out in health, yet it ill becomes sickness. Wherefore let men consider whether they have any grief, or not; and if they have, let them leave their playing with physic, and fall to taking of it. especially physic, which is so confirmed by proof, that of all those that have taken it sound, none did ever perish.   

THE ONLY REMEDY.  
AFTER a terrible Tempest, 
1. The neglect of premonitions makes us to fall into judgements.  a dark and uncomfortable Storm, wherein neither Sun, nor Stars appeared, 
Act. 27.  Paul stood forth, and said, Sirs, you should have harkened to me, and so have saved this harm and loss. After many dark and uncomfortable Storms, I may likewise say, you should have hearkened to the Word of God spoken by the servants of God, and then no doubt much loss and harm had been saved. There hath been Counsel heretofore given, to make use of old Chastisements by Repentance, that so the need of New might be saved. I will instance in one particular application of this Counsel, for the preventing of the New Pestilence by making use of the Old, a year or two before the New came. And that I may be sure to make a right relation of it, I will here insert the words wherein it was delivered. The punishment which I spoke of, 
Oil of Scorp. Sect. 2.  is the Pestilence which almost devoured our chiefest City, and with the Sickness of the Head, the Body of this Land was also distempered. I doubt not but some that have forgotten it, will be almost angry to have it remembered; but it were better to have a profitable remembrance of the same Plague, than to have a revengeful remembrance by another. It is the forgetfulness of God's old Chastisements that makes us so soon to have need of new ones, etc. If this Counsel had been followed, I verily believe, the Old might have been a preservative against the New, and God having attained his End by the former, he would have saved the latter. And if we consider how it was stayed, we may well think, that the same Repentance and Humiliation may prevent a Plague, which can stop it when it is come. But this is the misery, that though nothing in the world is more weighty than the word of God, and those admonitions which are raised from that word, yet there is nothing in the world more lightly esteemed, by sensual, carnal and foolish mankind. Yea the folly of mankind, which sets her own colours on the wisdom of God, makes such monitions to look like folly: and so Let telling his sons in law of the judgement of God ready to light on Sodom for her sins, 
Gen. 19 14  seemed unto them as one that mocked. Yet it is most true, that the word of God is Fire, and Sinners are but Stubble: and as a man of Stubble should fear the breath of a Furnace, so and much more should a Sinner fear the word of GOD'S mouth when it pronounceth judgements against him; For our God is a consuming Fire: But because this fear is too fare from us, therefore judgement lays hold on us, yea judgement upon judgement, that so the Lessons may be beaten into us by feeling, which we will not learn by hearing: Because we are like the deaf Fishes, that move not for any voice, but only leap when they are in the net of GOD'S judgements, therefore God's wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.  
But though the counsel of God, hath been heretofore neglected, and we have been too careless of warnings, to our loss and harm; yet even by these losses let us learn to be more careful hereafter. By the chastisements of God's wrath that are past, let us learn to fly from the vengeance to come. So shall a light arise to us in the midst of darkness, yea the darkness itself shall become to us a means of light, while by chastisements we learn that which freeth us from chastisements. So shall the words and warnings of God sent by his Messengers, be turned to our health and safety, whereas being despised they add more to our sins, and so to our punishments. For where God's word doth not quicken, there it doth kill; being still either a quickening word, or a kill letter. And as fire, that which it doth not purify by melting, it doth commonly consume by burning; so the word of God, whom it doth not cleanse by melting in Repentance, it doth lay hold on to fret and consume unto ruin and destruction.  
2. But if we harken to the warnings of God, 
God's great goodness is to be obserned, which commonly sends warnings before judgements.  besides the benefit of present safety, God will continue to give us such warnings, and so continue our safety. For such is the great goodness of God, towards them to whom this goodness is precious, that he is slow to anger, and his anger goes on slowly to punishment; and commonly between the wrath and the punishment, there are certain forewarnings, that so the wrath may be stayed, and the punishment prevented. How often would he have gathered Israel under his wings, as a Hen gathereth her chickens? 
2 Chron. 36. 15.  The Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending them, because he had compassion on his people. Neither hath he compassion on that people only, but in this point of goodness, God who is a God of the jews, is a God of the Gentiles also. To the Ninivites a Prophet was sent to give them notice of a destruction approaching toward them. And Nabuchadnezzar being yet a man, was foretold of his being a beast, that he might break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by mercy. Neither hath he left these parts of the world, without testimonies of his goodness; for even the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God. Surely the men of this Nation have Prophets of their own, that have spoken to them, in the word of the Lord, and from thence have both piped forth the mercies of God, and mourned forth his judgements. And if we look up to former Ages, and believe the Records which we read of those times, we may read of Gildas, that forewarned the Britons of their destruction by the Saxons. And I have heretofore remembered that Record which speaketh of a man of God, 
Huntingdon. lib. 6. in oil of Scorp.  that named the sins of the Saxons, 
pag. 73.  or English, for which they should be punished. And if we look abroad, even before this great desolation of Germany, we may find a premonition given to that Nation. The noble and learned Camerarius▪ in his Historical Meditations, 
Lib. 5.  hath a chapter under this title, 
Cap. 14.  Of Drunkenness and the evils that come thereby. This chapter he gins with the loathsome story of a Gentleman near Norimberg, who at his marriage, caused a prize of Drunkenness to be played. For he propounded a reward, for him that could best deserve that Woe, 
Esa. 5. 22.  which is denounced against them that are mighty to drink wine. And these wages of iniquity were won by one that drank the sixth part of a Pipe of wine. Hereupon he inferreth, Such detestable, and drunken tricks are not to be tolerated in a well-governed State or Kingdom, much less among those that are called Christians: and it is greatly to be feared, they will draw down a sudden destruction upon Germany.  
Behold their sin pointed out to them, and a judgement attending at the heels of their sin. And O that they had known the things which belong to their peace, & that their sin had not been so rooted in the people, that the people itself must be rooted up, to pull up that sin by the roots. For so stands the case, when the people & the sin are so knit together that the one will not part from the other. Though Israel had sinned, yet judah should not have transgressed. Though the ignorance of Popery might have fostered such a sin; 
1 Thess. 5. 7  for, 
Rom. 13. 13.  they that are drunk, are drunk in the night: yet the light of the Gospel should have shamed it out of sight: for they that walk in the day, should walk decently; not as fools, but wisely. And as no man that doth evil cometh to the light, so no man that cometh to the light should do evil, because the light discovereth and reproveth his evil: And how can the Light look upon this evil, but it must needs reprove it? An evil to which the Gospel of Light is most contrary, as the increasing of light is to the diminishing of light; as the lifting up of a man into the station of Saints and Angels, is to the debasing of a man below the state of brutish beasts. A state wherein a man is neither good for God, for the Commonwealth, for his family, for his soul, for this world; but only for hell. But if there be yet any of those beasts, that after the Lion hath roared in the Thunder of war, are not yet afraid to continue in this sin, I pray God to awake them by his spirit, which only openeth the ear to hear, what God speaketh to the Churches, in the Language of his Chastisements. And being awaked, I pray that they may take this sin for which this great Tempest is upon them, and cast it into the Sea: For then the storm may cease, and the Gild of sin, with the sin itself, may be buried in the Sea. 
Micah. 7. ●8.  For God retaineth not his Anger for ever, because he delighteth in Mercy. He will turn again, and have compassion on them: He will subdue their Iniquities and cast all their sins into the Depths of the Sea.  
And now to shut up this point of God's merciful Dispensation, in forewarning men of Evils to come; It is so manifest, that they who searce acknowledge the cause, yet confess the effect. The great Achitophel of these latter times, that makes little odds between God and Nature, Intelligences & Angels, Soothsayers and Saints, yet he acknowledgeeth, that by-Saints as well as by Soothsayers, such warnings are given. And when you hear him speak, imagine you heard the Devil confessing Christ. His words are these: 
Discourse upon T. Livy, lib. 1. cap. 56.  I know not whence it cometh, but it is evidently seen, both in ancient and modern stories, that there never cometh destruction, desolation, or any other grievous Harm, upon a City or Country, but there are () holy Personages to whom it is revealed long before.  
3. But if it be replied, 
judgements peremptorily foretold, yet do not still peremptorily bind.  That forewarnings of judgements if they be true, they are of little use, because they are sure to come to pass, and so a man gains but the longer knowledge of his Misery, by knowing it before it come. To this I might answer, That a wise Man doth thereby rather increase his Fortitude, than his Sorrow: yea by the increase of inward strength, he diminisheth his sorrow. For the soul being strongly resolved before hand to suffer what will certainly come, she putteth on patience, and patience putteth off sorrow. But I say rather, that those forewarnings which are sent by God, though seeming to shut up a Nation round about with a wall of Brass, yet have they generally a secret Door & Issue for those that are shut up. With how many prophecies were the jews hedged in, and by how many Prophets? yet even at the last cast, when the sword was whetting, and ready to strike, a Door was opened to them: Amend your ways, 
jerem. 26. 13.  and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent him of the evil, that he hath pronounced against you. What could be more peremptory than the prophecy of jonah against the Ninivites? A day was prefixed, which stood before them and seemed to enclose them, that they should never go beyond it. Yet their faith had espied this door of Mercy, as it were by a little Cranny; 
jonah 3. 9  Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? Behold a strange Faith, that so much believed in God's mercy, that it seemed to doubt of his truth. Nay, far be that from so excellent a Faith. They believed both the Truth and Mercy of God; for they so much believed and hoped in his Mercy to penitent sinners, that they believed that the same Mercy had left some secret way of Truth by which it might pass unto them, and they go forth unto it. And in this point their faith seemed to exceed the faith of the Prophet: For the Prophet thought his own honour would be lost, if so peremptory a sentence were not peremptorily performed: But these men believed it stood well with the honour of God, that a peremptory sentence upon penitence might be dissolved. And indeed, theirs was true faith, and his thought was but an error. For the word of God, whose Truth is a true ground of Faith, is the very foundation of that which they believed: At what instant, 
jer. 18. 7.  I shall speak of a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that Nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their Evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. Thus we see in the denunciation of God's judgements, there is an implied Reservation, and this Reservation is the Door at which the Ninevites, and other believing penitents may find a way to escape. Yea, the peremptoriness of the sentence which seemeth to hedge us in, may be the very means, to bring us to the way of escaping. For the peremptoriness of a sentence, strikes the sentence strongly, as it were a spur into the sides of resty, and dull flesh and blood, and stirs up mankind hardly to labour for that Issue, which seems so hard and almost impossible to be found. And indeed this finding, God usually proposeth as the scope of his warning. He tells us of judgements coming, that we may find the way to avoid them. If he meant to destroy, his readiest way were not to forewarn. It was saul's case, when he was near to the period of Ruin, The Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, 
1. Sam. 28 6.  nor by vrim nor by Prophets. Let us therefore account premonitions to be Summons unto judgement, but yet by a silent and implied Reservation, offering us Mercy: And between the time of denunciation and full performance, let us think that offer continued to us. For the Time of warning is commonly a time of Truce between God and Man, and a time of Respite between Wrath and Punishment. Therefore is it called The day of a person, or people, even a day of Grace, 
Luke 19 42  wherein judgement is suspended, and may be prevented. And if in this their day, those things are not hid from their eyes, which may make their peace with God, the peace of God will preserve them, from the judgements of God. Wherefore let us not think that every forewarning is a binding; for a prediction ordinarily bindeth no farther than mens impeni tense bindeth it. For in itself, a premonition is an offer of losing, as well as a sentence of binding. There is a gate of Mercy in it, and man hath a Key wherewith to open it. Yea the judge himself, who seems to enclose us in prison, calls upon us to make use of it, and by the hardness and difficulty of escaping, stirs and spurs us up to an earnest seeking of the means of our Freedom.  
4. If any man ask what is the Key, by which this gate is opened; 
Spiritual helps are the true helps, to set us at liberty from judgements. 1. Sam. 10. 27.  he may plainly see it in the places alleged: In every one of them it is Repenting, and Turning from evil ways. But flesh and blood replies in the language of Belial; For as the men of Belial said of the King whom God had anointed, Shall this man save us? So flesh and blood saith of the means which God hath sanctified, Shall such an airy and invisible thing save us? Yet most true it is that invisible things must save us, or we cannot be saved. Spiritual things are invisible, and spiritual things must save us. And no wonder, for spiritual things work our eternal salvation: and if they can work the greater, why should they not be able to work out the lesser salvation? When a question is made concerning the great Salvation, 
Act. 2. 37. 38.  Men and Brethren, what shall we do to be saved? The first word of the Answer, is, Repent. And why should not the same answer serve for a lesser salvation? Again, if we look upon the way wherein we came to be bound, we shall find a spiritual way, to be our only way to losing. If we look to heaven, we shall find it is God that binds us there; and God is a spirit. Now, 
joh. 4. 24.  according to the reason of CHRIST himself, if God be a Spirit, it is a spiritual means that can only be powerful with a spirit. And if we look below, we shall find it is sin that provoketh God to bind man; and sin is a spiritual disease, even a depravation of the Image of God in the soul and spirit of Man, or a fruit of it. Now it is plain, that a spiritual remedy can only cure a spiritual disease. The soul will not be fed by the food of the body, neither by bodily physic will it be cured; Wherefore in regard of God who is offended, and in regard of thy sin that hath offended him, behold the word of God, turning thee from carnal, and visible, to spiritual, and insuisible Remedies: 
Micah. 6. 7  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself in walking with thy God? Neither hath God herein given mere words, but his deeds have been as good as his words. The Scripture is full of examples, that this means which the world thinks to be weakness, hath been strong unto manifold salvations and deliverances. Yea the deliverances have in some sort borne the resemblance and proportion of the means. A piece of a deliverance, hath followed a piece of repentance: and such was that of Rehoboam, 
2 Chron. 12. 7. 12. 14.  whose heart was not perfect with the Lord; 
1 King. 21. 29.  and a temporary deliverance, 
2 Chron. 15. 8. 15.  a temporary repentance, and such was that of Ahab; and a full deliverance a sound and full repentance, and such was that under Asa.  
5. Wherefore I said to the foolish, 
For spiritual helps are the true helps, yea, they are the helps of the temporal.  Deal not foolishly, and speak not with a stiff neck: Say not, Ashur shall save us, and we will fly into Egypt. Natural helps are like the Egyptians, who are weak for that very reason for which thou thinkest them strong, and the invisible means are strong for that very reason for which thou thinkest them weak. And herein let God himself be judge between us: 
Isa. 31. 3.  The Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horse's flesh, and not spirit. Wherefore behold the issue; When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. Men and horses are things visible, God and spirits are things invisible, and therefore do visible men fail to help, because they are not equal in power, to the invisible God: and therefore shall horses fail, because they are not equal to spiritual and invisible strength. Wherefore henceforth do thou especially choose those helps which are spiritual and invisible, because they are strongest; and believe more strength to be in the weakness of God, (which therefore only seems weakness, because the strength of it is not perceived by the fleshly eye) than in the strength of man. 
2 King. 6. 16. 17.  And if thou seest not the spiritual things to be strongest, do not blame them for weakness, but thyself for blindness; and pray to God to open thy eyes, for then shalt thou see a most mighty power in them; and that when spiritual helps are on our side, There are more with us, than there are with them that have earthly and visible helps. Wherefore henceforth fare be from us, the trust and rest in natural things, which is the common and first refuge of flesh and blood when it is pressed with troubles. 
jer. 17. 5.  And let those thoughts & words be loathsome to us, which ordinarily issue from this fleshly blindness and error. One thinks, that Armies can subdue all enemies, and another that Parliaments can cure all politic diseases; a third (and I wish it had not been spoken before the late pestilence in my hearing) that the new River had washed away the plague for ever from the City. But I think, I need not to tell them that they are deceived. And no wonder; for all outward helps, are but the body of help, but spiritual helps are the soul of help; and as the body without the soul is dead, so all bodily helps, without spiritual help, are without life and power. Wherefore we must strive by putting ourselves into a right spiritual estate, to get the favour of the Highest spirit, that he may breathe life into these dead helps; and then they shall have life and strength as well as the dead bones, when he said, 
〈◊〉 37. ●.  Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. This is the true order, to come by the spiritual helps, to the use of the temporal, to begin with God and to end with man. In this case we must proceed Descendendo, not Ascendendo; we must get help first from the Creator, and then we may descend to the use of the Creature, but we must not begin to seek help of the Creature, and then think we may be either confident or careless of the help of the Creator. It is the main wisdom, and success of the Creature, to go with the Creator. He that goes without him, goes without strength, and he that goes against him, runs against the rock of Omnipotence, and is sure to make most horrible shipwreck. Wherefore Moses saith wisely; 
Exo. 33. 15.  If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. There is no going nor stirring, if God go not with us: But if God be with us, who shall be against us? If God be with us, we may be saved without Means, for God is able to save being alone. He can also raise up means where are none, and he can bless the Means where are some, and he can make the Means of our destruction to become the means of our preservation. The last seemeth most difficult, yet doth he often do it. The Syrians had brought a most deadly famine upon Samaria, so that the same bowels were fed by that which received life from them: And by the same Syrians Samaria was so delivered from the famine, and stored with plenty, 
2 King. 6. 7.  that a Measure of fine flower was sold for a shekel. The same Egyptians which kept Israel in a most cruel bondage, were made to be the men that should be urgent upon Israel to haste away out of bondage, 
Exod. 12. 33. etc.  yea, they suffered them not to go empty, but spoiled themselves, to enrich those whom they had spoilt. Even Death itself, which the Devil intended to have made a Gate to eternal destruction; the outstretched arm of God hath made a gate to eternal salvation. 
Reu. 14. 19  So that a voice is heard from heaven saying, Writ, Blessed are they that die in the Lord. Now if God be so absolute a Lord of all things, that of contraries he can produce contraries, we may see that he hath taken all trust from the creature, and reserved it to himself; and that the power which is in the Creature, being given it by him, can at his pleasure be taken away from it, and a contrary power put into it. Theeefore our eyes are to be fixed on God, and to look up first to him, to see whether he will suffer the Creature to retain the power of Help, which he hath given it; yea and when helps fail, to see whether he will raise up helps, yea farther, whether he will help without helps, and yet farthest of all, whether he will turn our hindrances and punishments into helps. And thus depending on God, and laying the foundation of our hope & help, in the name of the Lord, we may safely and comfortably use the means which he giveth us. And if he give means, with a blessing put unto them, they may be of absolute necessity, when they have received such blessing and power from him. Many points of this doctrine are to be found in the voyage of Paul. 
Act. 27.  Natural helps can do nothing without God; so the Mariners could not save Paul's company: for they are lost in regard of Natural helps, whom God of his mere grace bestoweth upon Paul. Yea natural helps, being opposed against spiritual, are ready helps to destruction; so the Master and owner of the ship being believed against Paul, become the means of the ships destruction. Natural helps, if they be not stayed and held by spiritual helps, will then run away from us, when we have most need of them: so the Mariners would have run away, when they might have stood most in steed, if Paul had not stayed them. Spiritual helps, are they that save us when natural helps do fail us; so the love of God to Paul saved both him and his companions, when they were destitute of the help of man. And lastly, when spiritual help and blessing is given to the means, than the means can save us, yea then the means are so necessary, that without them we cannot be saved. So when God is pleased to give success to the service and help of the Mariners, than they are useful to bring the ship where the passengers may be saved; Yea they are then so necessary, that without the Mariners, they cannot be saved. Thus we see that spiritual helps, are the strong helpers, and outward helps are themselves helped by them. Spiritual helps are the foundation, and temporal helps are a building upon that foundation. Wherefore if we will be wife builders, first let us be sure to make the foundation strong, and then may we hopefully rear up the walls. Let us by penitence draw near unto God our Rock, and being spiritual, fetch strength and help from the Almighty Spirit. Then may we say and not till then, The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Yea he is a Sun as well as a shield; 
Psal. 28. 7.  and when this Sun returns, 
Psal. 84. 11.  than there comes a spring upon a Nation.  
6. Being thus put upon spiritual helps, 
Sure and sound Repentance is a sure & sound help.  and particularly upon Repentance, as upon that which reconcileth to us the strong and All sufficient helper, 
A first part of it, is the sight and acknowledgement of sin.  let us give all diligence to make this repentance sure unto us. And sure it is made to us, by making it our own: and it is made our own, when we ourselves do practise it. For than repentance only can heal us, when by particular applying of it to our own souls, we make it our repentance. And as it should be a sure repentance, so should it be a full repentance; For than is it most sure in itself to heal us, when it is most entire and perfect. And so being sure in itself, and sure to us, I hope we may be sure to be saved. Now to come to this fullness of repentance, let us view the parts of it, yea let us view some Accessions, and necessary improvements of it, yea let us see the Crown and consummation of it. And let us not only see, but do, that we may be blessed in the Deed of it.  
The parts of it, 
Oil of Scorp. pag. 219.  I have heretofore showed: They are a Sight and Acknowledgement of Sin, a Detestation of Sin, and, a Turning from Sin to the contrary Righteousness. And first the Sight and Acknowledgement of our sin is absolutely necessary. It is necessary in respect of God, and in regard of ourselves. In respect of God it is necessary; for thereby we give the glory that is due to the justice of God: When we see our sins and acknowledge them, we confess that God is just in his punishments, and that he hath rightly afflicted us. 
Dan. 9 5. 7. 14.  We have sinned (saith Daniel) and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and judgements. And thereupon he infers, O Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee, but to us, Confusion of Faces, as at this day. And a little after; Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the Evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is Righteous in all the works that he doth; for we obeyed not his voice. Thus from the Acknowledgement of sin, ariseth Glory to God's justice in punishing Sins; and this Glory he expecteth before the Sinner be dismissed. He will have an acceptation of his punishments, as of things justly due unto us: and it is an excellent degree toward Mercy, to say with the penitent Thief on the Cross, We are righteously here, 
Luk. 23. 4●.  and receive the reward of our deeds. Yea with that holy Man, Thou, O God, 
Ezra 9 13.  hast punished us beneath our iniquities. But if this be the fruit which God expecteth of his punishments for sin, that his justice should be so fare approved, that the punishments should be accepted, how contrary an effect do men commonly return to God, who in stead of acceptation return nothing but murmuring and repining? They employ their thoughts most on the stones that are cast at them, and they bound their imaginations with the evils that press them. And they are so fare from this right fruit and use of them, that they neither see them as punishments for sin, neither do they see the justice of God in sending these punishments, yea they do not see God at all in them; but (which is most lamentable, and fearful, because it is the very character of the wicked ones) God is not in all their thoughts. 
Psal. 10. 4.  But while thus we look downward to Effects, without looking up to Causes, we look on our punishments, rather like beasts than men. And whatsoever toil we take about the Effects, if we do not remove the Causes, it is but loss of labour. But how can we remove the Causes, when we do not see them? Sin is that which moves God's justice to punish us; and God will have his justice approved and accepted in the punishment of Sin, before he will remove those punishments. And if it be our own sin, and the justice of God, that lay these evils upon us, I wonder what good thou dost toward the cure of these evils, by biting the stone that by these is thrown at thee. For if thou shouldst bite it to powder, as long as the justice of God remains unappeased, because thy Sin remains unacknowledged, the great God of justice, who in Mercy can turn stones into children of Abraham, in justice can turn any sons of Adam into stones to batter thee. Yea I will tell thee farther, that as long as thou standest off from God, and dost not take notice of him, and much more while thou standest out against God, and only snarlest at his punishments, he will defend even his punishments against thee. The punishments of God, while they are in God's business, and till they have done their errand, are the servants of God, & God will maintain them in that service, until it be done. Therefore whatsoever become of Nebucadnezzar when his work is done, yet in doing of God's work, God himself doth call him, My servant Nebucadnezzar. 
jer. 25. 9 & 27. 6. & 43. 10.  And for this very reason, when God bids Shimei to curse David, 
2. Sam. 10.  David durst not to meddle with him; for he knew, he that set him on work was to be feared, and could not be resisted; but as long as God pleased to employ Shimei, David thought it fit to submit himself unto God, and so to appease him, than to fly into the face of his chastisement, before he was appeased. When a Father corrects his son for a fault, if the son in stead of confessing and amending his fault, and thereby acknowledging the justness of his correction, do nothing else but fly upon the Rod, and tear it in pieces, doth not this increase his fault, and so increase his punishment? Wherefore lift up thy head, and look on thy Chastisements, like a man, and not like an unreasonable creature. Come down by the Causes, to cure the Effects, having in the Effects beheld the Causes. When thou seest the Rod, see withal who hath appointed it. It is God that sendeth it: 
Amos 3. 6  For is there any. Evil (of punishment) and the Lord hath not done it? And why are the Evils of punishment laid upon us, but because of our sins: We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness, etc. The Cause is annexed: 
Isa. 59 9  For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. So to take the right course, we must begin with the first Cause, and take notice thereof; and that is our Sinne. Therefore it follows, 
verse 12.  Our Transgressions are with us, and as for our Iniquities we know them. We must know our sins, and by acknowledgement of our sins, give glory to God's justice in the punishing of our sins. And when by this Confession God's righteous judgements are approved and accepted, this is a right step, and a good degree of Repentance, toward the abolition both of sins and punishments.  
Another reason of seeing and confessing our sins, is in regard of ourselves. For how shall we come to loath and forsake those sins, which we do not know & acknowledge? And if we do not come to forsake them, we can never come to be cured of them, and the evils that attend them. Therefore Solomon, 
Pro. 28. 13.  maketh his Cure of sins, to begin in Confession of sins; and so he goeth on to forsaking, and so to the finding of Mercy. And surely, if we did clearly see them, they would appear most loathsome to us, & we should plainly find, that the sight of sin is the way to the detestation of sin. But sin being a spiritual defect, or spot, it must be spiritually discerned. And for lack of this eye, it comes to pass, that sin doth not appear out of measure sinful. For if a clear spiritual eye, did see the spots of sin in the glass of God's Law, it would appear as black as an Aethiop, and as loathsome as Leprosy: Yea, the righteousness that hath but a taint of it, would show like filthy clouts, and the soul would hate even a garment spotted with the flesh. But because we are darkness, therefore all colours are like to us; for darkness takes away the difference, even of contraries. Therefore Laodicca, 
Reuel. 3. 17.  when one of her miseries is blindness, she thinks herself rich and to have need of nothing, though indeed she be miserable, and poor, and naked; and what is the reason? because being blind she knows it not. Therefore her way to find her own misery, that so she may be cured of it, is to beg of Christ jesus that eye-salue, with which her eyes being anointed, she may see. And when she seethe, she cannot but see her nakedness, and seeing it, she cannot but loathe it, and loathing it desire to be clothed with the grace and righteousness of God in Christ jesus.  
7. But of the true sight of sin, 
Oil. of Sc. 226. A second part of Repentance: Detestation of sin.  I have elsewhere more fully spoken, and likewise of the detestation of sin. Yet this I add, That if we cannot detest sin à priori, by loo king it in the face, and seeing the ugly and hideous shape of it, yet let us detest it, à posteriori, by seeing, yea by feeling the miserable effects and consequences of it. All the torments of a distracted 
Levit. 26.  soul, 
Deut. 28.  the rack of the conscience, the terrors of hell in the mind; All the diseases of the body, fevers, pestilences, and rottenness of the bones; All the fearful storms that light on the things of this life, lightning and tempest, cold and fire, wrack of estates by Sea or Land, they are some small resemblances of sin; the evil of doing, being a little (though not at full) represented in the evils of suffering. If then there be such a loathing and detestation of such evils being suffered, know, that the evils are more loathsome for which they are suffered: for God doth not go beyond justice in the punishment of mankind, yea, he is yet fare short of it. For after all these evils, attending sin here on earth, the Lord shall come in flaming fire, 
2 Thess. 1. 8.  taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction. Wherefore as deep as the loathing and hatred of all pains and torments, both on earth, and in hell, doth enter into thy heart, so deep let the detestation of sin enter; yea a little farther, as an evil cause deserves some more hatred, than that evil which is made by it. And indeed thou must take notice, that this detestation must go deep with thee, even to the bottom of thy heart; for it being the needle which makes way for conversion from sin, that conversion will not come, but where this detestation hath gone before. And here should I come to speak of the true expressions of this hatred of sin, in selfe-revenge, by fasting and other exercises of humiliation: but of these also I have already spoken; only in some other place, I may have occasion to speak of the excellent use, and power of fasting, being joined to the substantial parts of repentance.  
8. And now come we to 
A third part of Repentance:  the turning from sin unto the contrary righteousness: 
Turning from sin unto the contrary Righteousness.  and I would to God we were indeed come home unto it. For this is the main work of repentance, that sets the soul, yea all things in joint again, and makes a full agreement between God and us; for sin having separated us, the wall of this separation being drawn down, there is intercourse between God and us. The Image of God in us looks cheerfully upon God, whose Image it is, and God looks cheerfully on this Image, because it is his. Likeness breeds love, and on the love of God attend all blessings, and the removing of all curses. And indeed why should we not leave sin? what is there in it, or with it, that we should not leave it and loathe it? Surely if we look nearly and clearly upon sin, we shall see all the reason that may be, to cast it from us, and utterly to abhor it. Among others, let us consider the deformity of it (mentioned before) the vanity of it, and the misery of it. The deformity of it should especially be looked on, as that whereby God is offended; and the offence of God should chief be regarded. Surely sin is an ill-favoured thing: and it cannot be otherwise; for it is contrary to the most absolute pureness, beauty, and glory of the Deity; it crosseth the will of God, the Rule of righteousness; it crosseth and opposeth God who is light, because it is darkness; it is a blot and spot upon the Image of God; and it cannot but be a thing odious and hateful to God, to see his Image and superscription blotted & defaced; it turns men into a generation of Vipers, it makes them ravening Wolves, it makes them like the Horse and Mule which have no understanding. Yea, it makes them worse than the beasts that perish: 
Esay 1. 3.  For the Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his Master's crib; but Man by sin casts off his owner and Master, even the high Lord and Master of the whole Creation, because the sole and whole Creator of it. And what do we now, to save this sin from death and destruction, which makes us fit for nothing, but the wrath of God, & the plagues that attend it? And if we behold the vanity of sin, that may make us weary of it, and willing to forsake it. For the main cause of keeping our sins, are certain pleasures with which the devil hath baited them; and we so love this bait, that we take down the hook with it, and by taking it, we are taken. And indeed if we could see sin stripped of this pleasure, that is, the hook without the bait, we should both fear and hate it. And of this men have some sight, in the end of pleasures, and in the day of sickness, and death. But look upon them now in the very time of thy health, if thou canst but bring thy flesh a little on sleep, while thy soul is waking. For if thy flesh would be quiet, while thy soul is in this contemplation, thou mightest answer, out of thy own knowledge, unto this question of the holy Ghost, What fruit have ye of those 
Rom. 6. 21.  things whereof ye are now ashamed? Take all the pleasures that are past, & squeeze them with all thy might, and see what drop of fruit thou canst wring of them. They are past and gone, and there remains no one jot of them, but they are perished with the using. 
Coloss. 2. 22  And as these have dealt with thee that are past, so shall they serve thee that are to come. There is nothing left of the former, neither shall there be of the latter, but they shall be all swallowed up of one emptiness and nothing. But in stead of the pleasure of sin which is vanished, thou mayst have a sting of sin that will not easily vanish; and this mere natural reason hath told us. 
Habet omnis hoc voluptas,  
Both:  
Stimulis agit fruentes  
Apiumque par volantum,  
Vbi grata mella fudit,  
Fugit, & nimis tenaci,  
Ferit icta corda morsis.  And if the pleasure of sin vanisheth, and the sting remaineth, how much better is the labour of righteousness, whose labour vanisheth, but the comfort and reward of righteousness for ever abideth? But if nothing else, yet let the miseries of sins, which are so many blows of an offended God, beat us from sin. When we see it attended with Plague, Famine and Sword, with Sickness, Death, and Hell, with unsuccesfulnes in Armies & Navies, with terrors within, and without, at home, and abroad, yea, with all the evils of soul, body and estate; then let us hate it, if not for itself, yet for the fearful consequences, and followers of it. Yea let us hasten from it, as Lot was hastened out of Sodom; for to hasten out of sin, is to make haste from fire and brimstone, and from all the torments, that may be inflicted by an omnipotent wrath.  
9 But if we mean throughly to leave sin, 
To leave sin throughly, we must root up sinfulness.  we must leave sinfulness; we must not pluck off the branches, but pluck up the roots of it. We must not heal sin downward, but upward; we must go to the bottom of it, and begin to purge and heal it at the bottom, and so come forward to make it whole at the top. If we pull up the root of it, the branches will die, but if we do but break off the branches of it, the root will bud again, and bring forth both branches and fruit. The tree of knowledge of good and evil that brought-in lust to be the law of our hearts, which is a contrariety to the law of God; must be pulled up by the roots. And why should it not? For when this is done, a man is in no worse case by it, than Adam was in his perfection, even when he was happy, and before his unhappiness. Yea, thou shalt hereby free thyself from a most miserable bondage; and so let thy liberty, as well as the excellency of this estate, move thee. Thou art now a slave to thy lust, even an Egyptians bondslave; if it bid thee go, thou must go, if it bid thee come, thou must come; and wouldst thou not rather choose to be free from so blind and base, and imperious a master, to serve the highest, and most glorious Creator, even the true and living God. True it is, that sinfulness is rooted somewhat strongly in thy nature, but there is a mighty power that is able to root it out, even the same power that first created Nature, and that can raise the dead, yea which raised jesus Christ. 
Eph. 1. 19 20.  This mighty power and outstretched Arm, is that which helpeth souls in their passage from Egypt, and gives them safe conduct into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Wherefore fear not to encounter the power of sin, and to cast off the yoke of it; for thou hast a mightier power to make good thy freedom, even a power against which Pharaoh & his hosts, 
1 joh. 4. 4.  the devil, sin, and the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail. The Lord in his mercy 
Exo. 15. 13.  leads forth the people whom he hath redeemed, and guideth them in his strength unto his holy habitation.  
10. Neither must we only put off sin, 
When sin is put off, righteousness must be put on. Mat. 3. 10.  but we must put on righteousness. There are certain fruits, which are worthy or suitable to amendment of life, and these must be brought forth. For when the Axe of God's judgements is laid to the roots of the Trees, none but the tree that bears good fruit, shall escape hewing down and casting into the fire. But the righteousness of outward works, is neither true nor lasting, without a seed and nature of Righteousness. Therefore to make the fruit truly and continually good, the tree must be made good. For the good tree only beareth good fruit, and ceaseth not to bear it. Wherefore as the root of sinfulness must be pulled up, so a root of Righteousness must be planted. As the old man must be put off, the new man must be put on. 
Eph. 4. 22. 23.  This New man is borne of the spirit, as the old man is borne of the flesh. 
Joh. 3. 6.  For that which is borne of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit. And if that which is borne of the spirit be in us, then have we in us a root of Righteousness. For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, 
Eph. 5. 6.  and righteousness, and truth. This is the root of the tree planted by the river side, 
Psal. 1. 3.  that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not whither, but whatsoever he doth shall prosper. This is the seed that falls into good ground, yea it makes the ground good into which it falls, 
Heb. 6. 7.  so that it bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, and receiveth blessing from God. And indeed no wonder if it receive blessing from God, and turn away the curses of God; for when the hart of man is thus made good ground, fruitful earth, and a good tree by the virtue of God's spirit; the heart of Man is according to the Heart of God; And from this harmony & agreement, issue all blessings and blessedness. There is friendship between God and man, when face answereth to face, the face of man's soul, to the face of God, to whose Image it was first created, and after the fall it must be renewed. 
Prov. 27. 19  Then will God delight to dwell among us, he will walk with us, he will be a Father to us, 
2 Cor. 6. 17.  and we shall be his sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 
Deut. 28. 12. 13.  The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: And thou shalt lend unto many Nations, and shalt not borrow: And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and not beneath, if that thou harken to the Commandments of the Lord thy God, to observe and do them. Infinite is the blessedness, and infinite are the blessings which follow this new creature and Image of God: And places of Scripture are almost endless that express them. Briefly and for a sum, Godliness is profitable unto all things, 
1 Tim. 4. 8.  having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Now what shall I infer hereupon? yea, let God himself make the inference, by his blessed Apostle: Having therefore these promises, 
2 Cor. 7. 1.  dear beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let us put on the New Creature, and walk by that rule: for as many as walk by that 
Gal. 6. 1ST  rule, peace shall be upon them; Peace between God and us, peace between us and our own souls, and peace between us and the Creatures.  
10. Having thus put on 
The Crown of repentance is a Covenant with God.  the glorious and blessed Image of God, in our repentance from dead works, and the body of sin, let us crown and consummate this happy work with a Covenant. For thus did the ancient Converts; they bond up their Repentance in a Covenant, that entering into a Covenant with God, God might enter into a Covenant with them, and so the knot of Happiness & Love might be knit and made sure between God and Man. The heart of man is very deceitful and backsliding, and it is not enough to put it into the way of agreement with God, but being there, it must be bound by strong resolutions, yea those resolutions have been bound with an oath. And thus our will binding itself to the will of God, by a settled resolution, and vow, it continues the closer and more unseparable, since as soon as temptation cometh, it dasheth itself in pieces against the Rock of this Covenant. The heart being as it were hardened and steeled with Resolution, is in vain assaulted, and the Billow of temptation flying against it, non frangit, sed frangitur, the Billow is broken, but the house or the heart falls not, because it is become rocky being firmly built on the Rock Christ jesus. Yea Satan seeing the soul settled and resolved to resist him, flies away, and removes his engines to places and persons of less resistance. But on the other side, God seeing the heart bend, and resolved, and bound, to a constant service of God, he meets it with a constant love, and the kiss of perfect peace is between them. I might bring forth diverse examples of Covenants. There was a Covenant under Moses, 
Deut. 20. 12.  under joshua, under josiah, 
josh. 24.  under Ezra, 
Ezra. 10.  but I especially propose the Covenant of 
2 King. 23. 3.  Asa, because it was the pattern of a perfect Covenant, and a happy success. And because I wish the later, I propose the former. This Covenant is thus described. There came a Prophet and spoke unto Asa, 
2 Chron. 15  and all judah and Benjamin: He told them of the miseries of those which were without the true God, a teaching Priest, and without law: That forsaking God, they were forsaken of God: And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries: And Nation was destroyed of Nation, and City of City, for God did vex them with all adversity. On the other side, The Lord is with them, while they be with him, and if they seek him, he will be found of them. Yea being vexed for their sins, when in their trouble, they did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. Thereupon the Prophet inferreth, Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. And Asa indeed grew strong; for the Scripture saith, He took courage and put away the abominable Idols out of judah and Benjamin; he renewed the Altar of the Lord, and offered a great sacrifice to God: And to bind up this new obedience, and to make it sure by setting a seal to it; They entered into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers, with all their heart, and with all their soul. This Covenant they bind with a high penalty; yea, they bind it farther with an oath. Neither was this oath taken with a grudging, and repining heart, (such as too many of our hearts be, that are afraid to be too fare engaged in the service of God, though it be to our own preservation) but knowing that God loveth a cheerful giver; They swore unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with Trumpets, and with Cornets. And when they had sworn, they were not sorry they had done a good deed, (which kind of repentance to be repent of, is too common among us,) But Israel, yea, all Israel rejoiced at the oath: and behold the reason; For they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire. And now behold the happy success; God was found of them, and he gave them rest round about. Behold here a path, that leads to rest. And the men are named, that have already travailed in this path, and by it came unto rest. 
1 Cor. 10. 11.  And wherefore doth the Scripture so punctually trace out this path? but that ages to come might learn by this example, in the same path to come to the same rest. The same seeking the Lord with the whole heart, and binding it with a Covenant, and binding the Covenant with an Oath, or solemn Vow, are things which may be done, and being done, they are followed with rest. What remains to be said, but that rest stands before us, and the way to rest is also open to us, and the Spirit encourageth us by these examples, and saith; This is the way, walk in it, and ye shall find rest to your souls? If it seem heavy to us, it is because we do not seek God with all our heart, and our whole desire: for we see that they who seek the Lord with their whole heart and desire, rejoice at the Covenant, yea at an oath upon the Covenant, at a Bond upon a Bond. For they think that all Bonds are little enough to bind the heart to him, whom all the heart doth seek and desire. If a woman do affect a man with all her heart to make him her Husband, surely she will account it a very joy full thing to be bound to him by a solemn Matrimonial vow. For it is nothing else but to bind the heart to him above all, whom the heart doth affect above all. It is a pleasure to be bound to that which we love. Wherefore if we love God, we will take a pleasure to be bound to him, yea we will not only cry with the Spouse, Draw me, but bind me to thee, 
Cant. 1. 4.  with cords of love, and I will run after thee. Neither is it any new thing to bind our hearts to God by a Covenant, for it is but a repeating of the same Covenant which we made in our Baptism: And it bindeth us already, if we do not renouce our Baptism, and so our Christianity. Yea, the same Covenant we renew and repeat in the Lord's Supper. For the whole work of Grace working in the Church Militant, is comprehended and bound up in a Covenant, which we read to be thus summed up in the Scripture. God forgiveth our sins, 
jer. 31. 31  and writeth his Laws in our hearts by his Spirit, and so he becomes our God, to direct, protect, and bless us, and we become his people, to serve, love, and obey him. This Covenant we enter into in Baptism, 
Heb. 8. 10.  undertaking then to be led by the Spirit of Regeneration, and not by the Flesh, the World and the Devil. Now the Lords Supper is a seconding of this Covenant: Therefore saith our Saviour, 
Luk. 22. 20  This Cup is the New Testament, or Covenant (for so the words are interchanged, Heb. 8. 8. & 9 20. & 12. 24.) in my blood. And indeed because by the frailty of the flesh, whose relics remain after Regeneration, though the Reign be abolished, we often go aside from the Rule of the Spirit, (we go aside, I say, as a ship goes aside and falls off from the rule of the Needle or Compass, though the Compass be not cast overboard, neither fall out of the ship) therefore this Sacrament is appointed to bring us again into the path of the New Covenant, the guilt of those frailties and errors being washed away by the blood of Christ, and the spot by the spirit of Christ. Which spirit of Christ also refresheth and reviveth the Law of God written in our hearts, and strengthens us to a more perfect walking and abiding in this Law. So the judgements of God do but call us to the same Covenant to which the Sacraments bind us: but indeed they call us to a more real performance of that Covenant, which having undertaken in the Sacraments, yet we have failed to perform. For this Cause, saith St. Paul, many are weak and sickly among you, 
1. Cor. 11. 10.  & many sleep. And the Lord by his Prophet, 
jer. 11. 8.  Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this Covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did it not. And if he, That despised Moses Law, died without mercy, 
Heb. 10. 28.  of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing? And thus while judgements come upon us for the breath and contempt of our Covenant with God, the same judgements call us to a Cure by the contrary, that is, by renewing our Covenant again, and steadfast keeping it. 
1. Cor. 11. 31  For if we would thus judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord. Behold, here is life and death set before us, and there are examples of both. The breach of the Covenant is judged and avenged with destruction: An example of that breach and judgement, are judah & jerusalem, who besides their many breaches, after many renewings, broke one, even a little before their Baby lonish 
jer. 34. 10. 11. 17. 18.  Captivity. The making of a Covenant with the whole Heart, is followed with Rest and Prosperity: and an example of that is Asa with all judah and Benjamin. What shall I say? Choose life that ye may live! Every one's heart, I think, should say so to itself. And the speech of another should be prevented or stopped, as Elisha put to silence the children of the Prophets: I knew it, 
Gen. 12. 1.  hold you your peace. But then I say as jacob to his sons: Why do ye look one upon another? I have heard there is Corn in Egypt, get ye down thither, and buy for us from thence, that we may live and not dye. Why stand ye still gazing on God's chastisements which ye see upon yourselves and others, and do not go about to cure them? Our joseph, even jesus that delivers us from the wrath to come, whose coat was dipped in his own blood, 
Phil. 2. 6. 7. 8.  even the coat of his Humanity, wherein the Divinity was apparelled like a Man, yea like a Servant; He, even he hath provided the food of eternal life, to which all temporal blessings are annexed by promise: for those who in this Egypt, this sinful land, or world of sin, do go down to the valley of Tears, in a full and hearty repentance; what remains, but that with a full and whole repentance, we purchase these temporal and eternal blessings, that we may not die but live?  
11 This full and consummate 
Profitable and necessary Associates of Repentance.  Repentance should be followed with Invocation, or we may rather say, it doth follow it. For Invocation and Prayer is indeed the natural Issue of true Repentance. For sin being put away by Repentance, which stood as a Cloud between God and the soul, and did hide the Face of God from the Eyes of the soul, now the light of God's countenance shineth on the soul, and the comfortable beams of his favour do refresh her. God doth meet the soul with a favourable aspect, from which, gathering courage and comfort, she dares speak unto him, and say, 
Psal. 51. 18.  A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise: Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of jerusalem. When the soul feels the weight of sin abated, and lightened by Repentance, hope of pardon increaseth, and from hope increasing ariseth confidence, & then from this confidence springeth up prayer. Again, when the body of sin is diminished and brought low by Repentance, than the new man flourisheth and prospereth. The flesh and the spirit are like two seals, whereof one being depressed, the other mounts up; and now the flesh being put down by Repentance, the spirit riseth up and grows strong; and the spirit being strong, uttereth strong cries and groans that cannot be expressed. She speaks to God in the very language of Heaven, which flesh and blood understands not; but he knows the meaning of the spirit, who gave the spirit unto man. There is an Abba, Father, which no man knows but he that hath it, and he that hath it cannot express it: it is like the earning of a Lamb, whereby she owneth her Dam; by which she owneth her, but knows not herself whereby by she owneth her. There is a secret earning and owning of God for a Father, put into the soul of a son of God, by the Spirit which new-begetteth him, and thereby he calls God Father; and yet not he, but the very feed and spirit of his Father in him. And when this call ascends up unto God, it moveth his bowels of compassion: So that if a mother could forget her child, yet God cannot forget his son. 
Esay 49. 1●  It is itself a forcible motive to bring down blessings, and it makes way for other prevailing petitions; and therefore Christ doth set this word of Father, as an head on his absolute prayer, that by it the petitions following may pierce like an arrow, and enter into the presence and acceptation of the Almighty. Wherefore having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, 
Heb. 10. 22.  and our bodies washed with pure water, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having repent let us ask mercy and forgiveness, and that remission of punishments which follows the remission of guilt. Yea, if our hearts be hard, and cannot repent as we desire, let us ask the grace and spirit of Repentance. For on the one side it is condemned in the jews, that they pray not for Repentance in their punishments for sin. So saith holy Daniel: 
Dan. 9 13. 14.  All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our Prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy Truth: Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us. And on the other side, it is said, All things that ye shall ask in Prayer, 
Mat. 21. 22  believing, ye shall receive. 
Luke 11. 13  Yea, God will give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him. Pray then for the Spirit of Compunction and Repentance, of him that hath promised to give it, and pray for the Compunction and Repentance, when thou hast the spirit, making this the burden of thy Psalm, Turn us again O Lord of Hosts. And not only so, but add hereunto, 
Psal. 80.  Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved: that is, pray for Repentance, and having repent, pray for the favour of God, and the Salvation or Deliverance which attend it. And indeed so inseparable is Deliverance from Prayer, that if God doth promise to send a Deliverance, yet he expects that Prayer should come to fetch it of him. God had promised a Deliverance to the jews from the Captivity of Babylon after seventy years. Yet he saith; 
jer. 29. 12.  Then shall you call upon me, and shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And even upon this foundation did Daniel 
Dan. 9 2.  build his excellent prayer unto God for his Nation. Wherefore let us take Gods own way which he points unto us, to come to his own Blessings: A way so often beaten and tried to lead assuredly to blessings, and even to the blessing of Deliverance from the punishments of sin, that the story of the judges is full of continual patterns. 
Neh. 9 27. 28.  These Nehemiah summeth up: When they cried to thee, thou heardest them from Heaven, and according to thy manifold mercies, thou gavest them Saviour's, who saved them out of the hand of their Enemies. Yea he saith again: When they returned and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from Heaven, and many times didst thou deliver them, according to thy Mercies. Wherefore since crying to God is the way to deliverance, let us never leave going in this way until we come to Deliverance.  
12 But let us know withal 
To prevail with God, our petitions must aim to God's glory. Psal. 50. 15  that he which said, Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you 〈◊〉 this also, And 〈…〉 glorify me. To glorify 〈…〉 God, must 〈…〉 intended by us, when we seek a Deliverance; and performed by us, when we have it. Yea, having received some deliverances already, let us be thankful for them, and that is the way to get more. For when God hath the fruit of his Mercies, he will not spare to sow much, where he reaps much. First, we must intent the Glory of God in the Prayers which we make for Deliverance from troubles, or any other blessing. Yea, by this very point of God's glory, let us bind and adjure him: For that is a principal means, by which to prevail with God, to make God's glory the scope of our prayers. Therefore our Saviour who is the wisdom of God, makes the first petition, of his perfect prayer, That God's Name may be hallowed: For he knew, that if in the first and chiefest place we doc desire God's glory, all the petitions that come after, and are in order to this glory, must needs be effectual and powerful with God. And for this reason, so many prayers of the Saints, in whom the Spirit of Christ conformed their prayer unto the prayer of Christ, do so often adjure GOD by his great Name, and for his Names sake, to grant their petitions. So joshua when he went about to save Israel, who was now ready to be destroyed, he had no mightier Argument, whereby to bind God to preserve them, than this, 
josh. 7. 9  What wilt thou do to thy great Name? And indeed when you strike on God's glory with your petition, you strike on that which is principal in the heart of God, and therefore principally toucheth & moveth him. You adjure him by that which is dearest to him, even by that which is his own end; 
Esa. 48. 11.  and is so particularly his own, that he will not give it to another. His wisdom he communicates, and his justice he distributes, and his mercy he bestows, but his glory he will not give away: 
1 Cor. 1. ● 30. 31.  for all glorying is excluded, and he that glories, may not glory in his wisdom, power, goodness, or any thing else, but he must only glory in the Lord. And justly is glory most precious to him, and he may rightly challenge it as alone due to himself; for there is no fit end of God but himself. In all his Creation, in the work of redemption, in the dispensation of his providence, & all that he doth both in heaven and earth, God only is a fit end of God, God's glory of the works of God. He cannot but end in himself, what he begun from himself; neither can he make a creature his end, whose very beginning is from him. Therefore the Scripture rightly infers, 
Reu. 5. 11.  Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory, and honour, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. 
Rom. 11. 36  And, of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. So that as all things are of God, so all things are to him, and to him they are by the glory which ariseth from them; for this is the main fruit, and return that comes unto God from his works. So that if you come to him this way, you come to him his own way, & he will walk with you in this way, until you come to the ways end. 
Amos. 3. 3.  But can two walk together, except they be agreed? If you agree not with God in your petition, can you think to have God to walk with you to the end of your petition? If your end be the Creature, or some perishing use of it, and God's end is himself the Creator, do you think God will leave his end, to walk with you to your end? If your end be your own ease, or pleasure, or safety, yea the quiet or safety of a Country, and Gods end be his own glory, exeept you level your end to his end, and so indeed make yours cease to be your end, by making his end yours (for there can be but one utmost end, which indeed alone is an end) do you think your petition can be pleasing or available with God, while it goes not to the end proposed by God? Certainly a Nation is so fare from being God's end, 
Esa. 40. 18. 22.  that all the Nations of the earth are reputed as nothing before him, 
Dan. 4. 35.  that is, they are nothing in comparison of him. When God looks upon Man, and himself together, Man vanisheth away into nothing before him. Therefore joshua, when he will save his Nation, goes not to move God by the way of the Creature, as by saying, It is a great Nation, it is pity such a Nation should be destroyed; but he goes to the Creator by his own way, even by the glory of the Creator. But the contrary is the cause why we so seldom thrive in our petitions, because we make man the end of God, and not God the end of man. We will only make use of God, to serve man's turn, and then it is well enough; but that man, being helped, should after serve Gods turn, we little intent. But let us know, that this is the only way to have our petitions, not only denied, but despised: Despised, I say, because they have such base ends; base in comparison of that great and glorious God, who only is the true end of all his Creatures, and aught to be so proposed, when we seek any thing of him, for the good of the Creature. But this main end being proposed, even God and his glory, than we may commendably and hopefully, pray for the good of the creature, yea we may bind God in our prayers, and contest with him for his own glory. And this kind of petition and prayers are most forcible with God: for we may be sure God will not be wanting to himself; his goodness, wisdom and power, shall never fail his creatures, when they may advance the creatures to the glory of the Creator.  
13. In a second place I must say, 
Our petitions having prevailed, we must give God the glory, due for their prevailing.  it is some encouragement to God to grant new petitions, if he have received the glory due to him for granting the old. For how should he hope for more glory of new benefits, if he have not that which is due for the old? That man deserves not to have a second good turn, that is not thankful for the first. But if God have his end, that is, his glory, by his benefits past, our petitions may be bold with him for blessings to come; for God will not sparingly sow, where he doth plentifully reap. It was the barrenness of the tree, that brought upon it the fearful sentence, 
Luk. 13. 7.  Dig it up, why cumbereth it the ground? Both the people and the petitions, can look for little other end, who having received the grant of former petitions, do not return to God the fruits of glory and thanksgiving. Glory and thanksgiving are the fat of our sacrifices, and our petitions are lean and ill-favoured, like Pharaohs latter kine, that have not this fat. 
Malach. 1.  If ye offer the blind and lame and lean for sacrifice, is it not evil? offer it now to thy Governor, will he be pleased with thee? yet I am a great King, saith the Lord of Hosts. And indeed when we speak to a King, and desire some grace from him, it is an usual thing to begin with praise and acknowledgement of former favours, 
Act. 24. & 26.  and goodness. Tertullus did it to less than a King, and Paul was not much behind him in the same. But he dealt throughly in this kind with Agrippa, and so much praised him for believing the Scriptures, that he almost made him that, which was the end of his praise, even almost a Christian. Now if God be a great King, let us give him great praises; he deserves them, and we shall be gainers by them. For as his greatness is, so is his goodness; and he that is good to us in great things, deserves great praises: And if this debt be paid, he will go on in lending. David knew this, and therefore when he seeks new help in new extremities, he gins commonly with praises for Gods old and ancient goodness. 
Psal. 9 1. 10. 11. etc.  I will praise thee O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works: They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee, for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee: Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion, declare among the people his doings. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembreth them, he forgetteth not the cry of the humble. And then comes prayer, when praise hath made way for it; Have mercy upon me, O Lord, consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of Death. And both praise and prayer are followed with success; The Heathen are sunk down in the pit that they have made. In the net which they hide is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands, etc. 
Nehem. 9  The Levites also after their return from the Captivity, by praising God for his old benefits, winde-in their prayer and petition for new. For they knew, that God's ear is open to due praise and thanksgiving; and when it is open to praise, than also may prayer enter, the door of grace and audience being open. Behold the sum of both; 
ver. 32.  Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest Covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us. And surely if any Nation, this Nation hath a fair way whereby to come unto God: For no Nation hath received greater favours and more wonderful deliverances; so that a large door is open to them, for their petitions to enter, if great praise and thanksgiving, for great blessings and deliverances, be (and so it should be) sent before to make way for them. Our Deliverances have been many, and withal so eminent, that the eyes of the world have plainly seen the great power of God in them: and if others have taken notice of them, how much more should they affect us, who have tasted the sweetness and benefit of them? The deliverance of Eighty Eight, is a thing wondered at by the world; and the Discovery of the Powder-Treason, very near, if not one with a Miracle. To these we may add even very late and New Deliverances, and turnings away of judgements, whereof I desire to take a more full consideration, toward the close of this work; it being one main end of it, to continue the memory of God's goodness, 
Psal. 107.  and of his wonderful works to the children of men: And not only the memory, but to make the memory useful, by giving God due glory for his mercies, and to make us the fit for new mercies, by a right use of the old. For lamentable it is to see, how soon God's benefits grow stolen and dead to us; so that we shut up our own way, to new benefits, and to our prayers that are made for them, by forgetting the old. We are all for craving, and nothing for thanksgiving, and therefore our craving is not heard, because it comes without thanksgiving. We separate that which God by his blessed Apostle doth so often join together, prayer and thanksgiving. 
1 Thess. 5. 17. 18.  We are all for ourselves, 
1 Tim. 2. 1.  and nothing for God; and therefore it is no wonder if God do nothing for us. We are like the Horseleech ever crying, Give, give; yet this giving which we so much desire of God, we will not allow God to expect from us. There is much odds between giving of benefits and giving of thankes; yet we that expect so much giving of the greater, will not afford the lesser, yea though it be a ready way to procure the greater. In worldly things it is all the wisdom and endeavour of Traffic, by a thing of less price to get a thing of greater value; only in spiritual traffic, and in commerce with God, we will not lay out little things, to obtain his great things. But this ariseth much from a poison in our nature, which loseth the taste of things had, and reacheth out the appetite strongly to things not attained. Now the true way whereby to raise up and to continue thankfulness, is to stir up and continue the true and first taste of God's benefits. We must have such a taste of them, as we had when we first received them. Yea we should put ourselves into the same case of danger or necessity wherein we were before we received them; and then consider, how such a Deliverance doth taste being received in such a danger. If thus thou taste the goodness of God in his mercies, this goodness of God will fill thy soul as with marrow and fatness, and from thence will naturally arise a due eructation of praise and thanksgiving. And thus will be an endless Circle of Blessings. The more blessings God sendeth us, the more shall we bless him; and the more we bless him▪ the more blessings he will send us. Amen, Amen.  
Thus the great Help of Miseries hath been presented to view, with his Allies, and Associates. A Help which is able to help us, without worldly helps; a Help that helps worldly Helps; and a Help without which no other Helps will help us. For this Help brings us to the strong Helper, and gets him to remove his own judgements. But without this all Helps are vanity, because they look not unto the Holy one of Israel, 
Esa. 31. 1. 2.  neither seek the Lord; yet he also is wise, and will bringevill, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the Help of them that work iniquity.  
14 But because this Remedy doth call for Returning; 
The sins from which we should return in Repentance.  Returning from sin unto God by righteousness, you will ask perchance with the old jews, 
Mal. 3. 7.  Wherein shall we return? Surely a question too easy to be answered. We are all in many sins, from which we should return; and the main body of them is so tall and eminent, that like the pride of Israel, it doth testify to our faces. 
Hosea 5. 5.  There are particular sins, of which it is rightly enjoined by that King of penitents, 
jonah 3. 8.  Let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. There are also particular-common sins, even sins of particular persons, which by their heinousness bring a common judgement, especially if they be favoured and approved. The sin of Achan being one man's sin, brought a judgement upon many; and the sin of some men of Gibeah, approved by a Tribe, brought a judgement upon the Tribe: yea almost an utter destruction. Concerning these, 
jud. 19 & 20.  whosoever have power of Reformation, no doubt God expects it of them: but those that have not this power, let them be sorry for that evil which they cannot amend. And so while they turn their hearts from it and against it, it may be God will not punish them for that which they disallow; yea let them pray to God to reform it, 
2. Pet. 2. 7.  and in the same prayer say with the Mariners, We beseech thee O Lord, we beseech thee, 
jonah 1. 14.  let us not perish for this man's life; for the sin, or sinful life of another. There are also Nationall, or at lest common sins, and indeed there is too great a sink of these sins in this Nation. The abundance of these evil humours, is that which lies heavy upon the heart of this Nation, and makes it sick at the very soul of it. And though many of these Diseases have been discovered by many, yet few are cured; and some there are which can scarce be beaten into the notice of those that are sick of them. Besides numberless others, who have sought the Health of this people, by showing them their Diseases, I have loved, if not furthered, the word and work of the great Shepherd; I will seek that which is lost, 
Ezek. 34. 16.  and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, & will strengthen that which was sick. And to this end I have endeavoured to discover their Sicknesses, and to show them the Remedies. But alas! the Diseases live, and the Remedies dye; they live that are our destruction, and they dye by which we should live; and what will be the end hereof? Therefore mine eye weepeth in secret, and my heart is afraid, 
jer. 6. 10.  Because their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it. Still do the known & notorious sins call one to another, as the wild beasts of the Lands cry in desolate houses: 
Esa. 13. 22.  Luxury calleth to Drunkenness, and Drunkenness calleth to Blasphemy, and Blasphemy answers every sin, that it speaks with. And I wish this sin did not speak to those that speak not to it▪ but abhor to hear it, and that it did not haunt the passenger from one end of the City, yea of the Land, to another. A dry, barren, and sapless sin; he that would do any thing for God, or for his own soul, would surely leave such a sin, which hath no taste of profit or pleasure in it: but he that will not leave a few needless words for God, will certainly do nothing for him; yea they take a pride in this madness. And whereas a man that fears God, fears to use his Name vainly, though it were but in the usual and unnecessary forms of admiration; these men strive to fill up their speeches with many repetitions of the Name of God; that they may often name him, whom they do not believe to be at all: or if they believe that there is a God, their wickedness is the greater, because they wittingly dishonour him, whom they believe to be God. Let such men walk under what name they will, the name of Heathen is the least that belongs to them. For, can they be other than Heathens, that do not so much as savour of the Lords Prayer, and the ten Commandments? in one of which there is a Petition, that God's Name may be hallowed, and in the other a Precept, that his Name should not be profaned. And if there be any odds between such Christians and Heathens, the odds of goodness is on the Heathens side. For the Heathen knows not this Prayer, nor these Commandments; so that if he offend, he offends against that which he knows not. But these false Christians, no question, have known them, at least in their childhood, and so do offend against that which they knew. Now since Christ hath pronounced a heavier sentence on these than the other, no doubt they are worse than the other: for he saith, The ignorant Heathens shall be beaten with few stripes, 
Luke 12.  and these with many. But against this and many other sins, there hath sounded out the Word of God so often in vain, that it may even now truly be said, 
Esa. 65. 2.  All the day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient, and gainsaying people. Which gives cause to fear, lest all the day long GOD also stretch forth his hand upon a disobedient and gainsaying people. And I wish yet at length, that though they have not taken it to heart when his hand is stretched out unto them, yet they may lay it to their heart, when his hand is stretched out upon them.  
15. The continuing of these and other roaring sins, 
Continuance in sin, binds the sins of the fathers to the children. Of which a great one, is shedding innocent blood.  with a high, wilful, and presumptuous hand, makes me to doubt, that the stock of our sins, even of the sins of this Nation, grows on to a fullness, and that the sins of our Ancestors coming down upon us by a continual and unbroken succession, the treasure of wrath grows to a fit and full measure for a day of wrath. And if these sins should descend upon us, one of them which I should especially fear, is Blood, and especially the Blood of the Martyrs. For this sin stuck fast to Israel, and followed them, even through the days of good josiah, and hath this fearful Doom set upon it, That God would not pardon it. 
2 King. 24. 4.  And I suppose a man may see the blood of the Martyrs work on some Houses particularly; & if particularly, why not generally? especially there being such a bending in many, 
See oil of Scor. Sect. 10.  to touch with the whore, that is drunken with the blood of the Saints. And surely her touch doth defile those that are knit to her, with the blood of the Saints. 
The cure of this hereditary evil.  But a Remedy against this and other sins of our Forefathers is given by God himself: If he beget a Son, that seethe all his Father's sins which he hath done, 
Ezek. 18.  and considereth, and doth not such like, he shall not dye for the iniquity of his Father. This is the way, which God himself hath showed, whereby the sons may put off the guilt and punishment of their father's sins, even by putting off the sins themselves. But we must know withal, that sins are never throughly put off, until sinfulness be put off, even the root itself of sin. But when this sinfulness is put off, then is there a dividing and partition between the Son and the Father, the knife of Circumcision having cut off that, by which the sin of the Fathers was derived to the Children. For in Regeneration, which putteth off the old man and the body of sin, we are cut off from the stock of the first Adam, and graffed into the second Adam, and from thence our pedigree is reckoned from the second, into whom we are ingraffed, and not from the first, from whom we are cut off. We are then beheld in him, in whom God is well pleased, and not in him, in whom God is offended. Yea in stead of the guilt of the sins of our Fathers, the righteousness of Christ jesus descendeth upon us; and we are so fare from the guilt of those whose corruption we have put off, that we are clothed with the righteousness of Him whom we have put on. In the very conception of Christ jesus, the Holy Ghost stopped or cut off this stream of Corruption, that it should not descend upon him; and that not descending, neither did the guilt of old sins descend upon him. But what he had in his Birth, we have in our Newbirth, when we are Newborn of him: For then is the guilt of old sins cut off, the sinfulness being cut off by which it streamed down upon us. 
Heb. 10. 17.  And thus do we come to the New Covenant, whereby the Laws of God being written in our hearts, not only the sins of our Forefathers, but our own sins, are put away; for God forgiveth all iniquities, and remembreth sins no more. And indeed to this very Covenant doth God call us in those places of Scripture, where he teacheth us this way of putting off the sins of our Fathers. For though he gins in the Law, yet he ends in the Gospel: And we know that the Gospel is generally, though secretly, intimated in the Law, 
Gal. 3. 24.  which was a Schoolmaster to Christ. But here samewhat openly we are called to the Gospel and New Covenant. There are two places wherein God answers the jews that had set up a Proverb against his justice. 
jer. 31. 29.  The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
Ezek. 18.  and the children's teeth are set on edge. As if they should say, We are righteous, and have not eaten the sour grapes of unrighteousness, but only by our Father's eating, the teeth of us their children must be set on edge. Surely a terrible tax and accusation of the Equality and justice of God's ways, That righteous Children should be punished for the sins of unrighteous Parents. Hear the Force of their Argument, standing upon this Assumption, That they were righteous: God joins Issue with them just in that point, and tells them plainly, that if they be righteous, they shall not dye, but live. And because the jews by reason of the veil on their eyes, still groped for a Legal Righteousness, 
Rom. 10▪ 3.  and (as S. Paul saith) being ignorant of God's Righteousness, go about to establish their own (that is, a Legal) Righteousness; God knowing their meaning, talks with them in their own language, and accepts their challenge, in their Legal terms. 
Compare Ezek. 18. 5. 6. 7. 8 9 19 with Levit. 18. 4. 5. & Gal. 3. 10. 12.  Therefore he useth the very words of the Law when he answers them; setting forth to them a Legal Righteousness, and with the very Legal condition, Do this, and thou shalt live. But at length, because he knew that the Law made nothing perfect, because it was weak, and did not powerfully change the heart, by the change and renewing whereof, sin with sinfulness, may only be put off, he removes their eyes from the Law to the Gospel. And therefore in Ezekiel, he calls upon them for a new heart, and a new spirit, without which all their legal Righteousness can never put off the sins of their fathers. And in jeremy, 
jer. 31. 31. etc.  God plainly tells them how this new Heart is to be gotten, even by the grace of the new Covenant, whereby the laws of God are written in our hearts; and the heart being changed by this grace, by a blotting out of sinfulness, and writing of holiness, the guilt of sins passed, both ancient and modern, are all blotted out al-also; for GOD forgiveth their iniquities, and doth no more remember their sins; for justification is given together with sanctification, & where sanctification is not present, justification is absent▪  
Wherefore, since God hath made known to us this sound and sufficient remedy, against the sins of our fathers, let us take it hearty, and put away the sins and sinfulness of our fathers by putting on Christ jesus, in the new and second birth. 
Rom. 8. 1.  For, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ jesus: but in stead of the guilt descending from our fathers, 
Rom. 6.  the righteousness of Christ jesus shall descend upon us; for by the obedience of this one, many shall be made righteous. For as sin aboundeth, so grace superaboundeth; the breadth of Mercy exceeds the depth of justice: for as Justice goes down to the third and fourth generation of them that hate God, so Mercy spreads itself abroad upon thousands of them that love God and keep his Commandments. The righteousness of one, if we be one with that one, shall be more available to our justification, than the sins of many from whose sinfulness we are divided, shall be powerful unto condemnation.  
16. But while we are speaking of the sins to be put off, 
A sin of our Ancestors made ours, and made worse: the name of it is Gluttony.  there presents itself to us another sin, which also hath been the sin of this Nation, and withal we may take notice that it was a sin of Sodom. This sin in the Scripture goes under the name of Fullness of bread, and in our Language is plainly called Gluttony. And this sin hath been so proper to this Nation, that one puts Voraces, for an Epithet of Angli, and another when he will say he is full even to the brim, expresseth it thus, Si saoul comme un Anglois; He is glutted like an English man. It may be some men out of natural Philosophy, will gather an excuse, that the cold Climates have need of more food, because the heat being stricken in, and so by union made stronger, expecteth more fuel to feed it, and to draw it away from feeding on that stock of natural humidity, which is the lamp of life. But this only pleads for such a measure, which preserveth life; but we speak of a measure that oppresseth life: A filthy, and unreasonable, and unmeasurable measure, proceeding of a filthy cause, and going on in a brutish way, to a dangerous end. The root of this sin which we speak of, is Concupiscence, and this Concupiscence having conceived, infects both us and our meat, and doth so turn our table into a snare, that it changeth wholesome meat into poison, even into the poison both of body and soul. No reason in the world useth meat beyond strength; for even that allowance which is for delight, if it go a degree beyond strength, and pass on to a degree of weakness by oppressing us, it is fallen into a degree of sin. Therefore the Wise man, when wisely he judgeth of eating, 
Eccles. 10. 17.  he describeth that to be the right use and limit of eating, when eating is for strength. And indeed that fullness to which the lust of eating being followed doth lead, is a fullness, by which the strength of the body is so fare from increasing, that it is diminished thereby. Life and strength, like the light of a Lamp, are not fed, but quenched, when that which should feed them doth oppress and drown them. And in that case food is turned to an end, clean contrary to that end for which it was made, being made by us an instrument of death, whereas it was made by GOD to be a nourishment of life. Yea it hurts the soul also; for, besides the indisposition of the Body, by which it is unfit to serve the soul, & besides the thick clouds and vapours, which ascend from fullness, and cast a mist about the soul, there is a certain secret poison, that by fullness is instilled into the soul. This God foresaw, and therefore he forewarned his people, to fore-arm them against it. He saw such a mischief coming by fullness, and therefore he calls to them, with a Beware; When thou shalt have eaten, 
Deut. 6. 11. 12.  and be full, Beware lest thou forget the Lord. Yea he saw that notwithstanding these forewarnings, it would be so; And therefore in that song of Moses, 
Deut. 31. 28. 29.  which he was commanded to speak unto Israel, to testify against them, concerning the evils that would be committed by them, and should draw evils upon them; He foretells this evil, as the root of them; He made him ride on the high 
Deut. 32. 13, etc.  places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, and he made him to suck honey out of the Rock, and oil out of the flinty Rock, Butter of Kine, & e. and thou didst drink the pure blood of the Grape. But jesurun waxed fat, and kicked, etc. Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation. Therefore the wise man prayeth only for convenient food; foreseeing this fearful effect of fullness, which he thus expresseth, Lest I be full and deny thee. 
Prou. 30. 9  O wretched and most unreasonable consequence, from most gracious premises. It is God that gives us the food, by which we deny him. He gives food to us, and we by the venom of fullness in the use of this gift, do so blind our own eyes, that we see not the Giver. Yea than we see him least, when we feel him most. The gift should lead thee to the acknowledgement of the Giver, yea to bless him, for the good Land, 
Deut. 8. 10.  and for the good of the land, which he hath given thee. But in stead of blessing him for his gifts, thou deniest him, yea by the gifts themselves thou deniest him. Yet if there were no God, then shouldst thou have had no gifts by which to deny him; but now because there is a God, there are gifts given to thee, and even because he is, therefore thou deniest him. A senseless and a horrible wickedness, even a monster of wickedness, the very sight whereof, should be able to fright us away from it. But what should be the reason of this unreasonable vice? Surely this I think may be the cause of it: The lust of Man which Satan brought in with the first eating, is that law of the members and wisdom of the flesh, which is enmity to God. For this lust is that which sets the natural man, altogether to boast of his 
Psa. 10. 3. 4▪  hearts desire, and to put God out of his thoughts. Now when this lust is at the highest, then is the enmity with God at the highest, and then is God most shut out of the thoughts of Man. But when the body is stuffed with fullness, then is lust at the highest. For in our eating there are two that eat at once. The body doth eat, and lust doth eat. And there are two stomaches, one of the body, and a second of lust: and this latter stomach holds out, many times after the former hath done. And this fullness by which this latter stomach is filled, after the fullness of the first, is that which causeth the mischief whereof we complain. For from it ariseth that height of lust, which despiseth and denyeth God: yet to this end and mark doth lust aim in eating, even to feed itself up to that height, which denieth God. And for this very reason, is moderation exceeding necessary, that we suffer not lust to carry us on to that fullness, which denieth and forgetteth God. Yea fasting is exceeding profitable, and a true medicine against lust; for as lust carries us by fullness▪ out of the sight of God; so fasting brings us back again toward him, even to a clear sight of him. Wherefore it were good that either of them were in more use, as well for their particular and proper uses, and benefits, as also because being contrary to the old vices of our Predecessors, we put off the guilt of old sins, in putting on contrary virtues.  
But because we have not done this voluntarily, it hath been done upon many by necessity, & poverty hath enforced an abstinence, where grace could not persuade it. Yet is there one other Cure; but it is as bad as the Disease, yea it is so fare from a cure, that it doth add other diseases to it. And whereas this vice did formerly march under the colours of a virtue, called Hospitality, now it marcheth under the colours of Pride and Prodigality. So are three vices brought together, to offend God by his own blessings the more fully; but let men know that they are but a threefold Cord, to draw on judgements the more avoidable. Excess itself is bad enough, and there is no need to bestow much money to buy a vice; yet to buy this vice some sell their estates, or at least strain beyond them: and when they have done so, they are proud of it, even of buying one vice with another. Thus excess, bought with prodigality, bringeth forth pride, and sin is heaped upon sin, as dish is heaped upon dish. For such is now the Architecture of excess▪ that there are lofty buildings reared up of superfluous dishes, that what was made for the stomach, may be put into the eye. And so whereas ancient gluttony did usually intent most to please the lust of the flesh, this is fitted now to satisfy the lust of the eye; and not that only, but also the pride of life. And thus are all those things brought together, 
1 joh. 2. 15. etc.  which are of the world, and not of the Father, though it be said withal, They that love these things of the world, have not the love of the Father. Yea though the world shall pass away, & the lusts thereof, and they only that do the will of the Father, shall abide for ever. For meats cannot make men Everlasting, but there must be an end, and perchance the sooner for abusing them, and then there must come an account, even for the abuse of them. But as these offend in an excess of quantity, so others offend in an excess of quality, and put as much sin into a little room, as others do into a great. A great sum of money is contracted into a single dish, and there is an ambition, to make up a great excess, in as little a form as they may. Thus the shapes of vices are altered, but vices are retained, and there must be new fashions in sins, as in clothes. Surely the Nature of these times, doth not call for these studies, and without study, this Art of Excess cannot mount to this Height. When God calleth for poverty, we should not meet him with prodigality; when he calls for humility, we should not meet him with pride; and when he calls for fasting, we should not meet him with excess of Riot. But let us fear the Consequences of such incongruities, and let this fear teach us to avoid them. Surely the judgement which God himself hath denounced against them is fearful; there wants nothing but faith to believe it, and then it will appear as fearful as it is. In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, 
Esay 22. 12.  and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: And behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and kill sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall dye. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts: Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die. But to those that tremble at the word of God, and conform themselves to his will, as in all things, so in the right use of his Creatures; the Scripture offereth more grace. For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation, 
Tit. 2. 11.  hath appeared, and teacheth us, That those who deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, living godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world, they may comfortably look for the blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour jesus Christ. For verily there is a reward for the righteous, 
Psal. 58. 11  verily there is a God that judgeth the earth.  
17 But to what purpose 
Not only particular sins, but a general root of wickedness is among us.  do I seek to cut off the branches of particular sins by the sword of the Spirit, as long as there remaineth among us a Root of gall and wormwood, that can bring forth all sins at once? For if we cure sins one by one, and while one is curing many spring forth, the disease overgroweth the cure. Yea, even that very sin which we seek to cure, after a little while will break forth again, because the Root of it is still alive. This Root of Bitterness, is a natural profaneness, even a contempt of God, and the Truth of Religion. I say the truth of Religion; for there may be an eye cast toward Religion, out of custom, or for company, or for some remaining impressions of the first Creation, that may make men to fear there is a God. But to love Religion in the true shape of it, and because it is true, this is it that I find fare banished by this Root of Profaneness. And though I much lament it, yet I do not greatly wonder at it: for I see a Cause of it, and therein I see, that while men are nothing but men, this will be their fashion. For Religion, in the Truth of it, must needs be Spiritual: 
joh. 4.  for it is the worship of him who is a Spirit, and therefore cannot be pleased by any worship, but of Spirit and Truth. Now if Religion be Spiritual, how can it be, but it must needs be contemned, yea, hated by men that are carnal? For, the carnal mind is enmity against God; 
Rom. 8. 7.  and the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other. And from this Contrariety ariseth that Enmity; and from that Enmity ariseth▪ Persecution, even from the beginning unto the end of the world. For this two fold seed of the flesh and the spirit having the foundations of it laid in Paradise, the Enmity then also was enacted between them. And as then 
Cal. 4. 29.  (I mean as soon as men were borne) he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was borne after the spirit: so is it now. Now doth the flesh despise and oppose spiritual worship, and spiritual worshippers: which opposition, so fare as it doth prevail, so fare doth the general root of sin prevail, and the sins springing from that root. And because the Devil is the Prince of this Enmity, he fitteth weapons for this war, wherewith the sons of the flesh may fight his battles against the sons of the spirit. And of all the weapons which he hath provided in these last Ages, I think he never invented any Engine made of words, more serviceable to him, than one which of late he hath brought into fashion. For it is a sharpe-pointed word, directed to run into the very eye of true Religion; it is a Canon mounted to batter the very Kingdom of Christ, to lay waste all holiness of life, the fruit and effect of that Kingdom; and this word is then shot off, when a Saint is called a Puritan. 
K. james, in his Preface to Ba●● Doron.  And though King JAMES (a King higher than the Kings of the earth in Learning and judgement,) tied the property of this word to Anabaptists & their Sectaries, it is now diverted to Saints, even to those that do not walk in the broad way of common, and sociable vices, and especially if they go somewhat higher than civil and natural Righteousness. If the spirit do but show itself in some expression of a clearer light, or more heavenly virtue, than the darkness of the flesh comprehendeth, it is to be beaten down, and quenched with the Title of Puritaisme. Yet Christ plainly calleth his Disciples to excellent things; 
Mat. 5. 20. 〈◊〉. 16 3. New Tran▪  and David calleth the Saints, by the Title of Excellent: yea, and for this very Reason in them is all his delight, because they are Excellent: and for this very Reason doth the man of flesh hate and persecute them. And indeed in this very Excellence, wherein the spiritual man exceeds the carnal and natural man, stands the glory of God's Kingdom of Grace. For when men do those works which the carnal and natural men do not savour, and therefore do them not, then are men's eyes turned away from the men that do them, to God the Author of them; and so seeing their good works to shine with a light divine and supernatural, they glorify the Father in Heaven, 
Mat. 5. 16.  which is the chief and first worker of them. But against this glory, and against the power by which this glory is attained, and against the kingdom which standeth in this power, and against the spirit which sets up this kingdom in the hearts of the Saints, doth the evil spirit make war; and as by all other mischievous means, so by this malicious word of Puritanisme. And no wonder, 
Ambr. in 2 Cor. 13. 14.  for it is this spirit of Christ, that is the main destroyer of the kingdom of the evil spirit; and therefore against him is his greatest malice, and most fierce opposition. He cares not though there be thousands in a Nation, that abstain from some particular vices, or do some carnal works of civil Righteousness; for his kingdom yet may stand, and these together: But if the Spirit of God come once to set up a kingdom of grace in men's hearts, this kingdom is set up with power, and this powerful kingdom of the spirit he cannot endure, because he knows, that by it the lesser power of his kingdom must needs go to wrack. And then he bestirs himself, and all his policies, to quench the smoking flax of this powerful Grace, which yet shall never be quenched, until it come unto victory. 
* It is not the meaning of the Author to encourage any enthusiast or hypocritical fanaticke spirits, who incur the censure of this name, and from whom carnal men take occasion to revile & reproach the saints of God. See his Medit: 73. 7.   
18 But to come to some Remedies: Let the Devil and his Instruments know, 
Remedies against this root of wickedness.  that in this, as in many other things, Malice doth outrun their wit, and so is not led by it, but leads it: For if the Devil could get this spirit of Grace to forsake the earth, the fire would soon consume and end it; 
jud. 6. 7.  And when the Elements are melted, and consumed with that fire, there comes presently another fire unto which the Devil is reserved in everlasting chains under darkness. And if the wicked ones, his instruments, could root out of a Nation, those who are truly spiritual, surely they drive thence the very Chariots and Horsemen thereof; and they were then fit for nothing but for an utter destruction. It is no other piece of policy, than if the Sodomites should make haste to turn out Lot and his Family, that Fire and Brimstone may make haste to destroy them. Secondly let them know, that they know not that whereof they affirm; they censure that which they do not understand. For there may be a holiness, which themselves know not; there may be a holy Ghost, though they see or feel him not, and that holy Ghost may reveal that truth, give that power and heat of Holiness and Devotion, which flesh and blood doth not reveal and give unto them. And if there may be such things, what folly is this, to speak of that which they know not, yea what madness to condemn it being unknown? Sure I am, they do not know, that there are no such things, and therefore they do not know, that they do wisely in censuring such things, which may be for aught they know; and if they be, they are certainly excellent, and most unworthy of contempt. Wherefore let men take heed, that they cast not upon themselves, the title of folly or madness, when they call a Saint a Puritan. Thirdly, they give men occasion to call them Brownists, I mean those that think them to be of any Religion. For these men that thus cast contempt upon pureness and holiness, cast contempt on the Liturgy and prayers of our Church. For there we find these excellent and godly Petitions, That our lives hereafter may be pure and holy: Yea for the King himself, That Godwill preserve him in holinese and pureness of life. Now to revile this, which the prayers of our Church pray for, is to revile the prayers of our Church; and I think he that doth it, hath a favour if he be taken for a Brownist. Fourthly, to destroy and batter this grace of the Spirit, is the only way to leave no good works among us, and so to bring the very name of Reformed religion into infamy. For the works which were brought forth by the errors and motives of the flesh in the darkness of Popery, we have sought to remove. And now striving to set a new root and principle of good works, even Grace the true root and fountain of them, this the Devil by these words of malice and contempt, doth seek to root up and destroy. So that this is the way to leave no root at all of good works. But fare better were it to cherish the true and kindly root of them, that so good trees may plentifully bring forth the fruit of good Works. Yea it were to be wished, that it might be so watered, that it bring forth those great good works of buying-in Church livings, and building of Churches. For the first many hungry souls do cry, complaining with the Eunuch; 
Act. 8, 31.  How can I understand, except some man guide me? And some that complain not, are in worse case than the other; for they lie speechless and more than half-dead, not feeling their own misery, the Levites passing by them, and leaving them in it. And indeed there is little outward encouragement to draw them in, or at least to persuade their abiding, where there is scarce a little chamber, with a bed, 
2 King. 4.  a table, a stool & a candlestick, to receive them being come. And this while the people perish for want of knowledge, and being without a teaching Priest, 
2 Chron. 15. 3.  they are not fare from being without God, as it seems by the Prophet. For the second, I acknowledge that the true religion hath both built and repaired Churches: Neither is this chief City without examples. But yet it were good the root of this fruit were somewhat more watered: For if these fruits did abound, a Church would not stand open to the rain, so long after a fire, and perchance those stones would be put into their right places, which now by many, no doubt, are turned into stones of stumbling and offence; For even to remove an offence did Christ cause Peter to cast in an Angle, and to fetch money from a fish. And surely if some would but cast an Angle into their superfluities, they might take up such a piece of money, as would save such an offence. If it were to satisfy or serve the flesh, and for outward glory, we see how easily great sums are expended, and huge buildings are raised. And I think scarce any age of our Ancestors, hath equalled ours. But when we do so much for ourselves, and so easily, so little and so hardly for God, doth not this show, that the root of profaneness, and contempt of God is too much watered, and the root of Grace too much starved and pined? But let us fear this building of our own houses with the contempt of God and his houses; for he hath blasted it with a judgement, and his own mouth hath told it us. 
Haggai. 1.  Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the Prophet, saying: Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways. And again, Consider your ways. You looked for much, and lo it came to little, and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it: why, saith the Lord of Hosts? Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house. Wherefore that the Church spiritual, which is the house of God, and the Church material, which is the house of the hosue of God, may be edified and built up, yea that all good fruits, even all good works may prosper and increase; let not the root of profaneness starve and keep down the root of holiness: for he that thus wageth war against good works, by killing the root of them, putteth away from himself the name of a Christian, and puts on the title of a Libertine. Fourthly, it is a thing most fearful, and followed with infinite misery: For they that fight against the grace of the spirit, fight against the spirit whose grace it is. So when the Prophets were resisted by the jews in whom God's spirit instructed, and spoke, S. Steven saith, 
Nehem. 9 20. 30. Act. 7.  Ye do always resist the holy Ghost. And S. Peter most plainly; The spirit of glory, 
1 Pet. 4. 14.  and of God resteth upon you, which on their part is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Behold a fearful thing, with which Gamaliel affrighted the hardhearted, and stiffnecked jews: 
Act. 5. 39  Lest ye be found to fight against God: For when the pot will fight with the Potter, we know, it can expect no end, but breaking in pieces: 
Psal. 2. 9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of Iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel. Wherefore kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way. Kiss the spirit of the Son, by which spirit he kisseth the souls of those that love him, and are loved of him. This is the way to eternal happiness and salvation. But if in stead of kissing, you kick against his Spirit, be ye sure ye shall perish from the way of salvation. For holiness is the way to happiness; and if we resist the spirit by which men are sanctified, ye put from you the Author of that holiness, by which we walk to happiness. It is a prayer of our Church, That our life may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to God's eternal joy. Wherefore if pureness and holiness be the way to eternal joy, why dost thou hate & stop up the way, that leads to eternal joy? Surely if thou stop up this way to thyself and others, there remains no other way for thee, but that broad way which leadeth to eternal destruction. Behold the end of God's enemies; wherefore fear ye also, Lest ye be found fighters against God: and remember, that when you call Saints Puritans, you are God's enemies, and the titles which follow that, are children of wrath, and sons of perdition.  
But, though it be a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, 
2 Thess. 1. 6. 7.  yet to you that are troubled, rest shall be with the rest of the Saints, when the Lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven. And in the mean time follow the example of the same Lord jesus: pity their ignorance, and out of that pity pray for them, 
Luk. 23. 34.  Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. If a man distracted do rail on thee, thou art more sorry for him, than for thyself: Do the like in a case not unlike. Do according to thy own knowledge, and not according to his ignorance. Secondly, know the Devils aim in it, and then thou art safe. His aim is to take thy holiness from thee, and to quench the spirit, or some fruits of the spirit. Be thou most careful to keep, what he is most careful to take away; for be thou sure, that is a most precious jewel which thy greatest enemy seeks most to take from thee. Thy enemy plainly tells thee the worth of it, by his endeavours to steal it: Wherefore let his malice be a very motive to keep that pureness & holiness which his malice setteth at so high a price. Thirdly, understand the devil's language, & thou mayst be very well pleased: for in the Devil's language a saint is a Puritan. Wherefore know, that when for so me good work, he calls thee Puritan, understand, that in his language he calleth thee Saint: 
See More Medit.  wherefore let this turn to thee for a testimonial, that even thy enemies being judges, thou art such a one as is truly honourable here in earth, & shall eternally be honoured hereafter in heaven. 
Matt. 5. 1.  For, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  
As for other sins, wherewith this Land is pressed down, I wish they were so invisible, that men should need to look into books to find them. It may not be doubted, but where such a bitter root of profaneness and irreligion prevaileth so strongly, the cursed fruits of it are too plentiful. But men bend not their minds to that counsel of God, 
Hag. 1.  Consider your ways. Yea, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, hath so infected men's judgements with a carnal wisdom, that they look only for good and evil in outward and carnal things. If those things go well, all is well. And even for this very cause, doth God punish us in outward things, that by the evils which we regard, we may be brought to take notice of the evils which we regard not. For though the carnal man do not see sin to be evil, but only thinks that to be evil which he feels, yet that evil which he sees not, is the cause of the evil which he feels. For there is an evil way of sin, which draws on the evils of judgement; 
jonah. 3. 10  and as they come together, so they go together: For when man turns from the evil way by repentance, God turns from▪ the evil which he said he would do, and doth it not. But of these evils of sin I have often spoken, and brought them before men's eyes: but I pray God to anoint our eyes with that eye-salue of his spirit, by which spiritual things are seen and discerned, that rightly seeing our sins and rightly judging them, we may escape the judgements of God. 
All should advance this repentance. And first be Magitrate.   
19 From the sins to be repent of; we pass to the persons that ought to be principal Agents or Aduancers of Repentance. 
Oil of Sc. Sect. 8. & 9  It hath been formerly noted, that it belongeth to all, and among all, chief to the chiefest, by whom this duty may be best communicated to all. And so notice was first taken of the Magistrate, as being first in Eminence.  
And indeed the supreme Magistrate, overspreading all his people with a general Authority, most fitly enjoineth, and spreadeth out a general humiliation. Therefore we read that Kings were the Ordainers of general Fasts; & Fasts being by them made general, have produced general Blessings. And therefore is the Fast itself a great benefit, bestowed by the Prince on his Subjects; it being a general Summons to Repentance and Humiliation, whereby the Evils and Miseries which lie upon the people may be taken away and turned into Blessings. Yea, what greater benefit can there be, than to bestow that greatest and highest Remedy? which is able to cure a people, though sick at heart; yea, when the usual Remedies are sick themselves, it is able to cure them: and from thenceforth themselves being cured, they are able to cure us. And here I cannot but extol the favour of God to this Nation, and the goodness of our gracious King to his Subjects, who in the straits and sufferings of this people, gave them this chief & sovereign Remedy. A gift, how ever carnal men may esteem it, of principal value, and highest Consequence to a Nation labouring in an Agony, under the judgements of God. For as the greatest Tyranny is expressed in that Character of jeroboam, He made Israel to sin; 
1. King. 15. 30.  since he that made Israel to sin, 
2. King. 17. 22. 23.  made Israel to perish: so is it the greatest Mercy and Goodness of a Prince to draw the people from sin, by calling them to Repentance. For being turned from sin, the perishing which attendeth sin is also turned away. By this means did the King of Nineveh more good to his Subjects, than all his Treasures, all his policies, and all the power of a City of three days journey, could have done for them. For when God who is a spirit, comes to fight with a Nation, those carnal weapons are too gross wherewith to fight against a spirit; but spiritual weapons can only serve the turn in a spiritual warfare. But we need not to travel fare, either to ancient times or foreign places, to show the benefits and blessings, which a King procureth to his people by calling them unto public Humiliation: for even these late acts of Humiliation which have been performed by the Decree of our Sovereign, have been followed with immediate blessings, even blessings that follow them so close, that they do more than point at their Causes; 
See more particular observation of these blessings. Sect. 22.  for they do touch them, and go hand in hand with them. Yea these blessings were affixed to them, as the Seals of the most High; whereby they were approved that are past, and others are invited for the time to come. And as the public Command of Humiliation, sent forth by the Magistrate, doth make way for a Blessing upon his people: so also doth his particular Repentance and Prayer. For even the particular virtues of a Prince are general benefits. For as when a Prince doth some great sin, God may break in by that sin, upon the sins of the people: so the Repentance and Prayer of a Prince, may stand in the breach, and divert the judgements either broken in, or ready to break in upon the people. There is a precedent of both in King David: for upon the occasion of his sin in numbering the people, the plague broke in upon Israel. And again, by his humiliation and prayer, God stayed the plague from breaking in upon judah and jerusalem. And indeed this Story teacheth Princes, by the example of a King according to the heart of the King of kings, 
2. Sam. 24. 17.  in public judgements, especially to look to their own sins, and to say with David, It is I that have sinned, but these sheep what have they done? As on the other side it teacheth the people especially to look on their own sins, since we see by this example, that the sins of the people may be the occasions of the sins of the Prince, and of those judgements that follow them. And thus the precious ointment of saving Health, beginning to be poured on the head, may drop down even to the skirts of his garments: and by the favour of God, it may be truly said of the Anointed of the Lord; 
Lam. 4. 20.  Under his shadow we shall live.  
20 A second advancer of humiliation and repentance, 
A second advancer of Repentance is the Minister.  is the Minister; and he should advance it both in public and particular, by his function, and by his life. And surely there are many that do both, and are like john Baptist, who was both a burning and a shining light. Inwardly burning with that heavenly fire, wherewith the spirit baptizeth; from that fire shineth forth the light, both of doctrine and life. And for these we own great thankes to the Lord of the Harvest, that hath sent forth such labourers into his harvest. For these also with Moses, 
Psal. 106. 23.  stand in the breach, and keep out the judgements of God, and that with violence. For there is no small might in a true Prophet of God to defend a Nation from the judgements of God: for if a Prophet and a King may be believed when they speak of such Prophets, 
2. King. 2. 12.  Elisha saith it of Eliiah, 
2. King. 13. 14.  and joash saith the same of Elisha. So that the increase of these, are both a sign and cause of safety to a Nation: and the diminishing of these, a sign and cause of ruin and desolation. For what were those times when there was no peace to him that went out, 
2. Chro. 15.  nor to him that came in, but when Israel was without a teaching Priest? Wherefore to those Elders that doubly build, by life and doctrine, there belongs justly double honour; and indeed by their twofold building, there ariseth a twofold safety, both to Church and Commonwealth. And as it is a pleasant & just thing, that to the skilful builders of this twofold work there should be double honour; so it is a pleasant & good sight, to see those that have this double honour, to do this twofold work. And first for the public; It was very comely to see the foremost is honour, to march in the head of the troop in the late humiliation, which was a holy war against the judgements of God. A right reverend Father and a reverend Deane dividing the day, and the works of the day, both prayer and preaching, give encouragement to the exercises of the day. And I hope that more places than one are not without patterns of spiritual Captains, that did lead forth their soldiers into this spiritual warfare. For it is a hopeful and comfortable thing, when there is a zeal and fervency in this work of Reconciliation, and if it be taken to heart as a thing in earnest, and especially by the Priesthood. For when God stirreth up the Priests to weep between the Porch and the Altar, and to say: Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine Heritage to reproach, 
joel. 2. 17. 18.  he heareth that which is spoken by his own stirring and motion: And so it follows; Then will the LORD be jealous for his Land, and pity his people. But if any man withdraw himself, the sick soul of an afflicted Church or Commonwealth, can have no pleasure in him, nor profit by him. He that withdraws himself from saving his flock by public endeavours, (even in these works of Humiliation) and in his personal sanctity, this man seems to be a trespasser, by destroying that which he ought to have built. And for the late solemnities, it is a grief and loss, if any able man, should out of coldness of zeal, or love of ease, perform the service of those days, with that which cost him nothing. Even the obdurate jews, when they saw Paul and Barnabas in the Synagogue, they called upon them for a word of exhortation. I deny not the Scriptures which allow the public reading of the Scriptures, neither do I detract from the worth and value of that which Authority sets forth, derived from Scripture; But withal, I know, that when Christ ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men, and the gifts which he gave, were given for the edification of the Church: And I do not know, yea I believe not, that it was the intent of men of higher place and authority, by their pains, and industry, to exclude the endeavours and industry, of those of lower place, or that they did labour, that these might take their case. An able Minister resident on his flock, can apply the present work of humiliation, to the sins and sicknesses of his flock, which in every flock, being somewhat different, it is impossible so to comprehend them all in general exhortations, that the particular shepherd, may not yet have something left to say, that may particularly concern the flock, whereof God hath made him overseer. Surely if preaching in season and out of season be enjoined, this time must needs be one of them, and I take it, in season. For this day, should be a day of zeal, of contending and striving with God; a day wherein the hearts of men should be torn and broken, that from broken hearts, there may ascend unto God the sweet and acceptable sacrifice of Invocation & Prayer. Now the zeal of the Minister, expressed both in his labour for the Word, & in the Word for which he labours, provoketh & enkindleth the zeal of his people. And the word of God being applied to the root of those very sins, wherewith a flock is overgrown, it is like a plough to turn up those sins by the roots, and to break up the fallow ground wherein they lay, and so to make broken hearts, which only can offer up that acceptable sacrifice.  
And now for private practice of holiness, and edifying by conversation without the word, I wish there were no cause for God to say, I have a few things against thee. 
Reu. 2. 14. 20.  And I wish they were so few, that few words needed to be said. But if they be not so few, though speaking may be offensive, yet silence is more dangerous. Wounds indeed do pain when they are touched by the Healer, but they kill if they be not touched. And there is no comparison between the offence that may be taken by opening a sore in the cure of it, and that which the sore gives, when it opens itself to the world by visible corruption. And then there is on this side also an odds and advantage of mortal danger. For we know that whereof it is said, it cannot long stand without, which is ruinous within. But if not of this time, yet let me speak of S. Paul's time. 
Phil. 3. 18.  There were some in that time, of whom he spoke weeping: And surely if there be such at this time, he that speaks duly, cannot speak without mourning. For is it not a lamentable thing to hear a good fellow, complain of good fellowship, as if he were put down in his own profession? But I am afraid of Gath and Ashkelon: Only I wish, that such were so known, that they might not be known, and that this Nail may be so fastened by the masters of the assemblies, that if the children hold their peace, the stones do not speak.  
But to the Adversary I say, What is the chaff to the where? She which is called barren, and seems to them to have no husband, because her husband is in heaven, hath borne more children, than she that hath an husband on earth. 
Psal. 68 11.  God gave the Word, and great was the assembly of Preachers. Preachers, 
Deut. 33. 9  that have observed thy word, and kept thy Covenant; That teach jacob thy judgements, and Israel thy law.  
And let these holy Levites, and Ministers of the living God, never leave calling on the Father of mercy, and God of all consolation, until by his mercy they do bind the hands of his justice, so that justice itself be enforced to ask leave of them to punish, and to say, Let me alone. 
Exod. 32. 10.  Thus did Moses that excellent Levite, prevail upon God for the Israelites, when they had committed that horrible sin of Idolatry in the golden Calf. For upon the prayer of Moses, challenging God for his free goodness, by which he freely began to be good unto them; for his Names sake which should be dishonoured among the Egyptians; for his Oaths sake, made to their fathers, to be merciful to them; 
Vers. 14.  The Lord repent of the evil which he thought to do unto them. And so did another Levite, even blessed Samuel; for when Israel had sinned, and was therefore in fear of the Philistims, 
1 Sum. 7. 8. 9  Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And the power of such prayers is so prevalent, that God himself makes it the sign of a desperate estate, when a Nation is come to that point, 
jer. 15. 1.  that Moses and Samuel will not be heard. Wherefore for Zions' sake let them not hold their peace, yea for their own sakes also: for besides their own interest in the common good, or evil, it is a sin in them not to pray for the people; therefore Samuel saith, 
1 Sam. 12. 23.  God forbidden that I should sinne against the Lord, in ceasing to pray for you.  
20. But because the same Samuel, 
Thirdly, the people must repent, if the people will be saved. ver. 24. 25.  who accounts it a sin not to pray for the people, yet hath little hope of his prayers except the people repent; he addeth, Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: but if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed. For though prayers of Prophets and Priests be powerful with God to draw down his mercy, yet there is no usual course of mercy to be expected by a sinful and impenitent Nation. We read and hear, that though God show a great mercy, even mercy unto thousands, yet it is on them that love him, 
Luk. 1. 50.  and keep his commandments: And the mercy of God, is upon them that fear him from generation to generation. Therefore before Samuel undertakes to offer sacrifice and prayer for Israel, he speaks unto Israel, to put away their sins, to prepare their hearts unto the Lord, and to serve him only: And when they had done so, and with fasting acknowledged their sins, 
1 Sam. 7. 3. etc.  than Samuel prayed, and the prayer of Samuel was heard, and the Lord sent them a deliverance from heaven. Wherefore let not the people think to cast all on the Ministers, and imagine that good men in the Ministry, will serve to save bad men in the Laity. But let them strive to be such by repentance and holiness, that the prayers of the Ministry may be heard for their preservation. For otherwise by their sins they bind the hands of the Ministers, which they desire should be lifted up for them, yea they cause God both to stop his own ears, and the mouths of the Ministers. For when they love to wander, and refrain not their feet from evil, then comes forth that fearful command; 
jer. 7. 16.  Pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. And for their own prayer, that will not be heard, though it come with fasting; which also is, and hath been otherwise an advancer of undeniable prayer: 
jer. 14. 11. 12.  When they fast I will not hear their cry.  
Wherefore it concerns the people by turning from their sins, to make themselves capable of the prayers of their Ministers, and not to urge them to speak, by entreaties, and to stop their mouths by sins. Let every particular man search his particular sins, according to directions already given; and especially when he feels any grief, or sees any terror, let them feel and behold it as a spur to repentance. So shall lesser judgements keep off the greater; it being a great mercy of God to chastise with rods, to save punishing with Scorpions, and a great wisdom in man, to make a right use of this mercy. Wherefore let the Land mourn for their sins, that it mourn not for an utter desolation. All the families together, 
Zach. 12. 12 & 13. 1.  and every family apart, and every man apart: And then in that day there shall be a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, to wash them away, and the judgements that follow them.  
But howsoever the multitude do, 
Num. 11. 4.  who most commonly are like the old mixed multitude, rather given to murmuring when their lusts are unsatisfied, than to turning unto him that smites them; 
Esay 9 13.  let the mourners that are marked, 
Ezek. 9 4.  do the office for which they are marked. If they reply, that they are few, and their fewness doth discourage them: it may be answered, The fewer they are, the more they should mourn, to supply that mourning which is wanting in others; yea to mourn for that want. Again, thou mayst be the man that may make up the ten, the twenty, or thirty, even that set number which may save a Sodom, a sinful City, or Kingdom: yea sometimes one man may stand in a gap, and be the repairer of a breach. Amos 
Amos 7.  was a man subject to infirmities as we are, and he was but one, yet a judgement being denounced when he said, O Lord, forgive I beseech thee, by whom shall jacob arise, for he is small? Then, the Lord repent for this, It shall not be, saith the Lord. Lastly, though thou seem to thyself to be alone, and with Elias thou knowest no more, yet with Elias thou mayest be deceived, 
1. King 1. 6 10. 18.  and there may be seven thousand which thou knowest not, that have not bowed their knee to Baal; and thy mourning, joined to the mourning of that remnant which the Lord hath left, 
Esay 1. 9  may save us from being like unto Sodom and Gomorrha. Howsoever, do thy part; let the Soldier of Christ be found in his place, even when judgements are coming: If thou save not all, thou shalt be sure to save thyself; perchance temporally, 
jer. 1. 19 & 39 18.  without doubt eternally.  
And now to sum up all, I wish that both Magistrate, Minister and people may go so throughly with the truth of repentance, that sins and sinfulness being put off, the judgements that cleave unto them may also be put off. And because this is not done but by putting on the spirit of Christ jesus, by the power whereof the kingdom of Satan is put down, and the kingdom of Christ erected; I pray that we may come to this point of putting on the spirit of Christ jesus. All the rest is but the form of godliness, but in the spirit of Christ is the life of godliness: & howsoever men may flatter themselves, they are not Christians except they be one spirit with Christ jesus. For CHRIST being called 
Rom. 8. 9  Christ because he is anointed 
1. Cor. 6. 17  above his fellows with the 
Psal. 45. 7.  spirit without measure, 
Cant. 1. 3.  we are truly to be called Christians by being anointed with the same spirit according to our measure. But no anointing, no true Christianity. But if this ointment dwell in us, 
1. joh. 2. 27.  then have we Christ jesus, and with him all the promises of God; 
2. Cor. 1. 20 21.  for in Christ jesus all the promises of God are Yea and Amen. 
Psal. 78. 49.  Then have we power to wrestle and overthrew the principalities and powers which are often the Inflicters of the judgements of God, and continually the Tempter's, provoking us to those sins, for which judgements are inflicted. For it is the Spirit of Christ only that settles a Church, and makes it a pillar of Truth, unremovable by Satan. And most commonly where a Church is thus settled, the Nation is also settled which contains such a Church; and the Devil is not suffered to prevail against the later, because of the former. But when a Church grows spiritually cold, & turns from the life and heart of godliness to an outside of profession, than God grows cold to us in love; but in wrath he grows hot against us. If a Nation turn from the spirit to the flesh, though they be as great as the giants in the old world, and as the Anakims' in the new; yet they are but great pieces of flesh, and an overflowing flood will destroy the one, and a destroying sword will cut off the other. When the days of persecution were ended, we received the word with joy in the holy Ghost; we did then run well, who doth let us from running so still? Yea then God mightily prospered us, and made his own word good unto us, 
2. Chro. 15. 2.  The Lord is with you, while ye be with him. Why then should we not be still with him, as at first, that he as at first may still be with us? Those that are of God, the word and wisdom of God should move them; for that saith to them, 
jer. 6. 16.  Inquire the old way, and, Remember from whence thou art fallen, 
Reu. 2. 5.  and repent. And those that are of the world the wisdom of the world should move; for thus saith their Oracle. It is more clear than the day, 
Disc. upon Livy lib. 3. cap. 1.  that such bodies (of Commonwealths &c.) do not endure except they be renewed; and the manner whereby to renew them, is to bring them back to their beginnings. And then coming to Religion, whereof he discourseth under the name of Sects, he saith, It is manifest that such renewings are necessary, even by experiments in our Religion. And indeed by his own Rule, if Religion decay, a Kingdom and Commonwealth will decay: therefore he adviseth, 
lib. 1. c. 12.  He that will maintain a Kingdom in his entireness, must above all take care, that Religion do not decay, and by little and little come to be neglected.  
Thus should Religion be revived, and mainetained in ancient vigour by all. By those that know it truly, because of the goodness which is in it. By those that know it not in the inside, but only some outward good effects of it, because it is good for themselves, if the good of the Kingdom wherein they live, be their good.  
21 The great remedy of Repentance and Conversion being taken down into the hearts and souls of us, 
Upon the foundation of Repentance sure hope of mercy is builded.  I would not doubt, 
Act. 27. 22.  but we should see Paul standing forth again, and hear him saying: I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you. And I speak it not without ground; for God himself hath given us some earnests of this safety. For as the same Paul gave this for the reason of his Encouragement; There stood by me this night the Angel of God: so may I say for a ground of our Comfort; Not only the Angel of God, but the Lord of the Angels hath stood by us in the night of our sufferings and chastisements; and by a manifest grant of our petitions upon humiliation, hath given us good proof that more humiliation may obtain more safety and deliverance. Upon a little humiliation, for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, 
Ezra. 9 8.  to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving. The first Fast was followed with miraculous success. Never a greater pestilence in our greatest City, recorded in these later ages: and I think never so great a pestilence, so soon & so clean swept away. Yea, though the City were not long after thronged with a double meeting, so that it should be thought, that the chambers of death were filled with the living; yet death being commanded to sheathe his sword, could not touch life, though fallen into the arms of it. So death by God's mercy was turned to us, 
Gen. 31. 29.  as Laban toward jacob; though it had a hurtful power, it had no power to hurt us. But when the greatest Pestilence hath thus the speediest end, it is a very wonder, and plainly shows a hand above Nature. And what hand do we find to be the cause of extraordinary changes, but Dextera excelsi, the right hand of the Highest? And if we look below, by what lower means the right hand of the most High hath been moved to make these changes, even to repent of the evil, 
jonah. 3.  which he said he would do, 
joel. 2.  and did it not, we find that Humiliation with Fasting is a principal means. Wherefore this way being taken by us, and this effect following it, what can we think but that by this way, God's mercy came unto us?  
A second blessing following a second Fast, was the stay and turning away of a Famine; And this also was strange and extraordinary, even by a strange and extraordinary change. For the Famine was posting apace towards us, yea it flew on the wings of the clouds, which dropped down death and destruction, by destroying the fruits of the earth. Yet in the very speed of this black Horse, the Fast gave it a stop, and the word of God set that day for a bound to it; And concerning that day, a command came to the clouds, Thus fare shall ye go, and here shall ye stay your destroying waters. For we know, that this very day was the end of that judgement. Now when we see a judgement stop in such a day, what shall we think, but that the work of that day, was the stop of the judgement? For otherwise, that day wherein we were relieved had no more virtue, than the days wherein we were punished. Besides, by both rule & pattern in the Scriptures, we find, that this effect by such causes may be produced. The Scripture saith, 
1 Cor. 11. 31.  If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. God was ready to judge us with a Famine, which is a Fast of necessity; We underwent a voluntary Famine by a voluntary Fast: So the Famine meeting with a Famine, went no farther, but died in it. The business which it should have done, was done, and the end being attained, that which moved to the end, rested. And it is not without pattern, that spiritual works, have bounded the judgements of God with a day. Yea God himself doth call us to set a Mark on that day; and by that, on others that are like it. When the jews for the neglect of a work that tended to God's glory, were punished with poverty and scarcity; yet in that very day wherein they began that work which God required, there was a change of curses into blessings: whereupon God calls upon them; Consider from this day, 
Hag. 2. 18.  and upward; from this day will I bless you.  
Thus by the good hand of God upon us, there hath been a change and deliverance from two of the great scourges, wherewith God professeth that he scourgeth the sinful Nations of the earth. 
Ezek. 14.  And if in two evils he have delivered us, why may we not hope, that he will deliver us in the third? If he have delivered us from the Bear and the Lion, why may we not hope that he will deliver us from a third, though it be as big as Goliath? It is a sure sign, that God's ear is yet open to us; and while his ears are open, there is hope for a Nation: only let us come to make sure this hope to us, by making sure and right steps unto it. A first should be, praise and thanksgiving, for these great salvations which we have already received. It hath been showed before, that by thankfulness for old benefits God is moved to give new, and that where he reapeth plentifully, he will plentifully sow. Therefore we must be thankful for the former, it we will hope, upon sure grounds, to receive the latter; and we must give thankfulness for blessings past, as a pledge and pawn unto God, that he shall not lose his due thankes and praise for benefits to come. And that our thankfulness may be hearty, it must proceed from the love of God; for the true taste of God's goodness in blessings, cannot but much move us to love him whose sweetness we taste. Therefore the Psalmist saith, 
Psal. 116. 1.  I love the Lord, because he hath heard me. And surely true love will bring forth true obedience. Christ who is truth, hath said; If a man love me, he will keep my words. 
joh. 14. 23.  And indeed obedience is the best thankfulness. It is better than the sacrifice of praisein the calves of the lips; But both together are best: For, who so offereth praise, honoureth me, and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, 
Psal. 50. 23.  will I show the salvation of God. Wherefore our Liturgy doth make an entire thanksgiving, for a deliverance from the Pestilence, when it offers the souls and bodies delivered, to be a living sacrifice unto God, and withal praiseth and magnifieth God's mercies in the midst of the Congregation.  
A second step to a sure hope, is perseverance and constancy, in the use of those means by which we attained these blessings already received. The same means to which Gods ear hath been open, it will still be open; yea being now opened already, it is much easier to keep it open, than if it were shut, to open it. Wherefore this door of mercy being open, let us by pressing into it, not only keep it open, but open it wider, until all mercies be obtained, that may heal our miseries. And as repentance and invocation, should by every one particularly, and continually be set on work, to move God to continue and perfect his good work of mercy in us, and upon us, so it is humbly and hearty to be desired, that the same public means, and manner of humiliation may not long be intermitted, until God make his face to shine on this Nation, in a full deliverance, from general troubles, dangers and straits: For why should we leave to seek God by those means, wherein God doth not leave to hear us? And why should we leave to use medicines, as long as there remain diseases? God hath showed us the way how to be heard and healed. Yea he hath assured us of healing this way, by the earnests of health which this way he hath sent unto us: And shall sickness give over the Physician, before the Physician give it over? shall Need be weary of ask and receiving, before Bounty is weary of hearing and giving? O let us not shut up God's mercies against ourselves, before God do shut them up against us, but while the oil of mercy is running, let us by humiliation, repentance and invocation enlarge our vessels, and open our mouths wide, that he may fill them. If God had denied us, the example of the Canaanitish woman would have invited us to seeking, whose faith was commended, and rewarded with a miracle, for importunity after rough denials. But now God hath granted and heard us, were it not a great neglect of God's goodness, and our own happiness, not to go on in speaking? For as it is very fit to be said when the Lord speaketh, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth; so it is fit to be said, when the Lord heareth, Speak servant, for the Lord heareth. 
Gen. 18.  Thus did Abraham, continue praying for Sodom, because God continued hearing, and never left, until he brought the conditions of Sodoms' deliverance to be so easy, that for ten righteous all Sodom might have been spared. And surely if our perseverance in humiliation and prayer shall not stop, it may work the like effect, and so our hope may be sure. 
Rom. 5.  For experience saith the Apostle, breeds hope, and such hope as doth not make ashamed. And if hope be the fruit of experience, surely we had experience that God heareth our prayers, and why then shall we not also have hope that he will hear the like prayers hereafter? The Apostle that teacheth us this fruit of experience in his doctrine, teacheth it also by his practice. For when he hath had experience of God's goodness, he inferreth that trust upon it, which is the ground of things hoped for: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: 
1. Cor. 1. 10.  And now behold his confidence and hope: In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.  
22 Neither may our present lowness, 
Our lowness or the lownes of the Church, may not destroy our hope if ●●yned to ●pen●nce.  or the lowness of those that have reform Religion, and purged it from Idolatry, take away the hope of Recovery: For lowness is the very way to exaltation, and Weakness to Strength. We see here that before St. Paul came to this experience of God's deliverance, from whence he gathers sure hope for deliverance to come, he received in himself the sentence of death. So that a pressing above measure, and such a pressing as makes an impression of the sentence of death, is the way to deliverance. And there are diverse reasons why it should be so. First on God's side: God himself professeth, 
2. Cor. 12. 9  My strength is made perfect in weakness. So that weakness is a fit subject whereon God useth to glorify his strength: therefore weakness may encourage men, if they be like-minded to St. Paul; for hereupon he saith, I will most gladly glory in my infirmities: for when I am weak, then am I strong. He is so fare from being discouraged, that he is encouraged by his weakness, because weakness drawing to it the power of God, becomes stronger than the strength of men without God. He that first brought light out of darkness, and in Christ jesus hath brought life out of death, he goes on commonly to all his great Works in a way of contraries; that one contrary arising out of another, all the honour of the work may be wholly reserved to God, and all eyes turned wholly to him: for there is nothing on earth to look on for a Cause, but a contrary; and that even common Reason will tell plainly, cannot produce his contrary. And this course of God is so usual, that he hath Titles affixed to him, expressing it: God who raised the dead, and, God who brought light out of darkeness, and, God who comforteth the Abject. Again, the Lowness of God's children gives God all the glory in the destruction of their enemies. So as God was glorified in raising up their Lowness, so is he also glorified while by their Lowness he takes down the Height and Pride of the enemy. For the weakness of those who overcome, gives away the glory of overcoming from themselves unto God, who by weakness overcometh power. This God plainly showeth to be a way by which he works out his glory, in that story of Gideon: For as long as Gideons' army had in it the strength of a multitude, the multitude was a hindrance to this glory. For so the victory might have been taken from God, and given to men, because they were many. Therefore he finds fault with his army, as being unfit for his glory, while there was any such number in it, as might possibly take away the glory of the victory from God, to itself. Therefore he saith, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, 
judg. 7.  lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying: Mine own hand hath saved me. Wherefore God pares his army, and makes it fit for his glory, by many diminutions; never leaving until he brought it to so few hundreds, that there was left no ground of glorying in itself, but that he who glorieth, must needs glory in the Lord. The Israelites were kept down by the Egyptians in most cruel slavery and bondage: for they made the Israelites to serve with rigour, 
Exod. 7. 13. & 2. 23.  so that they sighed and cried by reason of their bondage. And when they did but speak for liberty, their burdens were increased, and that so heavily, that they were in mere despair and deadness of heart; so that when Moses told them of freedom, they harkened not unto Moses for 
Exod. 6. 9  anguish of Spirit and for cruel bondage. But for this hopeless and distressed Nation, which had no help nor hope in itself, did God glorify his power upon the pride of Pharaoh, and the strength of Egypt: So that for the victory which God alone gaineth upon the Egyptians for Israel, but without out Israel, jethro duly glorifies him: 
Exod. 18. 11.  Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them. God that taketh down the proud, when there is no help in man to bring them down, getteth to himself the glory of their abasing. It were infinite and endless to produce the patterns and precedents of this kind of working, by which God works out his glory. When Kingdoms and Empires are at the greatest, then GOD takes them down commonly, by low and contemptible means. And so even at the height of the Roman Empire, that Empire was taken down by the Northern people, whom they in contempt did account and call Barbarians. And if it please him, so can he take down the present pride of the Roman Empire: which I especially place in that man of sin, who is the veriest Emperor of Rome; surmounting the other in his own opinion, and in the opinion of his Disciples, as much as the Sun excelleth the Moon in glory. And therefore most blasphemously this title is ascribed to him, The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. But let us remember, that God himself saith, All the Tyees of the Forest shall know, 
Ezek. 17. 24.  that I the Lord have brought down the high Tree, have exalted the low Tree, have dried up the green Tree, and have made the dry Tree to flourish, I the Lord have spoken, and have done it. Wherefore let Israel trust and hope in the Lord, even hope against hope, that though they be humbled even to the earth, and Pharaoh mount up with his pride to heaven, and against heaven, saying, who is the Lord? yet the Lord will bring Israel out of Egypt, and will triumph over Egypt and Pharaoh with a mighty power, and outstretched arm: So shall Israel say; Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power, thy right hand, O Lord, 
Exod. 15. 6. ●.  hath dashed in pieces the Enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee. Yea much people in Heaven shall say: Alleluia, Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power 
Reu. 19 1. 2.  unto the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgements: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And surely great glory must needs arise unto God both from heaven & earth, when God by his Church, being low and little, judgeth the great Whore. Little and weak things when they produce great effects, it plainly appears that they have borrowed power from elsewhere: and from whom can the creature borrow power, but of the Creator, the fountain of power? whose weakness, that is, whose least power being added to the creature, 
1. Cor. 1. 25  is stronger than men, even than all the strength of men. God and three hundred are able to overcome an Host, 
judg. 6. & 7.  that are like Grasshoppers for multitude: yea God and Israel, only by walking about a town, and fight with no other weapons but Trumpets of Rams horns, can make the strength of jericho to fall before them. God and a woman, even Deborah, can judge Israel, and deliver them from a King that hath nine hundred chariots of Iron. But when by weakness God overcometh strength, it cannot be the strength of weakness that overcometh, but the strength of God. Therefore all glorying here also is excluded from man, and referred unto God. And accordingly Deborah rightly gives God the glory, saying; 
judg. 5. 13.  The Lord made me have dominion over the Mighty.  
Secondly, God suffers his Church to be low and weak, before he exalt it, in regard of Man. And first we may take notice, that in the lowness of the Church God hath an eye, and levels as it were at the very enemies of the Church; which are indeed his own enemies. For by the lowness & weakness of the Church, 
judg. 4. 7.  he draws out these enemies, unto a full and final overthrow. He encourageth and hardeneth them to a full adventure in a war against God, that God may fully be avenged of them, and fully triumph over them. The Lord knoweth, that the distressed estate of the Church, doth engage their enemies in great and full prosecutions of them, that so coming forth with their whole forces to overthrew the Church, their whole forces may be overthrown. The Lord himself showeth us this his dispensation; For he professeth, that therefore he brought Israel into straits, between the Mountains and the Red Sea, because Pharaoh will say, 
Exod. 14.  they are entangled in the Land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaohs heart (saith the Lord) that he shall follow after them, and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host. When the men of Israel have once been smitten by the men of Ai, and do the second time flee before them, 
josh. 8. 5. 6. 7.  They will come out after us (saith joshua) till we have drawn, (or pulled) them from the City: Then shall ye rise up from the Ambush, and seize upon the City, for the Lord your God hath delivered it into your hand. By this bait of infirmity, doth God draw his enemies to open their mouths to swallow the Church, but then the hook of Omnipotence that lieth hid under it, taketh and killeth them. And even now in the distress of God's Army we see that done which john saw before would be done; I saw the Beast, 
Reu. 19 19 20.  and the Kings of the earth, and their Armies gathered together, to make war against him that sat on the horse, & against his army. And why should we not hope to see that event, which john also saw following this gathering together? And the Beast was taken, and with him the false Prophet. A second regard hath God to men in this lowness of the Church, and that is a regard to the Church itself. For when God doth prepare a glorious victory for his Church, his Church must be duly prepared for the receiving of this victory. And this lowness doth diversely prepare her. First, it calls her to the life of faith; to live by faith, and not by sight. For when visible things fail her, then is she forced to run by faith to things invisible: when that fails her which she sees, than she clears up the eye of faith, that she may have some evidence of things not seen. 
Heb. 11.  So St. Paul saith of the widow, 
1. Tim. 5▪ 5.  that being desolate she trusteth in God. And as soon as jehosaphat hath said: We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do: it presently follows, 
2. Chro. 20. 12.  But our eyes are on thee. 
2. Cor. 1.  And St. Paul having received the sentence of death, trusteth in God that raiseth the dead. Thus when the outward eye seethe no help in the creature, the inward eye of faith is awaked to look only on the Creator. And indeed nothing but faith is fit to receive a miraculous Mercy. When God makes bare his Arm in some great and wonderful deliverance, he will have his people by faith to look up to this arm, and wholly to depend on it. Therefore Christ jesus, when he is ready to bestow a miraculous healing, he usually calleth for faith to receive it. And even now by the distress of the Church, doth God call the Church to this faith. And no question if by this faith we be duly prepared, for the great work of God's mercy in the deliverance of the Church, we shall hear that gracious answer which the faithful used to receive: Go in peace, thy Faith hath saved thee. Lastly, by the weakness of the Church God calls the Church to Repentance, and so prepareth her for victory. He calls her by the fire of affliction from drosfe to purity, from wantonness to the grace of God, from the form of godliness to the power thereof. There grows much dross of carnality about a Church in the time of ease, and men turn the grace of God into wantonness. There is wanton living, & wanton preaching, and wanton hearing. Men play with Religion, and are not in earnest when they are about religious things. Yea, when they have formally & falsely done religious things, they fall hearty to things of the world; the false profession of true Religion, being not much unlike the profession of a false worship; the consequence whereof is this, 
Exod. 32. 6.  The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. But is such a Church fit for a glorious and miraculous deliverance? Can we expect that God should make bare his arm to save a Luxurious, a Gluttonous, a Drunken Congregation: No, it must be purged from these, and made white, before God will deliver it, and crown it with victory. Therefore by this 
Esa. 27. 9  affliction shall the jiniquitie of jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away their sin. The Church is scoured and purged by affliction, and being purged then may she hear, 
verse. ●.  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? For the judgement that gins with the house of God but as a fiery trial, 
1. Pet. 4. 12. 17.  shall end with the sinners and unrighteous like a consuming fire. When the first appeareth more pure & glorious, the second shall not appear at all. Wherefore if we by our Corrections, the Church of France by her late Chastisements, and Germany by her present Scourge, would turn to him that smites them, by turning from their sins to his righteousness, surely, 
Psal. 112.  to the righteous light should arise in the midst of darkness. 
Esa 32. 17  For the work of Righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of Righteousness quietness & assurance for ever. 
Esa. 33. 1.  And then withal follows a Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoilt; when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. Let God then have of his Church the end of his chastisements, even true, spiritual and sincere holiness, and then the chastisements of his Church will end. But then will he begin with the enemies of his Church: he will awake as a Giant refreshed with wine. 
Psal. 2. 5.  He shall speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure: 
Esa. 41. 12.  Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. And thus while the Church by her lowness is brought to purity, purity brings her to victory.  
FINIS.