SCOTLAND'S WARNING, Or a Treatise of Fasting, Containing a Declaration of the causes of the solemn Fast, endited to be kept in all the Churches of Scotland, the third and fourth Sundays of this instant Month of May Anno 1628. & the Week days betwixt them, as they may be goodly keeped in Towns. Together with a Direction how to proceed in the Religious Observation of any solemn Fast. Written at the appointment of Superiors, By Mr. W. STRUTHER, Preacher of the Gospel at EDINBURGH.  
Printed at Edinburgh, by the Heirs of Andro Hart. Anno Dom. 1628.   
jeremiah. 36. 5. 6. 7. 
And jeremiah said unto Baruch, I am shut up, I cannot go into the house of the Lord. Therefore go thou, and read in the roll which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the ears of the people, in the Lord's House upon the Fasting day, and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all juda, that come out of their Cities.  
It may be they present their Supplications before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: For great is the anger and wrath that the Lord hath pronounced against this Place.  2. Chron. 34. 27. 28. Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this Place, and against the Inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst ren● thy clothes and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy Fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this Place, and upon the Inhabitants of the same:  

SCOTLAND'S WARNING: Or a Treatise of Fasting, Containing a Declaration of the causes of the solemn Fast, endited to be keeped in all the Churches of Scotland.  
IT is the duty of the LORDS 
1.  Watchmen, whom he hath set on the Walls of jerusalem, Ezech. 3. 33. To consider diligently both the estate of it within, and the dangers imminent from without: And according as they see, to give faithful and tymous advertisement to the people, Habac. 2. 1. Isa. 21. 8. That thereby they may both deliver their own Souls and direct the people by speedy Repentance, to prevent the approaching wrath.  
This their Calling craveth; for they stand betwixt God and his people, as the Interpreters of his will to them. job. 33. 23. And as their Remembrancers to God, to present them and their necessities to him continually. Isa. 62. 6. 7. He calleth them up to the Mountain to see further than other, and (beside their gifts ând graces, as Christians) giveth them a Pastoral eye to see, and a pastoral heart to consider, and a pastoral mouth to declare what they see and consider.  
This also he commandeth them under a most heavy pain. Son of man, I have set thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, & warn them from me: When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his sin, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Ezech. 3. 17. 33. 7. 8.  
And God commnendeth this as wisdom in Pastors according to his heart, Who is the wise man to understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it? for what the Land perished. jer. 9 12.  
Upon these considerations, the Clergy of 
2.  this ●and, taking to heart the Estate of the Church of God, both in this Kingdom and other reformed Countries, have thought it necessary, (Suppreme authority commanding also the same) That all the Congregations of this Land keep a solemn and public Fast, the third and fourth Sundays of this instant Month of May, and the week days betwixt these two Sabbaths: To entreat GOD, in all humility, and repentance for pardon of our sins, and for averting of his just wrath, where it is already begun, and to hold it off these who are threatened with it.  
And for the better informing of every one in the equity & necessity of that religious work of Fasting and Prayer, and their better stirring up thereunto: The just and weighty causes thereof are to be considered, which may be reduced to these heads. 
4.   
1. First the most lamentable estate of the reformed Churches of Germany, and other Countries in Europe: Where the Gospel did shine, and God's worship was exercised fruitfully to his glory: But now by the cruelty of the prevailing Papists, fearful desolation is wrought in these places, GOD'S Saints bereft of their lives, their blood spilt as water in the streets, their women shamefully abused, their goods taken from them: And the estate of them who have escaped the rage of the sword, worse than the slain. Their liberties lost and themselves either driven from their dwellings or compelled to forsake their God & Religion, & take themselves to Romish Idolatry, or to banishment. And under the name of an Imperial reformation, there is nothing but a Godless deformation, setting up the abomination of ignorance, and error where the light hath been.  
How many Provinces sometimes pleasant, in a peaceable professing of the Truth, as the Paradise of God, are now turned in a wilderness: And the Houses of God prepared sometime on the top of the Mountains, and exalted above the Hills, whereunto people did flow, are destroyed: And the Lords displayed banner, under which many did merch in comely order, is cast down, & many mothers in Israel, famous Colleges and Universities are scattered, and the abomination of desolation erected in them.  
So we may say with the Prophet, Come, & behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath wrought in the Earth. Psal. 16. 8. The Heathen are come in the inheritance of the Lord, his holy Temple have they defiled, and made jerusalem heaps of stones: The dead bodies of God's Saints have they given to be meat to the Fowls of heaven▪ and the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth: Their blood have they shed as water about jerúsalem, and there was none to bury them: They have devoured jacob, and made his dwelling place waste. Psal 79. 1. 3. 4.  
God hath forsaken the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among them: He delivered his strength in captivity, and his glory in the enemy's hand. Psal. 78. 61.  
And we may lament with jeremy. How doth the City remain solitary, that was full of people? She is a widow: She that was great among the Nations, And Princess among the Province is made tributary. And we may wish with that same Prophet, Oh, that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a Fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the Daughter of my people. jerem. 9 1 
5.   
This work is a part of Antichrists persecution, for now he is both breathing threatenings & slaughter, against the reformed Churches, and executeth his cruelty against them, because of their obedience to God's voice in coming out of Babel, and that according to the bloody decrees of the Counsel of Trent. For after that Satan had for a long space vented his first property of lying by Antichrist his first borne involuing and holding these Western places of Europe under the errors of a false Religion: And seeing that Manger his malice, God in the appointed time brought in the Light of the Gospel, and discovered that darkness: Then he took him to his other property and practice of blood, to maintain by force his discovered Heresies: And he set Antichrist and his supposts to work, to put out the Light of the Gospel, in destroying the professors of it.  
So the indyting of the Counsel of Trent bears: Ad reformandum Ecclesiam & exstirpandas Heresies, To reform the Kirke, and root out Heresies; That is to say in the Roman sense, To confirm and establish the deformities and corruptions of their Church, and root out the Truth, which God hath brought in again by the Gospel. And from that time, he hath sent out his Emissaries, Jesuits and other Locusts from the bottomless pit, to stir up the Kings of the Earth to fight against the Lamb: This is the quarrel now debated in Europe.  
And albeit he hath cast in the mixture of 
6.  civil respects, in rights to Kingdoms and Dignities, and such like, to blind the eyes of the simple, as to make them believe that all these wars are only for civil and not for Sacred things: Yet sure it is, that all this matter is directed and sweyed by the Pope: For his main end is to root out the Gospel, and re-establish his false Religion: His purpose serveth to the end of his associate Kings & Princes, and their power serveth his end. As they plot and work jointly in the work, so they share in the end for their several advantage: For the Countries subdued, fall as a prey and a reward to the enlarging of Prince's Dominions, and therein Idolatry is established, as the Pope's recompense.  
Beside, what ever be the mixture of the cause, yet their main intention is manifest from themselves: For one of them in his alarm to this war, stirreth up the Emperor to destroy the Protestants, as Moses did the Moabits: And if he did not so, his life should go for their life, as Achabs' for the King of Syria. Sciopp. Classicum belli Sacri. cap. 1. 2. 18.  
Next, their Cardinals consulting, how to restore their Church to her ancient integrity advised the Pope, that there was no better way to do it, than by prosecuting this war, to the rooting out of Protestants. Aphorisml. Cardinal. Anno 1623. And for this end, a new order is instituted called the sodality of the Christian defence, that is to say, of Antichristian offence of the Protestants, Cancel. Hispani. Consid. 1.  
This course as others of the like stamp of the mystery of iniquity is drawn deeply, for now Antichrist under the Name of Christ's Vicar pursueth Christ; under the Colours & banners of the Cross of Christ he destroyeth the doctrine of the Cross: Under name of the Church, he oppresseth the true Church: Under the name of the pretended Verity, he rooteth out the Truth of God, to establish his own heresy: And under the name of an old Religion, he setteth up a new upstart Religion. This is judas his betraying of Christ with an Hail Master: When his pretended Vicar turneth all his usurped power to the destruction of his Kingdom: The Titles and Names that of old were the notes of the Apostolic Church, are claimed now of the Antichristian Synagogue, and made signs for the persecution of the Church of Christ.  
God doth so afflict his Church, not for her 
7.  Religion, but for the abuse of it: He hath called us out of Babel, and we have obeyed his voice in coming out, and have undertaken to walk in the Light of God; but we have contemned that Light, and in the midst of it brought out the works of darkness: Sin is grievous in every person, time, and place, but most grievous in the Church, in the time of so clear a Light: And where ever men sin, they are in God's sight, but his eye in a more particular manner is over his Church.  
A Father is angry at faults in his servant, but more angry at them in his Son: The more liberal and bountiful God is to a people, the greater is their sin, and heavier shall be their judgement Woe to thee Chorazin, woe to thee Bethsaida, for if the great works which were done in you, had been done in Tyrus and Sydon, they had repent long ago in sackcloth and ashes: But I say to you it shall be more easy for Tyrus and Sydon at the last day than for you. Matth. 11. 21. 22. And it is a strange form of reasoning with Israel, You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth sayeth the Lord: Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities. Amos. 3. 2.  
God may justly compleane of us, as he did of the jews. He planted a Vineyard in a fruitful Hill, and fencedit, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the choicest Vines, and built a Tower in the midst of it, and a Winepress in it: And he looked that it should bring forth Grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes: And now, O Inhabitants of jerusalem, and men of judah, judge I pray you between me and my Vine-yard: What could I do more to my Vineyard, than I have done? And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vine-yard, I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste. Esa. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4.  
As he threatened them, so he performed it. He broke down her hedges, so that all that passed by plucked her The wild Boar out of the wood destroyed it, and the wild beasts of the field did eat it up. Psal. 80. 12. 13. For after that he had chastened his people by Edomites, Moabites, Philistims, and other bordering Nations, and they became incurable: In end he chased them out of the Land: And that not at once, but by degrees, for he poured out that wrath first upon the ten Tribes, reserving to himself the Tribe of judah: And when judah was not made wise by the sin and punishment of Ephraim, but jerusalem did justify Samaria by her greater sins, God sent judah also away in captivity to Babylon: And after he had brought them again, and settled them in the pleasant Land, they returned to their old sins, till in end God cast them off altogether.  
Thus God dealt with the jews, and after 
8.  the like manner he is now dealing with the Churches reform, to bring them to amendment in time, that they may eschew a final destruction: Their heavy calamities who are now under that bloody persecution of Antichrist, are clear documents to us in this Land, commanding us in time to turn to God, lest the like or a worse befall us.  
We can no ways compare with these worthy Churches, neither in Grace nor in the fruits of the Gospel: And yet God hath begun at them. If he have done so to the green tree, what will he do to us, who are a dry and a barren tree.  
God in our sight and hearing these eight years, hath smitten severely, though justly these Churches, and that to teach us Repentance: But we are as judah, who mended not at the captivity of Israel▪ When I had put away backsliding Israel for all her iniquities, and given her a bill of divorcement, then treacherous judah seared not, nor turned not to me with all her heart, but feignedly. jerem. 3, 8. 9  
Though every report of their calamity be Gods calling us to sackcloth and mourning, yet for all the news of their trouble, we are not turned to Repentance.  
They were not the greatest sinners in jerusalem, on whom the Tower of Siloh fell, neither were they the worst Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices: They are not the worst Protestants whose blood is shed by this Roman Tyranny and persecution, but except we repent we shall all likewise perish. Luk. 13.  
Their trial is our lesson, and their chastisement is our document: We shall learn it, and taken it out wisely, if their example turn us to God: But if we do not so, the heavier judgement abideth us: They have drunken the brim of the Cup of wrath, ●●t the dregges of the bottom are reserved for 〈◊〉 except in time we repent. 
9   
Neither let unthink, that their affliction doth not concern us, because they are far distant from us: For the communion of Saints knoweth no distance of place, and the Church of Christ which is his Body, as it hath him for the Head, so his Spirit for the life, and that Spirit quickening all the Body, endueth it with a fellow-feeling of others miseries: If we have fellowship with them in Christ, we must feel their troubles, and mourn with them: If we do not so, we prove we have no fellowship with them.  
Let such hardhearted and senseless Christians read their Doom and dittay in the Prophet Amos, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, they put the evil day far from them: They lie on their beds of Ivory, and stretch themselves on their beds, and eat the Lambs of the Flock, & the Calves out of the midst of the stall: They drink wine in bowls, but no man is sorry for the affliction of joseph: Therefore now shall they go into Captivity with the first that go captive, & the sorrow of them that stretch out themselves, is at hand. Amos 6. 1. 3. 4. 6. 7.  
These are twin branches of a senseless and careless heart, in the day of the Church's affliction: First they put the evil day far from themselves & maka covenant with Death, as though it never should, nor would come near to them: Next, they put the affliction of their Brothers far from their feeling and affection, as a thing that concerneth them not, The first is a fleshly dream of their own immunity: The other, a senseless misregarde of their Brethren▪ and both of them a just cause, and certain presage of a grievous ruin to come upon them, who are so graceleslie disposed.  
But the godly are otherways affected with the troubles of Zion: For they take pleasure in the stones, and delight in the dust thereof. Psal. 102. Though Nehemiah was in the favour of his King and great prosperity, yet when he heard that the jews were in great affliction and reproach, and the wall of jerusalem broken down, and the gates thereof burnt with fire, he sat down and weeped, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven. Neither could all his courtly happiness smother the grief of his heart: But when the King perceived the sadness of his countenance, and asked the cause of it, he said, Why should not my countenance be sad, when the City, and House of the Sepulchre of my Fathers lieth waste. Nehemia. 1. If he was so grieved for the violation of the Sepulchers of the dead: Shall not the cruel murder of the living Temples of the holy Ghost, move us more?  
And jeremiah, though he was at liberty among the people, and well looked to by Nebuzaradan, yet when he saw jerusalem's desolations: For these things I weep, mine eyes casteth out water, because the Comforter that should refresh my Soul is far from me, my Children are desolate, because the enemy prevaileth. Lame. 1. 16.  
Beside, the respect of their persons, their 
10  cause should also move us to this holy grief: The Gospel of Christ & true Religion in them, is persecuted and oppressed: And if we have found grace and comfort in that Gospel, should we not be grieved when so glorious a means of grace is obscured, and the cause of our good God borne down by his enemies. God hath lighted that candle, to discover the darkness of Satan, and destroy his work: And when the prince of darkness prevaileth so far as to put out that Candle, and to cast down the Candlesticks on which it shined, if we be the Children of Light, we must sorrow for that change: Therefore if we feel not their sorrows, we declare we have no communion with them in the Body of Christ, and no part in the grace of the Gospel, which in their hands is persecute. No feeling, no Communion, and no Communion, no union with them, and Christ: If we have no grief for the Light put out, we have no part in the Life and Grace, that the Light carrieth.  
We ought then a brotherly compassion to 
10  them, under their trouble, because they are Brethren, and fellow members of jesus Christ, and the more, because their affliction, is not for civil or common causes, but for Religion: As we are commanded to mourn, with them that mourn, so much more, with them that suffer for the Gospel: Be partaker of the suffering of the Gospel, according to the power of God. 2. Tim. 1. 8.  
Shall Satan make error and heresy, so forcible in his Supposts, as to join their hearts and hands, to give their power to the Beast, to fight against the Lamb? And shall not Truth and Charity, in the Children of God, procure at least, a brotherly compassion of the griefs of other? The first is a wonder, to see the Spirit of division make such an union among his adherents: But it is a greater wonder, not to see that compassion in them who are one Spirit in Christ jesus. 
12   
But though we would in the hardness of our heart cut ourselves off from all feeling of their miseries, that would not secure us from punishment but rather double our sin, and hasten a double punishment upon us: We stand in that same case with them: In a true Religion, in the abuse of it, and so under God's process for our sins: And it is a great mercy of God, that he hath spared us so long, and given us so large a time of Repentance: When he might have begun his judgement at us, he hath begun at other, that by their example we might turn in time, & prevent his heavy stroke: If foreign miseries beyond Sea, will not move us to sorrow, let our own home sins & dangers move us to repentance. 
13   
And for this end, we have to consider, our own state in this Land, as the second cause of our Humiliation: God hath blessed us with his Law & Gospel, but we have sinned against them both: There is no precept of the Law, whose breach is not shamelessly practised & avowed 1. Every one maketh himself his own god, and seeketh themselves, their own glory, and gain, directing all their ways from their own heart, and turning all to themselves. 2. Idolatry (once alluterly banished) is cropen in, and setteth up the head in this Land, and many who professed the Truth, are gone back to Popery: They close their eyes from the shining light, that is ready to resolve and reform them: And are so possessed by errors and darkness, that they abhor the light, which would pull them out of their fleshly delights. Their case is to be pitied. who so wilfully loss themselves, refusing Salvation, and running headlong to Hell. 3. The abuse of the glorious Name of the Lord our God, is grown a popular disease, & reigneth in all Estates, & the better sort outrun the common people in so grievous a sin. And the rifeness of it hath put it out of the respect of a sin, and hath turned it in the flower of their language, as though all speech were but wersh, and could neither fill the mouth of the speaker, not the ear of the hearer, except the Name of GOD be profaned, and God himself thereby thrust through. If the flying Book of the curse of God, light upon the house of every swearer, to destroy the Timber and stone. Zach. 5. How few houses shall escape the curse of God in this Land, which groaneth under the multitude of oaths. 4. The profanation of the Lords Day is universal, and no difference made betwixt the observation of it, and other days: But rather more liberty is taken in vaging, in drinking, & chalmering, & wantonness, in idle and profane speaking in it, than in other days: As if God had set it a part, not for his own honour, but for the works of the flesh▪ Though we be not bound to judaize in the Sabbath, yet are we bound christianly to spend the Lords day in abstaining from evil, and busying ourself in the works of Piety & Charity, as the Sabbaths proper Exercise: as a memorial of the Resurrection of Christ, & our Redemption perfected thereby: and a token of our eternal Sabbath, & rest in heaven.  
5 Disobedience to Superiors, is a reigning sin: Though God for their further honouring hath placed the Precept that commandeth their obedience, Next to the Precepts of Piety, and calleth the duties of it by the Name of Piety, yet it is least respected. Parents natural are misregarded: Pastors who beget and feed people in Christ, are contemned▪ And supreme Authority disobeyed of the most part. 6. Innocent blood is shed in many places, as water, and the Earth groaneth under it, and the cry of it ascendeth to Heaven to bring down a judgement upon us all. 7. Filthiness, hath laid off the former veil of shame, and is now impudent: Fornication, Adulteries & Incests, outface the Light and multiply out of number: And the covenant of God in marriage is less respected and keeped then light promises amongst men: Whereby though their were none other sins, a way is made to overthrow families, for God cannot bless Inheritance in the hands of wrongous Heirs. 8. Secret and open hurting of the lots of men, is a common practice, and no man standeth in awe, to make his Neighbours ruin a stepping stone to his own exalting. The most part without regard of God, Conscience, or humanity lose their Soul, and quite the Heaven for the baggage of this life.  
9 And Calumnies are now so frequent, that their is no godly man who findeth not the scourge of the Tongue. And no man almost, who dareth not to Satan, his ear to hear and his heart to believe lies, and his tongue to be a scourge to his Neighbour.  
10. As for the abominations of the heart, though they be hid from us, yet they are manifest to God, and by these and the like fruits, the world may see, that the hearts of the most part are void of God, and are vile puddles to defile themselves, and overflow this Land with sin: These filthy fountains are not seasoned with the salt of Grace, but send out the deadly waters of filthienes, to burden this Land, and make it spew us out.  
These and the like grievous sins against the Law, do swarm in this Land: But the 
15  sins against the Gospel, are more grievous, both because of their kind, and because they are sins against the remede of sin.  
Faith, a special part of our evangelical 
16  duty, is rare to be found: God day lie is offering Grace & Salvation in the Gospel, yet few do receive it by Faith: And so his greatest mercy in offering Christ, is met with greatest wickedness on our part, in not believing: We count Fornication or Thift, or Murder, to be sins, but Infidelity worse than any of them, is counted no sin, and yet it is among the greatest pardonable sins. 
17   
This Infidelity bringeth out all sorts of Disobedience: When the heart by Faith is not purified, and joined to God, it is casten lose to all kind of iniquity, without any restraint of evil, or constraint to good: Our hearing, and reading, is not mixed with Faith, and so bringeth not out the obedience of faith, if we neither believe the promised reward, nor threatened punishment, we cannot obey the directing Precept.  
With these sins, is a fearful Apostasy to Popery in many parts of this Land: Many & these of the better sort, are seduced and drawn away to Romish superstition, and that because they were void of the Truth of God, and being led with their own lusts, they have rendered themselves to that fleshly Religion which giveth them liberty to sin.  
I speak of you, and to you, O seduced 
19  Papists, how long will it be, ere ye open your eyes to see how your blind Guides are leading you to damnation? If ye will not try this matter by Conscience try it at the least by common sense, & see what sort of Guides these are, who take you by the hand, with this condition, to close your eyes, that ye neither inquire, nor care whether they lead you: Tell me if you would commit yourself in a dark Night to such a Guide, as would close your eyes, put out the Lantern in your hand & not suffer you to know how & what way he leadeth you: Ye might think he were a Ruffian, to misled you to a Bordello, or to rob you & yet ye hazard your Salvation upon such cozening: Ye know your Jesuits and seducing Seminaries, strictly discharge you the reading of Scriptures, and hold you hood-winked under the veil of implicit Faith, or rather explicit Ignorance. They propone to you worse conditions, than Nahash the Ammonite did to the men of labesh Gilead: he craved that one of their eyes should be put out: But they crave, and ye agree, to have both your eyes pulled out of you: It was Israel's privilege▪ to have light in Goshen, in the midst of Egypt's darkness, but your delight is to have darkness in the midst of Goshen, and to wink in the clear Noonday of the Gospel, shining in this Land.  
You know, they have drawn your Houses within the compass of Treason, and are a Moth and cankerworm to eat up your State: And how evil they recompense your good entreating them in secret, by defiling your Houses, in joining bodily whoredom with spiritual? For the married Women, they keep their old direction, Si non caste, tamen cautè, If not cleanly, yet Cannalie. But with Maids they cannot so convoy it: The professed Chastity of these Ghostly Fathers, maketh Virginity fruitful: And their Auricular confession is found to be a carnal pollution.  
These things, and worse, you know of your seducers, yet you will not see them: But choose to cover your errors by a selfe-deceate, and lest you should let men see, that ye know your abuse, ye remain still under that your willing and wilful Captivity.  
This is none other, than that strong delusion, making you believe lies, because you will not receive the love of the Truth.  
They abuse you as their Slaves under blind Credulity▪ to believe their lies, and base Obsequiousness to do all their direction.  
It is time for you to avenge yourselves on these Philistines for your two eyes by pulling down the house of their Dagon, and to vindicate your Goods, Children, Wives, and Conscience from their Tyranny. Though it be a benefit to the Church, that you separate yourselves from it, as the body is relieved, when noisome and excrementitious humours draw themselves to biles and Apostemes, yet your Apostasy bringeth guiltiness on the Land.  
Further more, who seeth not Atheism an 
20  universal disease in this Land: Many profess the true Religion, and some are fallen to Popery. But Atheists are more than true Protestants, and superstitious Papists. The most part do live, as though there were not a God, or an Heaven for the godly, or an Hell for the wicked: Some more openly express in words and actions, their gross Atheism, other more closely cover it with a civil life, and a moral honesty: But all of them say in their heart, That there is no God. So the Lord may say to us as by jeremiah, Run to and fro in the streets of jerusalem, and inquire in the open places of it, if there be any that executeth judgement, and seeketh the Truth, and I will spare it jeremiah. 5. 1.  
As Impiety hath spread itself over all, so God hath punished it with the breach of Charity. 
21  All Estates of this Land, are rend from other, and every one of them divided in itself. It was an untimous strife between the servants of Abraham and Lot, when the Canaanites (enemies to them both) were in the Land: Gen. 13. 7. Peaceable Abraham reproved and amended it, saying, Why do we strive, since we are Brethren. And Moses took that ressoun of him, and reproved the two Israelites for their strife, Why strive ye together, ye are Brethren, Our renting is like the divisions of Reuben, strong thoughts of heart. judg. 5. 1●.  
Weakness of judgement cannot discern things, but breadeth scruples, and the scrupling weak mind is strong to hold fast the apprehension, and refuse better information and for to entertain Schism.  
They are sinful of themselves, & dangerous to us ●ll: When the Papist taketh occasion of our divisions, to strengthen himself, and waiteth opportunity for our ruin. If we can reconceale ourselves to God, he will soon bind up our divisions with brotherly love, in the bond of Peace. It is oftimes an ominous presage of ruin, if ye bite & devour one another take heed ye be not devoured one of another Galat. 5. 15.  
And among all the sins against the Gospel, the contempt of the Gospel, and the Ministry 
22  of it, is a great one, and so universal, that few can cleanse themselves of it.  
1. Papists abhor them, because the light of their doctrine discovereth their abominable errors, as thieves in their thift abhor a Torchbearer. 2. Atheists hate them deadly▪ because their Doctrine suffereth them not to sleep peaceably in Satan's arms but suggesteth to them the thoughts of God, of the Souls immortality, of the last judgement, and eternal rewards in heaven and hell: These, things make their Conscience check them, and so troubleth their false peace. 3. Debauched and dissolute men pursue them for their Discipline, because they suffer them not to run on in the works of the flesh without censure.  
4 And Politickes care not for their message, but serve themselves of them, for gaining a name of good professors, they cannot abide faithful and free Pastors, but labour for a Trencher Ministry, and to have them as basely obsequious, as their foote-boyes: If they with Michah can find a Levite for ten shickles of silver, and a suit of apparel, they care not for the Gospel, nor the Ministry of it.  
5. And other who possibly do neither mislike their Doctrine, nor Discipline, nor sincerity, do grudge at them for Church Patrimony. This is counted a great degree of julians' persecution (though they be not of his mind) by withdrawing the maintenance of the Professors, to undermined the Profession and Religion itself. This hath been since the Reformation, and yet it is a great sin in this Land: Men of the greatest sort pulling God's portion from his Church, and turning it to the increase of their own estate. Whereby the Gospel is spoiled, & many thousand Souls perish: Where there is no vision, the people perish. And where there is no maintenance, how can there be prophecy or vision?  
It is now a question greatly debated, how it cometh to pass, that more great Houses are decayed within these few years, than in some three Ages before? But it is easily answered, 1. In the general: Sin is the ruin of all Estates. 2. In the particular the abuse of the Gospel: For as one hot day'rypneth the corns more, than twenty cold days: So one year under the clear Light of the Gospel, filleth more the cup of the sins of an House, than twenty years under idolatry. 3. And Sacrilege is a consuming moth, to destroy a State, other ways well acquired and guided.  
It falleth to them as to the Eagle: She was not content of her free booting abroad, but pulled a collop from the Altar wherein was fastened an hot fiery coal, and when she brought it to her nest, & filled her birds with that sacrilegious morsel, the coal fired her nest and burnt her birds in ashes: It is manifest to the world, that Houses most ladened with Church Patrimony, have gone most to ruin. If one Achan stealing a part of things consecrated to God, and not as then converted to the use of the Tabernacle, brought wrath on all Israel: What shall we look for, where so many pull from God, these things, which beside their devoting, may plead prescription, for many ages▪ And if in the beginning of the Gospel, God gave an exempler punishment, on Ananias and Saphira, for interuerting a part of that which was once their own, and was not sacred by that primary separation of God, but by a secondary mortification in their own voluntary offering, what shall be their punishment, who draw that to themselves, which was never theirs but hath long stood both under a sacred separation and a religious use.  
God compleaneth of the jews. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say. Wherein have we robbed thee? In Tithes and offerings. Ye ar●●ursed with a curse: For ye have robbed me, even this whole Nation. Bring ye all the Tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine House, and prove me now herewith▪ sayeth the LORD of Hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malach. 3. 8. 9 10.  
Such is the state of the Gospel, concerning the maintenance of it▪ in this Land, that had not God in mercy stirred up the Heart of King JAMES, of happy memory, and made now our gracious King CHARLES to succeed Him, in that Religious affection, as well as in the Thrones of these Kingdoms, to prove a Nurse-Father to the Church, and maintain her maintenance. Povertie would banish the Gospel out of this Land.  
And with these sins is joined Impenitency: 
23  All men sinneth, but no man repenteth, or mourneth either for his own sins, or the sin of his time. God hath given us a time of Repentance, but we let it pass without turning, And though he hewed us by his Prophets, by denouncing judgements, yet we fear not. Host 6. 5. And though he have smitten us with Famine, Pest, and Mortality, yet we have not turned. The Lord hath stricken, but we have not sorrowed, thou hast consumed us, but we have not received Correction, we have made our face harder than a stone, and refused to return. Neither know we the time of our merciful visitation, and the things that concern our peace, neither our just Correction to amend.  
And with all, this wicked disposition, a worse is joined, that the most part▪ will neither forsake sin, nor repent, nor suffer it to be called sin▪ or themselves to be reproved and censured for it. It is not now sin, to commit sin, but to call sin sin, and in an holy zeal, for the wakening of men's Conscience to reprove it, that is now called sin, and an intolerable thing. And so to fill up the cup of our sins, many are come to this degree of uncurablenesse, as to quarrel the reprovers of their sin, as God noteth it in Israel. Let no man reprove another, for my people are as they that strive with the Priest. Host 4. 4.  
This is a great policy and prevailing of Satan, he desireth nothing more, than to hold men sleeping to death in sin: And he knoweth no means more able to waken them, than faithful Pastors: Therefore he laboureth to discredit them by contempt, that their warning may be fruitless: And thus he doth by secret and close degrees: He maketh not men at the first to contemn Pastors, and their Callings, but to mislike their reproofs and taxing of sin, as undiscreet: From that he leadeth them to hate their Person, and then their Calling: And so to contemn the Gospel, and make it fruitless to themselves. When he hath thus far prevailed, he can lead them further, as to make than think that hating and abhorring of them, is a mark of true zeal: And to persecute them, is good service to GOD: As Christ foretelleth, Whosoever killeth you, will think he doth God service. joh. 16. 2.  
It is a forerunner of a grievous judgement: Amos was evil handled of Israel, immediately before their Captivity: And jeremy was foully entreated, and Uriah slain, immediately before the Captivity of judah: And CHRIST Himself, and his Apostles persecuted to death, before their last destruction. It cannot fall otherways to them, for contemning the means of Grace: They are left to themselves, and so fill up the measure of their sin to the height.  
There is some hope, so long as God holdeth Pastors in a land: But when the people contemn that his merciful ordinance, it is just with him, to send them harder Messengers of wrath.  
So long as God's Ambassadors are welcome, there is appearance that GOD is working Peace: But when they are contemned, and reproached for their fidelity, GOD is no more to negotiate peace, but to proceed to destruction.  
If David revenged so severely the indignity done to his Ambassadors by the Ammonites, What shall GOD do, when his Messengers of peace are so spitefully entreated of men?  
The signs of a desperate and incurable disease in man, are four special which are all 
24  to be found in this Land.  
1. The first is, senselessness of all pain: Sickness after a long strife with nature, prevaileth so far against her, that as it hath expelled health, so it taketh away the feeling of that loss. 2. Next conceit of Health under that state: That notwithstanding of the great disease, yet they conceit of strength and integrity▪ the mind affected with the body, mistaketh the true estate of it. 3. A carelessness to be cured: Conceited health expelleth all care of help against sickness. 4. A neglect of the wholesome Counsel of the Physician, with a reproaching and injuring, his person.  
All these are spiritually in this Land. 1. An universal senselessness, of our spiritual State: All Doctrine of the sickness of the Soul by sin: Of the nature of Conscience: The sense of God of his mercy and wrath, and such like, are to the most part but as free discourses, without truth or use: There is not so much of the life of God in them, as to know or feel that there is such a thing: All are closed up in the fatness of a hard and senseless heart. This is senseless Atheism. 2. And notwithstanding of this, there is a strong conceit of perfection in some: They judge themselves in their own light, & ponder them in their own balance, and think all that is spoken in Scripture against sinners pertaineth not to them, but others, and all that is spoken of grace, and promises, is laid in their lap alone: This is proud Pharisaisme. 3. Many smoothing themselves under this sweet sleep, lie still in sin, and never think of a Physician▪ This is fleshly Security. 4. And the last are worse, they taken not the information of Pastors, neither can they abide their Admonitions, when they are rebuked for sin. Then they cry out as against jeremy. The Earth dow not bear this man's words and railings. And take upon them to prescriue to their Pastors, both matter and manner of Doctrine, They say to the Seers, See not, & to the Prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things: But speak unto us pleasant words, prophesy deceits. Isa. 30. 10.  
They will gladly hear the sweet Doctrine of the Gospel, but not of the Law: Theory but not practise; discoursing of Doctrine and Controversies, but not useful application: And will hear the sins of other men, other callings, other Countries▪ and Superiors, but not their own sins reproved.  
This is a desperate resolution, not to be cured at all.  
This is the pitiful state of this Land, in all 
25  Callings and Persons: From the crown of the Head, to the sole of the Foot, there is nothing whole therein, but wounds and swelling, and sores. Isa. 1. 4. 5. 6. etc. He may justly pronounce against us, as he did against the jews, Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord, and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this. jerem. 5. 9 Therefore the Lord hath that same plea with us, that he had with rebellious Israel. Hear the Word of the LORD, ye Children of Israel: For the Lord hath a controversy with the Inhabitants of the Land, because there is no Truth, nor Mercy, nor Knowledge of GOD in the Land: By swearing, and lying, and killing, and steeling, and Whoring, they break out and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the Land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it, shall languish. Host 4. 1. 2. 3.  
He seeth us lying in our sins, and is going to his Place, to see if we will seek him. I will return, and go to my Place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek me, in their affliction they will seek me early. Host 5. 15.  
The third cause of our Humiliation, is for an happy success to our King's Majesties weighty 
26  Affairs, at Home and abroad, both in Peace and War. To pray to God, who hath the hearts of Kings in his hand, to multiply more and more on his Ma. all Princely Gifts and Graces, that He may walk before GOD in the Uprightness of David, the Sincerity of Hezekiah, and Tenderness of heart, like josiah. That He would enlarge his heart more and more like Solomon, to go out and in before his people.  
And because His MAJESTY is engaged in a necessary and dangerous War, for the defence of Truth, and His Royal Alliance, whereby great Princes are become His Enemies, and His Kingdoms are threatened with a bloody invasion: It is the duty of all, to entreat the LORD, for preservation to his Ma. and His Dominions. When jehoshaphat was beset by the Moabites and Ammonites: He set himself to seek the Lord, with Fasting and Prayer: And all his people gathered themselves together to ask help of God, and all judah with their Wives; and little Ones, stood before him, who commanded them to stand still, and see the Salvation of the Lord, and gave them a glorious delivery. 2. Chron. 20.  
And when Hezekiah received the blasphemous and boasting Letter of Senacherib, he went up to the Temple▪ and spread it before the Lord, and prayed for safety, and the Lord sent away his enemies, with slaughter and shame. We have at these times, to pray to God, that he would bow down his ear, and hear the blasphemy and boasting of the Enemies, and open his eye, and behold their bloody decrees, and the plotting of Princes to execute them, and their insulting for prevailing against us.  
And since God hath put it in our Kings Ma. Heart, both to appoint to all His Subjects, and to keep in His Royal Person, a solemn Fast▪ we may the more confidently pray, that the Lord of Hosts, to whom pertaineth the issues of Death, would merche before our Armies. Psal. 68 20. That he would wound the head of our King's Enemies, and thrust them through the thigh: And give to Him their necks and backs always: That he would clothe them with shame, and make his Crown to flourish on His Head. Psal. 132.  
Two punishments are most to be feared at 
27  this time, the removing of the Gospel, and the Sword of man: The one to destroy the Soul, the other the Body. 1. God is threatening the removing of the Word, because it hath been long among us without fruit: We have not received it as the word of God, to believe and obey it, and to delight and walk in the light of it: Though God have his own amongst us, yet the most part do contemn it, and the Preachers of it: It is counted an intolerable burden, because it curbs their lusts, and reproveth their sins so plainly: they would be glad to want it, that they might sin freely.  
God brought it wonderfully amongst us, few Martyrs sealing it with their blood, and yet great opposition made to it: But God by his own good means, lighted that Candle amongst v●: At that time this Nation was as a new laboured ground, with little labour it rendered great increase: Light was then pleasant to men coming out of darkness, and the taste of Grace was sweet at the first hearing of the Gospel: But now, after long hearing of it: We have lost our first zeal, and are become as an outworn & barren ground.  
We are as the Earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, but bringeth out nothing, but thorns and briers, which is near unto cursing, & whose end is to be burnt. Heb. 6. 7 8. The Lord hath patiently waited on our fruits, and hath spared us, like that fig tree, not for three, but three score and seven years, and yet neither is there fruit, nor Repentance, for want of fruit: What remaineth in his justice, but that he cut us down, and cast us in the fire?  
Let us not feed ourselves with idle and groundless conceits, as that the Gospel is 
28  pure amongst us, and we have a true Religion & a glorious Profession, etc. The like conceit possessed the jews in their greatest guiltiness & danger: They cried, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, this is the Temple▪ of the Lord, jerem. 7. 4.  
But ye trust, sayeth the Lord, in lying words, which cannot profit: Will ye steal murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and come and stand before me in this House, which is called by my Name, and say, We are delivered, though we have done all these abominations: But go ye now into my Place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my Name at the first, & see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel. jer. 7. 8. 9 10.  
They thought they were secure under their profession, and God would not forsake them, but he told them plainly he would cast them off, as he did Shiloh.  
The jews had his presence, and now they are casten off, The Greek Church in Asia, Africa, and the Eastern parts of Europpe, had the Gospel, but abused it, and now are given over to Mahumets' carnal, and absurd delusions. And the Western places of Europe, and Rome at the first did shine as a glorious Church, It was then an hammer of Heretics, and an harbour of distressed and persecuted Saints, and yet falling from that Truth, is now for many Ages, the nest of Antichrist.  
And this Nation at the first enlightened with the Gospel, enjoyed Peace (when other Nations were overrun with War, and had almost lost both learning and Religion.) Then this Church proved a Mother Church▪ and sent out her Scholars as Apostles to convert the most part of England, and other Nations beyond Sea: But when she was thereafter first compelled, and then willingly yielded to Roman superstition, God put out that candle of the Gospel, which had shined some seven or eight Ages: And now since many Ignorants relapse to Popery, and the most part fall in Atheism, who are we after so many fearful examples▪ to think that God will still dwell amongst us, not withstanding of all our rebellions, This fleshly conceit is an high degree of fleshly 
29  security, & as odious to God, as our other sins, for it would blemish him, whose eyes are purer, than that they can behold iniquity, as a favourer of sin: As though he were tied to dwell with obstinate and impenitent sinners, whom his Soul abhorreth: & to keep his covenant with them who proudly break it, which is all one, as to make GOD and Beliall dwell together.  
The discovery of the New found Land, reserved till the last times, offereth a remarkable consideration for this purpose: Some do rest upon natural causes▪ as the perfection of sailing, & the invention of the Sailor's compass, and other natural reasons: But Divinity leadeth us a step further, in the cause of this divine providence: That as Light came out from Zion at the first, and spread itself through all parts: & error and heresy came after treacing the steps of truth, to the out most-parts of the earth, yet many Nations either remaining in, or returning to Paganism, other falling in Mahumetisme, & other were carried in that horrible Apostasy within the Church to antichristianism. The Kirk groaning under these abuses, & heresies within itself, did lute for Reformation. In this mean time God discovered another world to tell this old one, that if they would not reform themselues, he had provided him a soil & dwelling place, & set up a people that were not of our knowledge, to provocke us to jealousy.  
God hath indeed taken us by the hand, but when nothing can move us to our duty, what can he but give us a bill of divorcement, and put us from him? God this day, and we in his Name▪ are speaking as he did to the Church of Ephesus. I have something against thee, that thou hast forgotten thy first Love.. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come against thee shortly, and remove the Candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev. 2. 4.  
The jews promised continuance of all happiness to themselves, because they were Abraham's seed: But Christ telleth them that God will not want a people, though they were destroyed; For he could raise up Children unto Abraham out of the stones of the field: And he letteth them see (if they would see it) to the grief of their heart, that he is better served of the Gentiles, than ever he was of them: If we join to our other sins, this fleshly conceit also, that he will want a people, if he cast us off: He can make either Barbarians or jews (or th●se who now are the enemies of the Gospel, turning them to the Gospel) better servants to him than we are: And will teach us to our by eternal sorrow, that he can have a people, though we be not his people: But where shall we find a God, if in his justice he cast us off for our sin: He will ever provide himself a Church, But woe to us when he departeth from us. Host 9 12.  
The second plague to be feared, is the 
30  Sword of Man: God hath shaken many rods on us, and smitten us with them, but we mend not: He hath broken the staff of bread, and given us cleanness of teeth in our Cities, and multitudes in the streets dying for famine: He hath stricken us with Pestilence, and made that flying arrow rage fearfully: And great Mortality on men and beasts, hath almost lately taken the tith of this Land, and yet we have not amended: The Sword only remaineth as the last and most fearful plague, which God then useth, when all other chastisements have not wrought his end to bring us to repentance.  
We are as Israel, whom God did smite with plague after plague: And yet for all this, they returned not to me, sayeth the Lord. Amos. 4. And therefore, why should I smite them any more? Isa. 1. 4. And thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: Therefore will I stretch out mine hand against thee, and destroy thee, I am weary with repenting. jerem. 15. 6. When he had taken pains on them, and they were not mended he cast them a way. The bellowes are burnt, the lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away: Retrobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. jer. 6. ●9. 30.  
It is now dangerous to sleep in Security, 
31  as though our enemies were far off, and we compassed with the walls of a great Sea: We have our enemies within; so long as sin increaseth, & is not repent, we want not enemies to destroy us: God wanteth never instruments, when he will punish a Land, He can hiss on the Flee at the River of Egypt, and on the Bee in the Land of Ashur. Isa. 7. 18. And though there were but men half wounded and half dead, they shall rise up every man in his tent, and burn jerusalem with fire, when God is angry with her. jerem. 37. Grasshoppers are but weak Creatures, yet when God sent them on Israel, they could not be resisted, because the Lord uttereth his voice before his Army▪ for his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his word. joel. 2. 10. As for our walls of Water, if our sins remain, they will be Ships and bridges for our Enemies, to bring over the wrath of God, upon us: Though we would build our nest into the top of Rocks, yet the hand of God can pull us down, where ever a man dwelleth, he is a black mark for God to shoot at, and the arrows of his wrath to light on, so long as guiltiness abideth in him.  
We should not indeed neglect or contemn 
32  lawful means of our defence, for that were to tempt God. Though the Apostle had an express promise, that none of his company should perish in the Storm, yet when the Mariners minded to convoy themselves away, he said, Except these men abide, we can not be saved. Act: 27. Neither ought we on the other part with Asa, to put our trust in means, as to rely on the reed of Egypt, or the Arm of flesh, for that is to provocke God to jealousy.  
Both extremes, make God our Enemy, either in tempting him by neglect of means, or provocking him, by trusting on them: The midst is his ordinance, which he will ever bless, to wit, the use of them, in holy wisdom and confidence in God. Our main care should be to be at peace with him, that so the Lord of Hosts may be with us, and the God of jacob may be our refuge. Psal. 46.  
In this case we are enclosed in God's pannall, 
33  and he is set on his Throne to judgement, and the decreete will come forth in the sentence, & bring forth the own execution, except in time we agree with our God. Long hath he spoken by his Prophets, in his reforming, directing, and exhorting Word: But we have neglected all that fair proceeding: He is gone to an harder Word, even the word of judgement, and Process: And let us assure ourselves, he will not leave off, till he bring it to some end: When I begin, I will also make an end: 1. Sam. 3. 12.  
And there is none end, but one of two, either 
34  our just destruction, or merciful preservation. If we dispute with him, he is righteous, for we cannot answer to one of a thousand: And we cannot flee from him, Whether shall we go from his Spirit? Neither can we resist him, for he is Almighty. Since than we can neither answer to him, nor flee from him, nor resist him, our only best is to flee to him with the forlorn Son and cast ourselves in the Arms of his fatherly mercy.  
Thus, God who knoweth best how to be entreated, commandeth us. Come, let us reason 
35  together. Isa. 1. 18. Call a solemn Assembly, sanctify a Fast. joel. 2. Only acknowledge your iniquity. jerem. 3. 13. And as he commandeth, so he promiseth a blessing. Though your sins were as the Scarlet, they shallbe as the Snow: Though they were as the Crimson, they shall be as wool, If ye return and repent. Isa. 1. 18. And he will leave a blessing behind him. joel. 2. Call upon me in the day of thy trouble, I will deliver thee. Psal. 50. And I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him, I will glorify him. Psal. 91. 15.  
And as he promised a blessing, so in all time he hath performed it, for his people did never sincerely humble themselves before him, but he gave them a visible blessing. The Book of judges is full of this practice. 1. Israel sinned against him, 2. And he gave them over in the hand of some Enemy. 3. And when they felt their misery, they cried unto God, by Prayer & Fasting.  
4. The Lord raised up a judge or Saviour, who delivered them. When Niniveh was threatened with destruction, and humbled themselves in Fasting and praying, the Lord spared them, jonah. 3. 4. And though Ahab was a wicked Hypocrite, yet when he put on Sackecloath and fasted, the Lord said to Eliah, Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me? Because he hath submitted himself to me, Therefore I will not bring this evil in his days. 1. Kings. 21.  
Prayers, and Tears, are the kindly weapons of God's Church, which they use in all their necessities 
36  and dangers: And that never without an evident blessing. They overcome God, and bow him to mercy, because he hath bound himself to accept the Sacrifice of a contrite heart: A contrite and a broken Spirit, he can not refuse. Psal. 51. 17. And when he is reconcealed to us in Christ, and our sins pardoned, he becometh our Friend, and Protector. So long as sin remaineth, he is our Adversary, and our sins bind his hand, that he cannot help, and stoppeth his ear, that he cannot hear. Isa. 59 1 But when God is appeased, than he becometh our deliverer from all our dangers. And though they seem but weak weapons to the Natural man, who would have his eyes filled with bodily means, yet they are most forcible against our enemies.  
And Satan himself is affrayed of nothing 
37  more, than solemn humiliation and Repentance. He knoweth so long as God is angry with his people, he will find both great permissions, & large commissions against them, to their hurt: But when God and his people reason together, and his mercy pardoneth their sin, than Satan's permissions are restrained, and his commissions end, and a certain shame and disapointment is concluded against him.  
There is never a solemn humiliation in the Church, but it bringeth a notable ruin to his kingdom: Our groans and tears are as great Ordinances to batter and beat down his building of iniquity: All the Armouries in the world▪ have not so terrible Canouns to Satan, as faithful hearts grieved for sin: Neither so fearful Bullets, as fervent prayer and supplications sent up with strong cries and groans to God: Though such hearts be broken, in sending them up, yet they batter Satan's Kingdom, and bring health to themselves.  
To these Prayers and Tears, we have now a clear calling: As God in his word commandeth, 
38  so he is by his work applying that command to us. 1. By the observation of all his Servants, the Prophets who with a pastoral heart and eye, seeth the present iniquities of this Land, and wrath hanging above our head.  
This burden is laid on us, who are Watchmen, to stand on our Watch, and sit upon our Tower, and see what God will say to us, Son of man, if the Watchman, when he seeth the Sword coming, blow the Trumpet, and warn the people: Then whosoever heareth the sound of the Trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the Sword come, & take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the Trumpet, and took no warning, his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning▪ shall deliver his Soul.  
So thou, O Son of man, I have set thee a Watchman unto the house of Israel: Therefore, thou shalt hear the Word at my mouth, and warn them from me. Ezech. 33. 2. 3, 4. 5. 7.  
Upon this heavy charge laid on us, and the care to save ourself, and our people, we cry a loud, and spare not, we lift up our voice as a Trumpet, to show to Israel his sin, and to the house of jaacob their transgression. Isa. 58. 1.  
Therefore, gather yourselves, O Nation not worthy to be loved, before the decree come forth, and ye be as chaff that passeth in a day, & before the fierce wrath of the Lord come upon you, & before the day of the Lords anger come upon you▪ Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the Earth: It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger. Zeph. 2. 1. 2. 3 2. The observation of good people of every sort, falleth upon this necessity and cryeth for a public humiliation.  
The causes are so manifest and weighty, that any who is not blinded may perceive them, & what is this else, than a mutual exhorting one of another. Come, let us return to the Lord: For he hath spoiled, and he will heal us, He hath wounded us, and he will bind us up Host 3. 6. 1.  
God's providence is a real calling & a commanding of us to this Fast. He hath begun his judgements in other places, & we are under the same sins, and he is shaking that rod upon us. It was time for David to pray for jerusalem, when he saw the Angel stretch his Sword over it: He prayed, and God made the Angel stay his hand, 2. Sam. 24.  
Seeing then we are ladened with so many sins, and compassed with so many troubles, 
39  and God by his word and works, and our Conscience calleth us to Repentance & Fasting, we may not neglect this Fast. For he who will not afflict his Soul in the day of expiation, that Soul shall be cut off from his people. Levit. 23. 29.  
And in that day, sayeth the Lord, I called to weeping & mourning & to baldness, & girding with sackcloth: And behold joy & gladness, slaying Oxen, and kill Sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die: And it was revealed to me, by the Lord of Hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till you die, sayeth the Lord. Isa. 22. 12. 13. 14.  
Neither let us keep the Fast of Hypocrites 
40  who disfigure their faces, and look sowrlie, that they may be known of men to fast. Matth. 6. 16. They afflict their Souls for a day, & hang their heads as a bulrush, and yet they find pleasure, and oppress their Neighbour in the day of their Fast. Isa. 58. 5.  
Neither let us keep the Papists Fast, who are Hypocrites in their external show▪ and Epicures 
41  in the diet of their Fasting: There can be no afflicting of their body, where for quality, they have liberty to eat bread, Confections, Conserves, Fruits, & to drink all sorts of Wine: & for quantity, to taken their satiety, & fill of them, and yet in so doing, they break not their Ecclesiastical Fast. This is a mocking of the Christian Fast, a scorning of the World, the feeding of the flesh, and a deceit of themselves in that will-worship a Feasting for Fasting.  
But let us keep the Christian Fast, in a simple abstinence from all that may comfort the body, 
42  in true and unfeigned Repentance, and forsaking of our evil ways, turning to the Lord our God with all our hearts that he may have mercy on us. If we seek the Lord when he may be found, than we shall cry, and he will answer, we shall call, & he shall say, Behold, here I am if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke of sin, Isa. 58. 9  
And for this end, we must first inquire 
43  where these sins are, that so grievously offend God, & that not by prying in our Neighbours, to lay all the blame on them, and transfer it from ourselves, and so to foster a conceit of our own innocence in this common guiltiness.  
It is a deep policy of Satan, to cousin 
44  men in this case, to cleanse themselves, and blame their Neighbours. This is one old lesson, we have of our first Parents. Adam laid the sin upon the Woman, and the woman on the Serpent: We are forward to commit sin, but are ashamed of it, when it is committed, and would father it on another: We defile ourselves really by the guiltiness of it, and labour to cleanse us by a conceit: But God will not be so put off, and that shifting is a doubling of our guiltiness.  
So, after that Core, and his complices were punished, the people murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. Nu. 16. 41. The cause of Corahs' punishment, was not in Moses and Aaron, but in Corahs' sins, who invying their credit, ambitiously affected the like, and seditiously made a faction, and drew the people after him, against them whom God had set over them: But the foolish people, not considering his sin, nor their own factious following of him, laid all the blame upon Moses and Aaron.  
This is to harden ourself in our sin & impenitency, 
45  and to freeze on our dregges. Zeph. 1. 12. But every one of us ought to examine first & most ourselves, and we shall find seven abominations in our hearts: If we look in the glass of God's Law, we shall see our leprosy, & be forced with the Lepers to cry out, I am unclean▪ I am unclean.  
So David (albeit GOD being angry at Israel suffered him to number the people) said to the Lord, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly, but these sheep what have they done? 2. Sam, 24. 1. And jeremy putteth himself in with the rest, we have sinned, and thou hast not spared. Lament. 3. And Daniel, We and our Fathers have sinned. Dan. 9 It is a token of true Grace, in the censure of ourself, with the Apostle, to count ourselves the first of all sinners: and a token of true Repentance. 1. Tim. 1. 5. In the appearance of sin with jonah, to say, I know, that for my sake, this storm is come upon you. jonah. 1. 12. Every one of us, hath brought his coal to this great fire of God's wrath, so, let every man come and take out the coal, he hath cast in it, & draw waters out of his broken heart and power out the tears of true Repentance to quench it withal: Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Lament. 3. 40.  
As on the one part we ought not Pharisaicallie 
46  to lay all the fault on others, so neither should weelazelie wait upon the Repentance of other: Every one ought indeed to stir 
47  up another to this holy Exercise: But if other remain in their hardness, and will not be stirred up to seek the Lord, we ought not to delay Repentance by their evil example.  
Every one is bound to keep his own Soul: If ye will not repent, my Soul shall mourn in secret for your pride. jerem. 13. 17. As the multitude of the godly cannot secure an evil man from God's justice, he found out Achan among the thousands of Israel, and punished him: So the multitude of impenitent Sinners, shall not hide one mourning Sinner from his mercy: He sendeth not out his wrath, till first he mark them, that sigh and cry for the abomination of jerusalem Ezch. 9 And promiseth to Baruch his life for a prey. He had the Ark ready to save Noah, and a Zoar to receive Lot.  
2. Next, for this holy Exercise, let us rend 
48  our hearts, and that by a true and godly sorrow for our bygone and present offences, afflicting our Souls by a true contrition, joel. 2. As wheat or corn, is brayed between the neither and upper millstones, so is the penitent Soul, bruised between the grief for sin, and fear of wrath, with an holy indignation at ourselves, for offending so good a God, and taking an holy revenge or sythment, on ourselves for that vylnesse. 2. Cor. 7. That when we remember our ways, and all our doings, wherein we have been defiled, we may loathe ourselves in our own sight, for all the evils that we have committed.  
The reasons of this renting are, 1. Our heart 
49  is the fountain, from which all proceedeth, that defileth the man, and aught to be stopped. 2. It is the forge-house, wherein Satan forgeth all iniquity, and must be ruined. 3. And the place of the conception of all our miseries, therefore by an heart-breaking godly sorrow, it must be so disabled, as it loss the power of conceiving, or bringing forth of sin as of before. 4 It is the belly of the Viper for conceiving, but it is not rend in the delivery of that venomous brood: Therefore it ought to be rend in remorse for it, and with that renting, we must bring out the birth of a sincer confession of our sin, Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to heaven, and say, We have sinned and have rebelled, and thou hast not spared. Lament. 3. 41. 42.  
3. thirdly, for the time to come, we must 
50  purpose with ourself, and vow to God amendment of our life, & the study and practise of new obedience: These holy vows, will both bind our corruption, that it break not out at all occasions, and stir up the grace of God to a life worthy of God.  
True Repentance will so press our corruption, that it may find for the present a weight to bow it down, and a knife to cut the throat of it: And it will strengthen God's grace by removing sin, which is the bane of it. It is a repeating of our first conversion, and a notable promoving of Sanctification, by so solemn a work, adding a sensible degree of killing the old Man, & the quickening the new.  
This is the fruit of our wrestling with God, even to halt with jacob: Though we have prevailed, our corruption will be so disjointed, as it be not so strong thereafter. So, God in mercy to his own, by true Repentance, slayeth sin, which Satan augmented by our falling & disappointing him of his end, turneth his work of sin in us, to a destruction of our sin.  
fourthly, we must strengthen our hearts 
51  with confidence on God, that he will have mercy on us: We can never go to him with boldness, without this confidence in jesus Christ, but we run from him as a consuming fire.  
For this end, we ought first to fix our mind 
52  upon him, as he hath discryved himself. 1. A God full of goodness, for he is gracious, freely to pity us not looking to our deserving, but beside, above, & contrary to it, to help us, bringing all the reasons of his goodness to us from himself, and respecting none other thing in us, than our misery to cure it.  
2. He is Merciful, to pardon our sins, and remove all evil from us, whom graciously he accepteth, and giveth us every good thing that we need.  
3. And slow to anger, because the best men are often falling in sin, and so give matter of his provocation, yet he is not soon moved at their sins, but waiteth on their Repentance.  
4. And of great Kindness, that even in the time of his just anger, keepeth ever his fatherly love and benignity to them: His anger can stand well with his love, though we do not well consider it: He doth not afflict us willingly. Lament. 3. 33. But in the midst of his wrath, he remembreth mercy, in the change of his work and action, from blessing to crossing, his heart and affection is not changed upon us He is not hasty to anger, and long in it, but slow to it, and soon from it.  
Anger is in men according to their several disposition: It is in the Melancholian, a virtue, that he is slow to anger, but a vice, that he abideth long in it: And it is the Cholerians fault, that he is soon angry, but a virtue that he is as soon from it. Our good God, speaking of himself according to man, expresseth his anger by the virtues of them both: With the first, he is slow to anger, and with the second he is soon appeased: And this is to our great comfort.  
5. And he repenteth him of evil: Although our sins force strokes out of his hand, yet he is grieved for us under them, and by his sudden relieving of us, so soon as we repent, doth testify, that he hath neither pleasure in the death of sinners, nor in the troubles of his own: In all their afflictions he is afflicted. Isa. 63. 9 And these divine properties and their work is not as his strange work, and strange Act, but in those things, he delighted, because mercy pleaseth him. Isa. 28. 21. jerem. 9 24. Micah. 7.  
And for our fuller confidence, we have not simply to consider this his goodness in himself, 
53  but as it is presented and offered to us in a Covenant, which is confirmed by Christ.  
His goodness is in himself as a Fountain superabounding, but the Covenant is as a Chariot, or Conduit, convoying it to us. His goodness assumed our Nature in Christ, to a personal unioun with the Son; to assure us both of the grounds of that communication of his goodness, and of our right to it; and of the way how it is: That being and believing in Christ our Brother, we may have boldness and access by that way, which his blood hath consecrate toward the Throne of Grace. Heb. 10. When in our mourning for sin, our Faith looketh to Christ, whom our sins have pierced, and entreat God, to look on the Son of his love, in whom he is well pleased, we have confidence to be heard in that we pray for: Zachar. 13. No man can tryst and meet with God in Christ the great Peacemaker, who is both the Prince and price of our peace, but he shall find reconciliation in him.  
thirdly, our own Experience may give us confidence: When this Island was invaded 
54  by that great Navy, that was called, Invineible: God made the Seas to bury our Enemies, as it did the Egyptians: Anno 1588.  
Next, when Satan saw, that our GOD was God of the Seas, he took him to fire, and put it in the hearts of cruel Papists, to attempt the blowing up by Powder, of the King, the Parliament, the Flower of all Estates of England: But God discovered that hellish plot, and broke their bow at the lousing of their Arrow. Anno 1605. When Mortality passed through all this Land, and removed many, God was entreated by our Prayers, and stayed it. Anno. 1623. When he brak in with a fearful Pest among us, and we humbled ourselves before him, he commanded the destroying Angel to depart from us. An. 1625.  
When he threatened extreme Famine, in the rotting of all our Corns, we called on him by Fasting and Praying, & immediately thereafter for seven weeks gave such serenity as scarcely any man doth remember the like. Anno 1626.  
He is that same God, that he was then▪ And if we will run to him in true Repentance, he both can and will deliver us as of before.  
In a word, we must process ourselves severely before God. 1. In presenting ourselves before his fearful Tribunal, and standing there, compare ourself to that righteousness of the Law, and our God, and we shall find that our sins are more, than the hairs of our head.  
2. When we have found it so, we must cry in the bitterness of our heart, with the Publican, 
55  knocking on our breast, The Lord be merciful to me, a sinner▪ Luke. 18. 3. This sight of our vileness, and sorrow for it, must chase us to God, to beg remission of sin, and to be covered with the righteousness of Christ▪ Wash me throughly from my sin, and cleanse me from mine iniquity. Psa. 51. 4. We must strive to find remission sealed up in the peace of conscience. All this process before God, must be form in our conscience, & led in a spiritual feeling: Many a time we do the work of God negligently, and content ourselves with a light thought & motion of these things: But we must labour to bring our conscience to a sight & our hearts to a feeling of them, without which God cannot be pleased, nor we blessed in this work.  
And this processing is a great blessing of God, because it bringeth us back to the first process, that God form in us, at the time of our conversion; and acquainteth us with that Process, which we shall see at the last day; and shall secure us from the terror of it.  
We shall then count ourselves happy, for tymous processing ourselves, when we shall see others condemned, who now neglect to do it.  
Further, we must remember our ordinary measure of Devotion will not serve our turn in Fasting: But as the solemnity is more than customable occasions: So our Devotion in it must as far exceed our ordinary, as it is above ordinary occasions: The Sabbaths service had the own measure above the daily Sacrifice: So our Grief, Zeal, Faith, and softness of heart, must be seven fold more, than at other times: Therefore, is it compared to the greatest sorrow as the sorrow of a woman mourning for her first borne, and for the Husband of her Youth, and that as the mourning of judah in the Vallay of Megiddo for the slaughter of josiah. Zach: 12.  
When our Souls by the Grace of GOD, are brought to this holy Disposition, we must also take order for our Body, that it may know in the own kind this Exercise; that defrauding it of the own desires, we may bring it to some feeling of that work, that is within it even of the reasoning between God and our Soul; that pinching of it, is both the chastining and amending of it.  
We must abstain from mirth and solace: When God's Sword is furbished, shall we then make mirth, and contemn his rod. ●zech. 21. 10.  
Let the Bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her Chamber. When God is angry, it is not timous, nor comely for us to sport, or give ourselves to any delight.  
If Nehemiah forbade the people to weep at the reading of the Law, because that day was a festivity to God, Nehem. 8. Shall it not be more unseemly to laugh, and rejoice in the days, wherein God calleth us to mourning and tears? It is not a day of liberty or losing our mind and body to delights, but enclosing and shooting up ourself in secret. That we retrinch, and call in all our thoughts, that at other times, may go out to our business, and keep them all, as a mourning widow▪ clothed with du●e, in tokens of the affliction of our Soul.  
The main thing indeed, that God requireth in public humiliation is true Repentance, in 
59  godly sorrow for our sins, and earnest imploring of his mercy in jesus Christ. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and yet with all, he requireth also a bodily Fasting, that our bodies be defrauded, not only of their superfluous and unlawful desires, but also of their due and lawful necessities in nourishment and rest, and that for these special reasons.  
1. That the body by that abstinence, may be afflicted and punished, as one instrument of evil to the Soul: Though strength and health of the body be a blessing of God, yet ofttimes it affecteth the Soul, and either stirreth it up to evil, or else is a ready weapon of unrighteousness, to execute the evil desires of it.  
2. That it may be taught by that defrauding and punishing, what is the punishment of sin. 3. That since it is a great impediment to our Soul in good, when it is satisfied in all the desires: it may not hinder, but rather further the Soul in so holy an exercise, but the felt necessities of it, make it to spur our Soul to be earnest in the service of God, who is only able to save both Soul and body.  
4. Lastlie, for the compleete Humiliation of the whole Man: that as both Soul and body have sinned, and every one of them have had their own part in that wickedness, they may now suffer conjunctly, and be humbled for it before God.  
With prayer and Fasting other things must 
57  be joined: First course and base Apparel, that none come before God in their best clothing, but in their course and common garments: Costly raiment doth no more agree with Fasting and Repentance, than laughing and surfeit: An heart sopped with sorrow and bitterness for sin, can neither desire, nor take pains upon the busking of the body. Remorsfull thoughts can neither breed nor dwell under a painted face, and a husked body: Contrition in the heart commandeth a neglect of the flesh: As our flesh ought to be taught by defrauding of nourishment, so also in bafnesse and neglect of apparel.  
In most of our former Fasts, this hath been a blot, that people have come to the Lords House in their best garments, when he hath cried for sackcloth and ashes: They make no difference betwixt Fasting and Feasting: Betwixt Repentance and other joyful solemnities, as Communion and Thanksgiving. Naomie thought her name (which signifieth beautiful) not fitting for her pittiefull estate, and the bitterness of her heart, and desired not to be called Naomie, but Marah or bitterness.  
When our Parents sinned in Paradise, their nakedness made them ashamed, and that shame made them cover their nakedness with any thing that come first to hand. Busking at Fasting is not of shamefastness, but a shameless outfacing of the world, their own Conscience and the justice of God. That devotion will never pierce heaven, where the rattling of silks and Velvets out-cryeth the groans of their Spirits.  
The sorrowful jews: rend their garments, and cast dust on their heads: Dolour in the heart biddeth the body hang out sorrowful ensigns, and these in black or base clothing: But in a busked body, there is not no such dulefull ensign, and therefore, no sorrow in the heart. These painted Puppies seem to be sent of Satan to Congregations▪ to be blots in them, and scoffers of God in his Face.  
The Primitive Church enjoined their Penitents to come before the Congregation in sackcloth, and cast themselves on the ground, so that ofttimes their tears moistening the dust, defiled their faces with clay: A face so overlaid, is more beautiful in the sight of God, than jezabel's fairding. They seem to read Silk for Sack in the Prophet's exhortations to Fasting; at least they put on Silk in stead of Sack.  
To hear Doctrine of Humiliation, and to be richly ●led, do not agree: To pretend grief in heart, and be sumptuously arrayed, is abomination in the sight of God, and a visible Solecism, in the eyes of Man.  
2. The second thing to be joined with Fasting, Is a large offering for the support of the 
58  Poor: It is our time of supplication to God for his grace, whereof we both desire and expect a large measure: Why should we not then be liberal to the Poor? As we would have him open handed to fill our hearts with grace, We should be free to help their necessities: Beside the measure of our daily offering to them, we are bound to convert the charges of our house to their comfort, that what we spare on ourselves in Fasting, may be lent to God, and given to the poor.  
Unless this way we help them, we offer to God but a lame sacrifice, and turn his service to our own worldly gain, because that which we spare on ourselves, remaineth with us To be large in Devotion, & niggard in our contribution to the poor, is to prove, that we count more of our monies than of Devotion: And to move God to respect it as little, as we do  
This hath also been a great fault in our former▪ Fast.  
We ought therefore to give our dinner to them that are hungry, that Christ hungering in the poor, may receive that which the fasting Christian doth abate: And so our Fasts may be filled and fatted with Almous deeds, and we may rejoice that our Fasting hath made another to eat.  
3. thirdly we must also join herewith all requisite godly Exercises, to bring our hearts 
59  to that holy Disposition, that God, requireth, as, 1. The reading and hearing of the Law of GOD, that we may see our dittay in the Commands that we have broken, and our Doom▪ in the threatened wrath, whereunto we are liable by these breaks: So josiahs' heart melted, when he heard it read, because he saw great sin in judah, and heavy wrath hinging over their heads.  
2. The hearing of Pastors, apply that Law to us, and launce our Conscience by their Doctrine: So Peter's Sermon pierced the Iewes hearts when their sins were laid to their charge, & they were forced to seek ease to their wounded Conscience: Act. 2. And when the Leuits did expound the Law, the people mourned before the Lord. Nehem. 8. That piercing sharpness of the word, chaseth them that are wounded to God: The heart pierced with conscience of sin, can find no rest, but in him.  
3. The reading of Books of devotion, which among other good ends, are written by godly men to stir up the heart to a tenderness, and affectuousnesse in the worship of God.  
4. Conference with Pastors, and other well affected Christians, For the mutual stirring up of our hearts to that holy Exercife: As coals joined to coals, augment the heat, so godly conference increaseth both zeal & affection.  
5. Herewith must be joined holy Meditation: All worldly thoughts must be put out of our Soul, and the thoughts of God only keeped in it: Our hearts are hard; and not soon moved we must labour on them painfully, and hold them on the ben●sell of spiritual disposition: Hard stones are dissolved by strong waters and Vinegar, and the hardest heart will be softened by laying it in the strong water of Contrition, & that piercing Vinegar of bitter remorse, all which things are furthered by constant meditation.  
6. And above all, fervent prayers to God, and singing Psalms of Repentance, that our desires be not a sound and multitude of words, but a pouring out of our very hearts, as water before him: We must wrestle with him as jacob in power of his own grace, and not suffer him to depart, till he bliss us with the remission of our sins.  
It is not enough that one sort of people fast, but all of every sort and state; For all have sinned, 
60  and are impanelled at the bar of God's justice: Gather the people, sanctify the Congregation, assemble the Elders, gather the Children, and these that suck the breasts. joel. 2. 16. And the King of Niniveh did fast, & made all his servants to fast also. jonah. 3.  
1. Pastors have their part in this work. 
61  To inform the people of their sin and danger of wrath, and waken up their conscience by the terrors of the Law, that being priked in their hearts, they may cry out, Men and Brethren, what shall we do. Act. 2.  
2. And not that only but also in example to go before them: Let the Priests the Lord's Ministers weep between the Porch & the Altar. joel. 2. That thereby, they may show to the people, that they themselves believe the things which they speak of sin and death, and that the work of Humiliation is good when they practise it affectuouslie.  
3. To intercede with God for their people, that he would pardoun and spare them: Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine Inheritance to reproach. joel. 2. Moses was so zealously careful of the people's safety. that he wished his name to be razed out of the Book of Life, rather than they were destroyed: And Phineas seeing the plague, break into the Camp, made atonement for them. This is to stand in the gap, and make up the breach from staying the proceeding of God's anger. Ezech. 22. 30.  
And the bearing of the names of the Tribes of Israel, on the Breastplate of our heart, in a Pastoral love, and on the two Shoulders of an earnest care and assiduous labour: Presenting them and their necessities daily to God.  
Our time is like the time of jeremiah and Ezechiel. God hath now presented the roll of his Book unto us, and it is all written within and without, Lamentation, mourning, and woe. Ezech. 2. 10.  
Our duty is as Noah, to fore-warne the world of the Flood: As jonah to denounce destruction against Niniveh: And as men that stand in the counsel of God, to discover the iniquity of the people, to turn them from their sin, and turn away their captivity. jerem. 23.  
Now the Ship of God's Church, is tossed and beaten with the stormy Seas of calamities, and the multitude, like jonah in the sides of the Ship, and are fast asleep in their sin: We ought to rouse them up, and cry, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, and call upon thy God: If so be, God will think upon us, that we perish not. jonah. 1. 6. Why will ye die in your sins, O house of Israel. Ezech, 18. 31.  
The people also aught to consider their duties 
2  heere●n. 1. To count it a blessing of God to have Pastors that will waken them, for none of themselves, can awak out of the sleep of sin: David a Prophet, & tender hearted, had need of a Nathan to waken his sleeping Conscience. 2. Therefore they should hear and receive information from their Pastors, whom God hath set over them: As he hath bound Pastors under heaviest pain to inform them, so are they bound in Conscience to hear them, and receive their instruction. 3. To deal with their pastors, to interceded for them with the Lord: Cease not to cry to the Lord for us, that he would deliver us from the Philistmes, said Israel to Samuel. 1. Sam. 7. 8. And pray to the Lord, for thy servants, that we die not ibid. 1.  
4. To join their prayers with the prayers of their Pastors: If they lie still in senselessness, the prayers sent up to God for them will not avail. Pharaoh desired Moses to pray for him, but prayed not for himself. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. jer. 15. 1. But when Pastors & people join their prayers together, then God suffereth himself to be bound with the bonds of his own making, even his mercy and truth in the promise laid upon him by faith, in fervent prayers.  
A clear proof of all these duties, in Pastors and people, is in Samuel the Prophet, and the Israelites: When he reproved them for their sin the people drew out water (not out of wells, but out of their broken hearts) and poured it out at their eyes, and fasted, and weeped that day, and said, We have sinned against the Lord, and besought the Prophet to pray to God for them. Then he offered a sacrifice▪ and cried to the Lord for them, and the Lord heard him, and delivered in their hands the Host of the Philistimes, which was come up against them. 1. Sam. 7.  
If we mind sincerely to approve our selves to God in Fasting, it must be both public and private,. Public humiliation at such solemn times, is both first and most required, for sundry reasons. 1. To justify God, who hath arrested us, and threatened or begun judgementes, by public confession of our sins, proclaiming that he hath just cause of wrath against us; and so by that public homage done to him, to acknowledge our obligement to him, for a new holding of the life that he spareth to us.  
2. secondly, to make a more forcible onset on him, by all our prayers joined together. For he who hath promised to hear us in secret apart, and to be in the midst of two or three, that are met in his Name, will not he be in the midst of some hundreths, and thousands when they are come before him. Matth. 6. 6. And he who said▪ Moses, Let me alone (as though Moses prayers did bind him) shall he not suffer himself to be stayed from executing his wrath, when many thousands fervent and faithful prayers lay hold upon him at once.  
3. For our mutual and greater incitation: Many who in Congregations meet together, possibly have gone before other in evil example, and some have offended and stumbled at the fall of other.  
It is therefore most expedient, that these see one another in that solemn Devotion: That they who have given evil example in sin may give good example by their Repentance: & they who have conceived just offence of other, may lay aside their offence, when they see them rise from their sin. David offended many by his sins, but doubtless his Repentance satisfied them, and converted more people to God.  
4. For Satan's greater conviction, he intendeth no less in drawing us to sin, than to yock God and us together, & so to set us before him as guilty persons to be destroyed, both in this life, and at the day of our last reckoning: But in these public Assemblies he seeth the case altered, that God hath prevented the term, and in place of a wrathful meeting, to come to a friendly commoning, & to end in a gracious reconciliation. When God cometh down in these meetings, and melteth the hearts of his people, and reconcealeth them to him, such a sight is an heartbreak to Satan.  
We ought also to join private Humiliation 
64  in our Houses, with that public Exercise. And they shall mourn every Family apart. The Family of the house of David apart, and their wiises apart: The Family of the house of Nathan apart, etc. Zech. 12. And that for sundry causes. 1. We pollute our houses by sin, and therefore aught to sanctify them to God particularly, in the time of a solemn Fast. David sanctified his House after Absoloms sin, and shall not we much more consecrate our houses for our own sin?  
2. For Preparation to the public worship: If we come out of our own houses to God's House, without any preparation, we cannot look for a great blessing in the Sanctuary: Private worship before we come out, is as a seed for the greater and public work.  
3. And when we have been in the Sanctuary, and returned to our houses, we ought to turn it in an Harvest in them in reaping the fruit that we have found in public: Our Houses then are both the Barn and the Garner: wherein we provide the seed that we take out to the Sanctuary, and to the which we bring in the Harvest, and increase that we have found in it.  
4. Private worship is a seal of the sincerity of Grace, for many do counterfeit Devotion & Repentance in public, who have none exercise of it in their houses, all their care is to be seen of men, and so they are holy in the Church, and profane at home: But to exercise God's worship fervently in private, is a token of a true and vigorous grace of God.  
5. For greater liberty, to utter groaning, weeping, humbling, and prostrating of our body in private, than we can in public, there we do many things which would find an uncheritable censure, if they were seen of men: Affections once loosed, will break out in sundry actions, which in public we must suppress; but in private we give them liberty. Hannah uttered grief of heart in the Temple, and was misconstrued by Eli, but her private devotion at home, though with greater liberty was not offensive, but a cause of her husbands more tender affection to her. 1. Sam. 1. David in private, watered his bed with tears. Psal. 6. And filled his house with roaring, which in public he did moderate. Psal. 32. And by this private worship, is not only to be understood, when the whole Family meeteth together in their Hall, or other convenient room, but beside that, when the Master of the house having discharged that duty with his Family, goeth a part to some reteered corner of the house, & there is yet more free in his devotion than he can be in the sight of his Family: And so other of the house, who are come to understanding or any measure of Grace: This is, the Family apart and their wives apart.  
In end, we have three things to consider in 
65  all his work 1. First our preparation for it: The work is transcendent to the natural man, and craveth preparation to lift him above Nature, in so heavenly an exercise. Though sudden ejaculations wait not on preparation, because in them we are set to work upon an instant, by some urging occasion, yet in the set diet of his worship, we are bound to an holy preparation: And in this solemnity we have need to double the measure of our devotion, being called to the highest extent both of afflicting Nature, and stirring up the grace of God in us.  
It is therefore needful, to try if God prepare us for the work. This we shall know. 2. If he open our eyes, to see how needful this humiliation is for us, by seeing our sin & his just wrath, that we may be driven to that resolution that we must either break off our sin by Repentance, or else be consumed in his anger 3. And by this sight, if he waken our sleeping conscience and make it to set us to work, that we give God no rest, till he give rest to his beloved. 4. This is some proof of that which God telleth I have been sought of them that answered not, and found of them that sought me not: And before they call I will answer. Isa. 65. 1. Where our miserable State hid from ourself, is seen of him, so as he pitieth it to help it, that our misery unwitting of us, calleth for mercy: As the sores of a sleeping Child move the Father to compassion: And though we neither seek him, nor call on him, in any known or sensible incalling, yet his fatherly pity answereth the cry of that our necessity, when we know not: This is a preventing Grace in this point: Whereby God finding us in the pit of misery, setteth down Jacob's Ladder to us, afore we know of our estate, or think of a delivery.  
Next, we should try our disposition in the 
66  work itself, if Gods preventing Grace in preparation be seconded by an assisting Grace, which standeth in those points. 1. If he soften our heart, to pour out itself as water before him, and bruise it, so as to be an acceptable Sacrifice.  
2. If he pour upon us the Spirit of Grace and Supplication, his Spirit making intercession for us, to help our infirmities, in teaching us both what to ask, and how to pray, with groans that cannot be expressed.  
3. If he give us Boldness to draw near to the Throne of Grace, and to find access to him in the blood of Christ, and liberty of Spirit in all our devotion.  
4. If he give us the desire of our heart, in disposing it as we desire, to be both casten down for his offence, and raised up in hope and confidence of his mercy: To feel our hearts melting in a godly sorrow, is matter of unspeakable joy; while that sorrow is melting the heart, the sense & conscience of that disposition, comforteth our heart when we find God's Spirit hath given us our will over our hard heart, to sacrifice it to God.  
5. If we see his beauty in the Sanctuary, when he holdeth the golden Sceptre of Peace, like Assuerus, and cometh down, and moveth people to tears and groans. When the Angel of the Lord, or the Prophet charged the people of their sins, they did mourn, so that the place was called Bochim or mourners. And assisteth every one according to their necessity and place, making the Pastors as Trumpets, to speak and not spare, his words in their mouth is as the Hammer, that breaketh the Rock in pieces. jerem. 23. 23.  
When he casteth down, and raiseth up, woundeth, and healeth us again, and worketh so in the Congregation, that it may be seen he hath appointed that meeting, and keepeth it to reconceale his people to himself.  
6. If as he worketh a godly sorrow in our hearts, so be putteth words in our mouth for his entreaty: Take to you words, and turn to the LORD, and say to him, Take away all our iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips. Host 14. 2.  
And again, Let them say, Spare thy people, Lord, and save thine Inheritance. joel. 2. 17.  
It is a token, God will hear us, when he giveth us his Spirit to help our infirmities, and dytteth our bill: He cannot refuse that supplication, which he formeth himself.  
He heard Daniel, and send him comfort while he prayed: While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, the Man Gabriel being caused to flee to me swiftly touched me, and said, At the beginning of the supplication, the Commandment came forth. Dan. 9 20. So son as we are humbled on Earth, and send up our supplications to God, he is ready to answer us to our heart.  
thirdly, how we close that Exercise: If 
67  as it beginneth in sorrow for our felt miseries, so it end in joy, because our sacrifice is turned in ashes. We have sufficient grounds of good success upon his promises: But beside these promises in his word, his work in preparing us for it, and disposing us in it, are a good inducement to our hope: When he poureth out the Spirit of Supplication on jerusalem, then assuredly he will break up a Fountain to the house of David for sin, and for uncleanness, Zac. 13. 1.  
We know not his purpose and thoughts concerning us, but his Spirit who knoweth his mind, revealeth them, and this is an sort of revelation by his working: For as he knoweth the mind of God, so he worketh the godly to that disposition which he knoweth is most requisite, for obtaining the purposed blessing. Therefore that holy and heavenly, liberty, is ●ome sort of evidence to us, that God hath both purposed for us, and will give us the blessing, which we crave after that manner. When he strengtheneth us to wrestle with him, like jacob, he will not depart, till he bless us, and of wrestling jacobs, make us his prevailing Israel on whom is his peace.  
But, let none deceive himself by a voluntar 
68  apprehension of Peace, or fainzie to himself a joy where he hath none: God hath given us the infallible mark of good success of Fasting in new obedience: Who so after Fasting walketh not in a newness of life, is deceived by his seduced heart.  
This is clear, both by the Nature of Repentance, and remission: True Repentance is not only in a sorrowing for sin, and refraining from it, for a day or two, but for all our life-time thereafter. The purposes & vows of obedience, which we make in our Repentance, must be practised and performed: Though the act of Repentance endure not ever in itself, yet the virtue of it remaineth constantly in the godly.  
In Baptism we are sacramentally changed, and at the time of our effectual calling, we feel that Sacramental grace in justification, and sanctification, and all our following days we are bound to go forward in them: Since Repentance then is nothing but Sanctification contracted: And sanctification all our life is nothing, but Repentance enlarged and continued, it will follow that if sanctification do not kith constant after our Fasting, there hath been no true Repentance in it.  
Remission of sin proveth the same: For though justification, and Sanctification be two several graces in themselves, and bring several respects & dispositions in us, yet they are inseparable, for God never pardoneth the guilt of sin, but iontlie therewith he slayeth sin original: As he washeth away the blot of all sin, so he woundeth deadly the root of sinning sin in us: And the conscience of our washing in the blood of Christ, doth ever beget in us a care to keep these garments clean which God hath cleansed.  
Therefore, if there be not after our Fast a visible amendment of life, neither have we repent, nor God pardoned our sin, but we have added greater and worse sins to the former, and brought upon us a degree of judicial induration and hardness of heart: When Christ had healed the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda, he commanded him, Sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee. joh. 5. So when we are washed in the house of the Lords abundantly poured out mercy, let us keep ourself from sin thereafter.  
If God be with us, & accept our Prayers, than 
69  we may be sure of these following fruits. 1. Of Remission of sins, in jesus Christ: So when David confessed his sins, and said, I have sinned against the Lord: he was answered by Nathan: The Lord hath also put away thine iniquity: he had a warrant more speedily to absolve him, than he had to accuse him. ●. Sa. 12. And when the Publican knocked on his breast, & said, The Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, he went home justified: Lu. 18. And when the forlorn Son came in Repentance to his Father, he received him in his favour & house again. Luk. 15 He seeth no sin in jacob, nor transgression in Israel: Our God pardeneth iniquity, & passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his Inheritance; he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.  
He will turn again, he will have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins in the bottom of the Sea. Mica. 7. 18.  
2. He will accept of our persons, under his shadow, nothing holdeth us out of that secret 
70  refuge, but our sin, because he is of purer Eyes, than he can behold sine, and he pursueth sin in all, and can no more protect an impenitent sinner, than he can deny, his justice. But when the heart is purged from every evil conscience, them his refuge is open to us.  
3. As for our Enemies. we should consider 
71  their estate, better than themselves, they are in God's work for our punishment, but neither in his favour, nor of his disposition.  
They are more foolish than Satan, he durst not hurt job, without a Commission of God, but they think all possible & lawful to them: And when he set on to execute that Commission, though malice blinded his desire, yet not his mind, for he did fore▪ see a disappointing, because he knew God's love to job, by so many pledges and testimonies of his sincerity in Grace: But our enemies are not so wise as he: They go on without Commission, sought & obtained they expound their prevailing, as God's sentence approving their cause, and see not that all their business is a provyding of a Coffin, and beare-trees, to carry them out of this combat with shame & confusion. God will plead his cause against them. He hath given them a hard, but a just commission against us for our sins. Assur is the rod of mine anger, I will send him against an hypocritical Nation, against the people of mine anger will I give him a charge to take the spoil: But they passed the bounds of their commission, and satisfied their own wicked heart upon the people of God. For Assur meaneth not as God doth, but his heart is to destroy and cut off Nations, Isa. 10.  
They say, Let us defile Zion, but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand his Counsel. Micah. 4 12. And when God suffereth them to prevail, for the humiliation of his own, they sacrifice to their own net, and impute all this success to their own Idols. Habak. 2. 11.  
When God hath humbled us▪ and pardoned our sins, than their Commission expyreth▪ and God will plague them in his fury for their own wickedness in doing his work perversely. And therefore, he will turn him against them, & plead his cause saying, I am very sore displeased with the Heathen, that are at ease: For I was but a little displeased with my people, & the Enemies helped forward the affliction: I was angry with my people, and polluted mine Inheritance▪ and given them in thine hand: But thou hast showed them no mercy, thou hast laid upon the Ancient a very heavy yoke. Zach. 2. 16. Is. 47. 6.  
And in his due time, he will turn the rage of the enemy to his praise, the remnant of their rage he will restrain. Psal. 76. He will stretch out his hand against the wrath of our enemies, and his right hand shall save us. Psal. 138. 7.  
So that we may justly say to them, Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy, when I fall, I shall rise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me: I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgement for me. He will bring me forth to the Light, and I shall behold his Righteousness: Then she that is mine Enemies shall see, and shame shall cover her, which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her, now she shall be trodden down as mire in the street. Mica. 7. 8. 9 10. They are now an instrument in his hand, to execute his anger on us, but they shall be the Bute and mark of his greater anger.  
4. As for the Churches now desolate, God will return to them in mercy, in his own time: 
72  And this time is, when they are purged from sin, and the sins and insolency of the Enemy are come to an height: Then God will rise▪ and have mercy upon Zion: For the time to save her, even the set time is come. Psal. 102. 13.  
It is time for the Lord to work when they have made void his Law. Psal. 119. 126. So long as sin remaineth in the Church, the commission given to our enemies▪ is in force.  
If we move the question, O thou Sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself in thy Scabbard and be still: It will be answered, How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge. And the charge will lest till sin be repent. When sin is pardoned, the Lord will speak to his reconcealed people, Fear not, thou worm, jacob, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel: Fear not, for I am with thee, I will uphold thee, with the right hand of my Righteousness. Behold, all they which were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded, and they that strive with thee, shall perish. Isa. 41. 10. 11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards thee, sayeth the Lord, even thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you the expected end jer. 29. 11.  
He will build up the Tabernacles of David that are fallen down, and make up the breaches thereof, and repair the ruins thereof, as of old: Amos. 9 11. And will say, I am returned to jerusalem with mercy, mine House shall be built in it, sayeth the Lord of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched out upon it. Zach. 1. 5.  
As for us, whom as yet in mercy, he hath 
73  spared from cruel persecution, he is now crying to us, Come my people, enter into thy Chambers, and shoot thy doors about thee, Hide thyself, as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed: The Lord will ordain peace for us, when he hath wrought all our works, even the works of true Repentance and Conversion in us. Isa. 26. 12. 20.  
If we repent truly▪ the River of his Grace will flow among us, and the Streams of it will make us glad: He will dwell in the midst of us, and help us timously. Psal. 46. He will be a fiery wall round about us, and a glory in the midst of us. Zachar. 2. 5.  
This is the sum of all: That we return 
74  to the LORD our GOD, and seek him when he may be found, even in this acceptable time when he is seeking us: That we afflict our Souls for sin, and call for remission of them, without which we cannot be saved: That every one of us forsake our evil ways, and renew our Covenant with him: And among the rest, let us mourn for this madness that we offended such a GOD, who as he hath power to destroy us, so also he hath that Grace in his hand, without the which we cannot repent; our sins at once both pulling down destruction, and closing the door of his Grace upon us, except his unspeakable mercy open it unto us again.  
The LORD our GOD, the Father of 
75  Lights, from whom every good Gift and perfect Donation cometh down: And who hath the hearts of all men in his hand, work in us all, in this and all other Humiliations, that which may be acceptable to him: That by his Grace we may be enabled to offer the sacrifice of a contrite and a broken heart, and obtain at his hand full pardon and remission of all our sins.  
And the good LORD pardon all our sins, and the very infirmities of that our Repentance for sin: And be merciful to every one that prepareth his heart to seek the LORD GOD of his Fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purifications of the Sanctuary: 2. Chr. 30. 18. 19 Through JESUS CHRIST our LORD,  
AMEN.  
FINIS.   

The sum of the former TREATISE.  

THe duty of Watchmen. Numb. 1  
Scotland's Pastors give warning. 2  
A Fast appointed. 3  
1. Cause. The Church's affliction. 4  
It is Antichrists persecution. 5  
But he colloureth it with civil respects. 6  
Why God afflicteth his Church. 7  
Their trouble is our lesson. 8  
We should mourn with them. 9  
For their Persons. 10  
And for the Gospel. 11  
And for our home dangers. 12  
2. Cause. The sins of this Land. 13  
Sins against the Law. 14  
Sins against the Gospel. 15 

1. Infidelity. 16  
2. Universal Disobedience. 17  
3. Apostasy. 18    
Papists admonished. 19 

4. Atheism. 20  
5. Breach of brotherly Love.. 21  
6. Contempt of the Word and Preachers. 22  
7. Sacrilege.  
8. Impenitency▪ 23    
Four signs of a deadly Disease in this Land. 24  
Gods controversy with this Land. 25  
3. Cause. Our Kings Ma. Royal affairs. 26  
Removal of the Gospel to be feared. 27  
An idle conceit refuted. 28  
Use of discovery of the new World. 29  
The Sword to be feared. 30  
God our best defence. 31  
Right use of lawful means. 32  
God hath impanelled this Land. 33  
None escape but by Repentance. 34  
God commandeth it. 35  
Prayers and Tears our kindly weapons. 36  
Satan is most afraid of them. 37  
How we are called to them. 38  
We must fast. 39  
Not the Hypocrets Fast. 40  
Nor the Papists Fast, In 41  
But the Christians Fast which standeth in 42 

1. Inquirie where sin is. 43    
And that not laying it on another. 44  
But taking it to ourselves. 45  
Not to wait on others Repentance. 46  
But repent ourselves. 47 

2. Next in renting our hearts▪ 48    
The reasons of that renting. 49 

3. In amendment of life. 50  
4. In confidence of mercy▪ 51    
Fine Grounds of it from God. 52  
From his Covenant. 53  
From Experience. 54  
How to process ourselves. 55  
Four reasons of bodily Fasting. 56  
Base Apparel to be used▪ 57  
Large Alms to the Poor, 58  
Six godly Exercises joined. 59  
All must repent. 60  
Pastors duty in Fasting. 61  
People's duty in Fasting. 62 

4. Reasons for public Humiliation. 63  
5. Reasons of private Humiliation. 64  
1. Preparation for Fasting, 65  
2. Disposition in it. 66  
3. How we close it. 67    
New obedience, a proof of Repentance. 68  
True Repentance findeth. 

1. Remission. 69  
2. Accepting of our persons. 70  
3. Punishment of our Enemies. 71  
4. Releaving of his distressed Church. 72  
5. Continuance of our Peace. 73    
A Prayer for Repentance and Remission. 74  
And for pardon of the faults of our Repentance. 75   
FINIS.