A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right HONOURABLE, THE LORDS Assembled in Parliament, In the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster, Upon the Fastday appointed April 10. 1678. By WILLIAM, Lord Bishop of St. David's. LONDON, Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Tho. Collins, at the Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet; and William Leach, at the Crown in Cornhill near the Stocks Market▪ 1678. Die Jovis 11o Aprilis, 1678. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled, That the Thanks of this House be given to the Lord Bishop of St. David's, for his Sermon preached yesterday in the Abbey Church at Westminster, before the House of Peers; it being appointed by His Majesty to be observed as a Public Fastday in the Cities of London and Westminster. And his Lordship is desired by this House to Print and Publish the said Sermon. JO. BROWNE. Cleric. Parliament. A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable, The HOUSE of PEERS, At the Abbey Church of S. Peter Westminster, on April 10. 1678. S. Luke 13. ver. 5. I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. OUr blessed Saviour having, in the close of the former Chapter, treated of the disconsolate close of life, of the dismal state of Man dying unreconciled to God, in security, impenitency; (it being a symptom of the most irrecoverable misery, not to commiserate one's self; Nil miserius misero, non miserante seipsum. Aug. to be upon the brink of the greatest peril, and not to dread the least.) Some Passengers that accidentally intervened, bolted out the fresh Tragical Intelligence of the destruction of the Galileans. This is the Novel (and for aught I find) single conjecture of Maldonate. It is more credibly and generally asserted, that some of Christ's set Auditors here, took the hint, and mentioned the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices; as if a singular impiety had rendered them liable to this singular cruelty; as if God had culled them out for vessels of his indignation to be poured into; as if he had set them for Brands of an unparallelled unremitted guilt. Our humane corrupt Nature is no less prone to impeach, to doom wickedness at distance, than to espouse, embrace it at hand. Christ, the true Oracle, teacheth the Israelites better Divinity, not to usurp God's Throne of Judicature, to pass Sentence of Condemnation upon others, but to erect a Tribunal in their own bosom, to arraign themselves. Christ reproveth their erroneous sentiment touching the Galileans, embrued in their own Oblations (the Offerer being become the Offering.) And touching the Eighteen persons, shivered to their first Principles, by the sudden demolition of the Tower of Siloam. As for both, the estimate, the measure of their vices is not to be taken by their calamities. I tell you, Nay; but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. The Text is chequered with Clemency and Severity; it blunts the edge without, to restrain our censure; and sharpens it within, to excite our repentance. It is a Pillar of Cloud by day, to enwrap the offences of others in an obscure concealment; it is a Pillar of Fire by night, for the discovery of our own, to enlighten our judgements, to inflame our zeal: not to be Satirists, Critics; but Penitents, Converts. The Text is twice recited within the compass of five verses; it is a reiterated smart admonition, the same sacred advertisement upon a double dysaster; the one permitted by God, executed by Pilate; the other hath the aspect of a more immediate stroke of the Divine Justice. The Text brancheth itself to two Propositions. The one negative, implicit, wrapped up; I tell you, Nay. The other, positive, explicit, unfolded; Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. The first may be thus unvailed. Neither the Galileans slaughtered amidst their Sacrifices, nor those Eighteen Persons crushed at the Tower Siloam, were greater Transgressor's, than the other Israelites. It is Debtors above others, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Luke 13. 4. in the immediate precedent verse. It is a frequent Syriack Idiom: They were not more chargeable for the Talon misemployed, embezel'd, than other accomptants in Israel. The Proposition admits a double survey, Historical, and Doctrinal. In our Historical consideration, there is an harmony among Expositors touching those that perished at the Tower of Siloam. A Narration scarce any where else extant in Sacred or Profane Records. Touching the former Calamity (that of the Galileans) there hath been started variety of Opinions. Some gloss the Title Galileans to be a disguise for Samaritans; Galilee (being out of the Verge of Pilat's Jurisdiction.) St. Cyril of Alexandrina, and others in his Track, unmasque the Galileans to be the Disciples of Judas the Gaulonite, a grand turbulent Incendiary, who had trained his Scholars in a Lecture of the blackest grain of Sedition, (Nigriani in the primitive style) who instructed them to withdraw their obedience from the Roman Empire, Nec Nigriani, nec Cassi ani. Tertul. and their intercession for the Emperor. Whereof Pilate being certified, surprised, massacred these Galileans, as they were celebrating their Sacrifices. Samaritans they might be for Climate, for extraction; and yet denominated Galileans for their Sect, for their Tutor. There is a third Relation of a famous, or rather infamous Magician of Galilee, who, in the notion of a Messiah, had encouraged multitudes (saith Aegesippus) conducted them to Mount Ge●izim, alleging he would thence ascend to Heaven. Which Imposture, Pilate blasted in the bud, confuted their blasphemy, not by the Tongue or Pen, but by the Sword. To decline the Historical view of the Proposition, the Doctrinal may be thus displayed. The greatest pressures, the sharpest miseries, the saddest periods of this Life, are no demonstrative Arguments, to conclude the greatest sinners. The Clouds distil their soft dew, pour down their fertile showers; the Sun darts its warm beams, its benign influences to all sorts of men. God freely communicates secular blessings to Saints and Miscreants; he is thus kind to the unthankful, and to the evil; gracious to the ungrateful, to the ungracious, notoriously vicious, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. as the Original imports. The accommodations of this World are bestowed upon good men, Luke 6. 35. Dantur bonis ne putentur summa mala, dantur malis, ne putentur summa bona. August. lest they should be deemed, branded to be absolutely evil; and upon evil men, lest they should be reputed, magnified to be absolutely good. As the prophanenest Wretches have some commendable qualities to be recompensed. So to poise the Scale of the Doctrine, the severest Votaries have some infirmities to be corrected; being pure Bullion from the Oar, not the Furnace, to be refined by afflictions, which are their purgations. Christ doth not vindicate the slaughtered Galileans, nor those mangled at Siloam from being offenders. Their calamities were the transcript of their vices. Death is the stipend of guilt, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rom. 6. 6. (in the Apostles phrase) it is the vilest wages of the vilest warfare of sin. The denial is fastened on the Comparative, not the Positive, they were not greater sinners. If Gods Spiritual favours were to be proportioned by Temporal, Mahumetans must be preferred before Christians, Babylon would shine with a brighter lustre, than Jerusalem or Antioch. No Country hath been more polluted, branded with Idolatry, with Sorcery, than Egypt; and yet none more abounded with plenty; it was the Granary of the Roman Empire, the Sanctuary of the Israelites in their exigencies of a Famine. It was the blasphemous Argument of Cicero, to extol the false Roman gods, and to vilify the true Deity, the holy One of Israel; because the Jews were distressed, in eclipse, in umbrage; whereas the Romans flourished in grandeur and splendour. It was the bad Logic, and worse Divinity of Jobs pretended Friends, his uncommissioned Judges, who made his tribulations Topics to prove, to infer his crimes. By this Test, the Bible must veil to the Alcoran, Martyrs must pass for Malefactors, the name of the first Christian Martyr St. Stephen signifies a Crown. This is the state of Triumph in Heaven. The Ensign of Conflict on Earth is not a Throne, or Sceptre; the Standard is a Cross. We must not fancy to be translated from Carnal delicacies to Spiritual, to Eternal; from a Mahometan Paradise to a Christian; from depraved sensualities below, to untainted Felicities, to unbounded Glories above; that we should frolic, revel with the World, Nimis delicatulus silvis gaudere cum seculo, & regnare cum Christo. Hier. and yet rejoice, reign with Christ. The Israelites passage, as to that earthly, so to that heavenly Canaan, was through a Wilderness of Briers. The path of Bliss is not strewed with Roses, but with thorns. Our travel to that Jerusalem that is above, is pestered with difficulties, encumbrances; like Hannibal's march to Italy, over the Alps, over Rocks, to be wrought with Fire and Vinegar. If we survey the whole Catalogue of God's faithful Servants, recorded in Sacred Writ, their character will appear like Pictures drawn in dim and sullied Colours. To produce some instances therein, to take our rise from Adam: To deny his repentance, his acceptance with God, was the Heresy of the Taciani, no less destitute of truth, than candour. The more charitable Tenet of the Justification, the Salvation of the First Adam, by the merits of the Second, hath been asserted, vindicated in the purest antiquity of the Church. And yet his calamities were multiplied, in the Consort, the Mate of his bosom, Ne contristaretur delitian Hieron. become the Engine of Satan, to inveigle him; he swallowed her poison (more fatal than that of Messalina to Claudius) to prevent her melancholy. Afflicted he was in his Offspring, in all succeeding Ages, by an irreversible Entail of misery, of mortality. Distressed in his Person, his Possession; ejected out of Paradise, garrisoned against him with a flaming Sword. The whole Earth doomed upon his account; its verdure withered, its fruit embittered, to render his diet a penance more than a repast, Gen. 3. 17. (In sorrow shalt thou eat of it.) The delicious Flowers of the Field transformed to venomous Weeds, to noxious Thistles. Being, by a Sentence of Proscription, not to be repealed, banished out of Eden; to continue, to complete his anguish, he lamented three hundred years upon the Indian Mountains (if the Eastern Tradition may be credited.) His most gracious Son Abel was least prosperous; his fate was legible in his name, which denotes sorrow: Though his Oblation was accepted in Heaven, (an Incense, a Perfume of Piety) yet his Person was wounded on earth, wallowed in blood: the slaughter sudden, without provocation, and, for aggravation, acted by a Brother, who murdered whilst he courted him, during the infancy of the World, snatched away in the maturity of his Grace, rendering him in his life a Saint, and in his death a Martyr, in vindication of God's present Providence, Targ. Hierosol. and future Judgement, in opposition of the Atheistical Tenet of Cain. The Ark, the Type of the Church, (in the judgement of the Fathers) was in a floating condition, exposed to fierce surges, to blustering storms. Noah, the Pilot of it, like Janus with two Vizards, who saw two Worlds, the Old and the New, was (in Helvicus' account) the most afflicted man interested in either: Origen reckons him the middle person betwixt Adam and Abraham; he abundantly shared in the miseries of both. Even Abraham, a greater Believer before the Law (in the opinion of St. Jerom) than the Centurion in the Gospel, applauded by Christ's Elegy of a Non pareil, S. Matth. 6. 10. no such faith found, no not in Israel Abraham, not only a Dignitary in God's Court, but a Privado in his Closet, linked, associated with the complacencies of a Friend, whose bosom on Earth was the seat of Grace, and being in Heaven, S. Luke 16. 23. is the phrase, the eloquence, for the receptacle of Glory; he who had large Promises of a prosperous Progeny, had ample Experiments of adversity in himself. Discomposed he was, disquieted with the ejection of Hagar, of Ishmael; with the dissatisfaction, the Pett, the animosity of Sarah; endangered in her endearments, her attractive ravishing beauty being the bait for his destruction. Sequestered he was from his Family, his Country, translated, not for preferment, but peregrination, an Exile without a Trope. His Ten Temptations (as the Rabbins account them) were sharp afflictions, though sacred Exercises of his Virtues, yet severe evidences of his miseries. With what yearning, bleeding bowels, with what piercing conflicts betwixt carnal and spiritual Interests, was he travelling three days towards Mount Moriah, to effect (as to the estimate of the World) a most inhuman, unnatural, prodigious cruelty, to make his most ingratiated Son an Holocaust, a whole Burnt-offering: His darling Son Isaac, no less the Issue of his Faith, than of his Loins, did but equivocate with delight; it was varnished in his name, not imprinted in his bosom; his eyes were dim, not darkened with years, * Augustinus Totius hominis debilitas oculos perdidisse. Quintil. but diseases; (the deprivation of sight being the infirmity, not of one Member, but of all.) This affliction was aggravated by the duration of it above forty years. His heart was chilled and dampt by the depravation of Esau, the dissimulation of Jacob. That Jacob, who did inherit his Father's Graces, though not his Incomes; his Piety, though not his Fortune; and * Scholast. Hist. Optimum contemplativae & activae vitae exemplar. Bern. consecrated in his Mother's womb, that most accomplished pattern of a contemplative and of an active life, mournfully confessed, that his days were evil not in a notion of Morality, but in the dress, the style of an Haebraism, not for crimes, but calamities; days overcast with mists of tribulation. In the flower, the vigour of his age, his condition was servile, his service debased to a vassalage, that vassalage imbittered by imposture: His Wedlock not a solace, but an anguish; his Progeny a scourge. His nearest Relatives were the procurement of his sharpest anxieties; chased, persecuted by Esau, by Laban; racked in spirit by the carnal defilement of Dinah, the heinous Incest of Reuben; the treacherous rage, the monstrous cruelty of Simeon and Levi, more wounded by their impieties, than the Shichemites were by their Swords. His most honoured Son Joseph, in whom the blessing of all his Progenitors were accumulated, was maligned by his Brethren, a Merchandise of distress, sold to the Midianites, Egyptians; he was defamed, impeached, imprisoned; he had his three years' Manacles before his Robes. Moses, more exalted than Joseph, not only in the Court of Pharaoh, but on the Mount of God; more ingratiated to God than Abraham, (in the opinion of S. Gregory advanced above a Humane condition, in the judgement of S. Ambrose) I had almost said, above an Angelical perfection, not without a Divine Warrant, Exod. 7. 1. (Thou shalt be a God to Pharaoh) and yet his whole life was a black Scheme of varied, continued distresses. His birth was attended with the doom, though not the fate of death. As if his entrance into the World were to resemble that of Cato to the Theatre, only to depart. He was many years banished in Midian, oppressed in Egypt, reviled, affronted in the Desert by those whom he obliged, protected, who requited the prudence, the courage, the success of his Conduct, with the gall of reproach, his Miracles with regret; taunted by Aaron, by Miriam, by Zipporah, (the wound of the Tongue being more envenomed, than of the Sword.) It is related of Sylla, That he had been happy if he had not married; and of Adrian, if he had not Reigned. Moses (King of Jeshurum) was alike disconsolate in the Nuptial Bed, and in the Regal Throne. After the toils, the troubles, the conflicts of many years march in the Desert, not admitted to set his foot in the Land of Canaan. No Scutcheon of Descent, no Titles of Honour, no Revenues of Manors derived to his Posterity; no Monument for a Memorial erected for himself, but interred in obscurity, Deut. 34. 6. his Sepulchre unknown to this day. The Royal Prophet David, stamped with a Divine Transcendent Impression, (A man after Gods own heart) was squinted at by Eliab, worried by Saul, scoffed by Michol, curbed by Joah, tortured by the foul ravishment of Tamar, the fierce revenge upon Ammon; rebelled against by Absalon, aspersed, accursed by Shimei: His miseries were like the waves, the surges of the Sea, one rolling upon another. I am here straitened with plenty, variety of matter.— Inopem me copia fecit. It was the slur of Demosthenes, that he was expert what to speak, but was to learn what to omit, to wave in silence. Justin Martyr selects Josiah as most conspicuous for the eminent mixture of Piety and Calamity. Not to muster up the Prophets, despised, detested, persecuted; Elijah scared to a flight, (unless Ravens had been his Caterers) famished; Isaiah sawed, Jeremy apprehended, arraigned, traduced, penned up in a Dungeon, stoned; Ezekiel slaughtered in Babylon, Amos clubbed to death, Micah cast headlong from a Precipice, Zacharias slain in the Temple, (the Priests being become the Sacrifice) leaving an impression of his innocent blood in the Pavement The Baptist beheaded, treated by Herod as a Prisoner, a Captive, was by Flaminius (in the Roman History) to gratify at once an impure dalliance, and an implacable fury. I shall not fix on these Fixed Stars of the Firmament of Israel, since the brightest Luminary (the Sun of Righteousness) was Eclipsed. The purity of his Doctrine, the innocency of his Conversation, (whose sole Crimes were his Virtues, and his Miracles) did irritate the malice of the Scribes and Pharisees, did expose him to the vilest infamy, the smartest torment of the Cross. Traced he was by his select Retinue, the Apostles, hurried to their Executions. St. Peter, Andrew, Philip, Simon Zelotes, crucified. St. Paul, Matthew, Mathias, James the Brother of John, beheaded. St. James (the Just) hurled down from the pinnacle of the Temple. St. John (the Evangelist) Bartholomew, cast into boiling Oil. S. Mark and Barnabas endured the fiery trial, (without a figure) burnt to cinders. This was the portion of the Primitive Saints, Confessors, Martyrs they were in the first Ten Persecutions of the Christians: Lectures they are of Patience, Charms of Consolation, to Candy the bitterest Pills of Calamities; disgusted they may be by a Natural Palate, not by a Spiritual. They serve as pregnant Precedents to correct the fancy of Augustus, of a calm recess, a serene departure out of a miserable world. Devout Souls may be wafted to a smooth Port, by a rough tempestuous Gale. In a higher Key, they who are piously qualified, may be transported in extremities of Fevers, and other violent Diseases; to utter loose, vain, frantic, profane expressions; yet are they not to be branded for reprobate Miscreants. These undecencies, impieties of Language, may be interpreted the effect of sickness, not of sin; to be ascribed to the indisposition of the Body, not the Soul; to the distempered humours of the one, not to the depraved affections of the other. The habit of Grace may be retained, where the acts are not exerted, evidenced. The exercises of Virtues may be obstructed, obscured, like sparks of fire smothered in embers. Though we may yearn with unrighteous Balaam, that we may die the death of the righteous, —▪ Sic sic juvat ire sub umbras, yet the distinct character of the Sons of God and Belial, is not to be taken from our dissolution, how plausibly, fairly, we quit the Stage of this World; but from our deportment, how we act our part, how exactly, how uprightly, we acquit ourselves upon it. How ever the distresses, the dysasters of others, ought not to excite our virulent dooms, but our contrite sorrows: Which conveys me to the Second, the Positive Explicite Proposition in my Text, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. This Proposition, at the first blush, discovers a Duty to be discharged, and a Penalty to be inflicted, in case of defailance. Before I insist on either, there is a remark to be set on the restrictive, adversative Particle, [But.] This conduceth to link the parts of the Text, and to regulate our Censures Sometimes the Hand of God avenging, is within the Ken of familiar observation. As in Antiochus, Herod, not subdued by Legions of Soldiers, by powerful Armies, but by despicable Vermin. Eusebius records God's just indignation against Pilate, Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. 2. c. 7. who condemned our Blessed Saviour (against the dictate of his own Conscience) he became his own Judge, his own Executioner. He who would be impious, injurious, to be popular, was justly impeached by that People, whom he gratified by injustice. Nabuchadnezzar, who was not contented to be homaged as a Sovereign, but would be adored as a God, was degraded below the station of men, sorted among Beasts; not in a Parable, (as Origen asserted) not imaginarily only, (as others would mince it to a Phantasm, a Dream) but really, visibly his inward endowments perverted, his Rational Faculties alienated; as for his outward Members, Dan. 4. 33. his hair became like Eagles feathers, his nails like Birds claws. Two signal Characters there are of the Divine destructive displeasure; The first is, When the Judgement reteins the feature, the complexion of the Gild; as face answers face in water. Thus the unnatural heats, the impurities of the Sodomites, were punished by unnatural flames; Gehenna è coelo descendit. Salu. Hell descended from Heaven, (in a Father's expression.) Pharaoh, who decreed the Male-childrens of the Israelites to be drowned, himself, and the Males of Egypt 〈◊〉 of martial, vigorous years) were plunged, swallowed up in the Red-Sea. Absalom's hair was the subject, the motive of his arrogance, wherewith he was enamoured; this became the Engine, the Instrument of his bane, wherewith he was entangled fettered. God threatens to walk contrary to those, Levit. 26. 21, 24. who walk contrary to him. He will baffle their enterprises, who transgress his Precepts. He will deride their anxieties, who spurn at his summons: Prov. 1. 26. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. It is expressed after a corrupt humane manner (in condescension to our infirmities) it is to be apprehended in an unblemished Divine notion. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Theodoret Julian the Apostate, who shot poisonous Arrows, scurrilous indignities against Heaven, was himself pierced with an envenomed Dart from Heaven; with that mouth he acknowledged Christ a Conqueror, an Avenger, wherewith he blasphemed, denied him a Redeemer. The damned rich Caitiff in the Gospel, S. Luke 16. 24. was most tormented in his tongue, whereby he had most offended. Those Donatists who, S. Optatus testifies it. in the Primitive Church, did cast away the Sacramental Elements of the Eucharist, were themselves torn in pieces by Dogs. The second eminent stamp of the Divine Justice, is, when the trespass and the scourge are like the Twins of Rebecca's Womb, the later, like Jacob, a Supplanter, taking hold of its elder Brother by the heels. Thus when Nabuchadnezzar raised his Crest, Dan. 4. 3. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my Kingdom, for the might of my po●●, the honour of my Majesty? Built, erected it was by Nimrod, fortified by himself; whilst he overspread his plumes, whilst the word was yet in his mouth, Dan. 4. 31. Statim punitur à Deo. Hier. in Dan. he was terrified, thunderstruck with a voice from Heaven, The Kingdom is departed from thee. So quick, so fierce is God's resentment of arrogancy, of vainglory. Whilst Balthasar riotously frolicked it in the Vessels of the Sanctuary, the Wall became a Tribunal to condemn him; He saw a hand-writing on the wall, Dan. 5. 5. (proceeding out of the Wall, according to the Arabic Translation) a visible Character of an invisible Scribe. In that room, in that house, he was anxiously shivered, wherein he presumptuously transgressed. Whilst Herod owned the flattery, the blasphemy of the People, not rejecting, not reprehending it; there appeared not a Screech-Owl (according to Josephus) to presage a Judgement, but an Angel was employed to inflict it; not a damned Fiend, Acts 12. 25. (according to Lorinus) but an Angel of the Lord, both an Assertor of his Honour, and an Executioner of his Sentence. Not to pursue this Meditation too far: It will become us to be nicely critical, to be strictly inquisitive within the precinct of our own bosoms, to apply Gods particular scourges to our particular offences. But when the Scene of God's judgements is laid at distance, they ought not to elate, to swell, to leven, to embitter us, but to deject, to envenom our spirits. Not to be Lamia's, putting on the Spectacles abroad, but putting them off at home. Monitors they are to mortify, reclaim us, to keep aloof from their iniquities, Quorum vestigia terrent, Whose judgements we tremble at, lest we close in the same Tragical period. To this end they are punctually recited, distinctly sorted by the Apostle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1 Cor. 10. 11. recorded for examples to deter us, (according to the Original, as Types figuratively to instruct us.) Repentance is the sole expedient to rescue us from perdition, to be like brands snatched out of the fire. Which casts me on the Task in my Text. Except ye repent. Though Origen, in too wide a candour, hath extended repentance to the damned Spirits; yet others have confined it to too narrow bounds: the Montanists not admitting it to those that offend after Baptism; the Novatians not allowing it to a recidivation of transgression, to a relapse, a return of guilt. Happy it is for us, that the Book of Life of a merciful God, is not subject to the razures of opinionated men. That the Keys of Heaven are not within the restraint of Heresies or Sects on earth. The experience of all Ages manifests, that where Truth hath been deserted, Charity hath been discarded also. The Divine Goodness commiserating humane frailties, hath ordained repentance to be a continual Physic for a continual malady, a reiterated Medicine, for a reiterated wound. A Cure that exacts not so much the Lamp of the Sanctuary, the Gloss of the Pulpit, as the practice of the Chamber; without which, the devotion, the humiliation of the Temple this day, is but a Pageantry of Piety; without which, repentance may be sought in our repentance, and not found, as Florus complained of Samnium demolished. Confession is but a scanty essay of this duty, the first step of repentance. Pharaoh acknowledged himself and his People wicked, Exod. 9 27. when they were plagued; but they relented not, the festered wound of the Soul was unmasked not lanced; the veil withdrawn, not the putrefaction. In a further gradation, Esau was pensive, not penitent: Heb. 12. 17. He found no place for repentance, (saith the Apostle) though he sought it with tears. Tears they were of indignation, of bitter wrath; not of contrition, of an humble sorrow; he had a flood, yet not the grace of tears, Da gratiam I●chrymarum. Aug. which St. Augustine sued for. He had a melting eye, but not a bleeding heart. God doth not pour the oil of his mercy, Deus non infundit oleum misericordiae nisi in vas contritum. Be●n. but into a broken Pitcher, into a contrite heart. Our hearts, like our Spices, are the sweetest fragrance of Oblation, when they are bruised. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; Psal. 51. 17. a troubled spirit, that in itself is afflicted; not a troublesome spirit, that is an affliction to others. The Vulgar Latin renders it in the Plural Number, Sacrifices; all other Sacrifices are comprehended, completed in this. The trouble, the grief of Attrition will not serve, though eeked out, assisted with the absolution of the Priest. God will not set his Seal of Remission to a Blank, not to a defective or defaced character. A true penitential sorrow is not attrite, (in the Schoolmens style) merely the product of our miseries; but primarily, sincerely contrite; it accrues from the due recollection, the deep impression of our sins: When we are more dejected, saddened, that we are depraved, than that we are distressed. The most impenitent Malefactors in their Executions, will mourn for their sufferings, not for their crimes. The Original phrase in my Text denotes not the piercing of the mind with anguish, 〈…〉 (this is preparatorily requisite) but the renewing of it with grace. The remorse of Conscience for any guilt will not bestead us, without the rectifying it. The most obdurate sinners, in their recesses, exigencies, have their bosom qualms, their secret damps, their piercing regret. Judas resented, bewailed his horrid offence, Judas deflevit crimen non correxit. Ambr. but he renounced, corrected it not. There is a Worm to corrode, there is dread and anxiety, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth in Hell. There is a Probe to search the most rankled corruptions of the heart, but there is no balsam to heal them. Aquinas' definition of Repentance is Concise and Orthodox. Repentance is a sorrow for sin, with a purpose of amendment. St. Austin's counsel corresponds herewith; Mourn for past sin, Dole de praterito peccato, cave de futuro. Aug. beware of future. Let not our resolutions, like Embrio's, perish in the womb. Let not these cords be untwisted, unravelled by the opportunities, the blandishments of inveigling darling vices. The repentance of life, is the life, the power, the lustre of repentance; without which, the profession of it is but a collusion. We do but personate repentance this day in the Church, our Religious Exercises are but scenes, disguises; if whilst we solemnly deplore our offences, we do not sincerel desert them. It is the sorrow of a Crocodile to lament for that mischief we yet indulge, pursue; secretly to embrace, caress that wickedness, which we openly declare to nauseate; not to abandon that guilt, which we profess to abhor. Our Fasts, our Austerities, are proper Auxiliaries of repentance; our reformed practices are the choice accomplishments of it. Our mortification initiates, begins this duty; our reformation consummates, perfects it. In this notion, the Thesis of Luther, so much bogled at, That true repentance is a new life, is opposed by Invectives more than Arguments, confuted by satire more than Logic. Neither the Divinity, nor the Grammar of the Text, will warrant or dispense with the dilatoriness of the Task; to resemble the Circassians, not to be devout till impotent, decrepit; not to resort to the Temple, till we are upon the brink of the Grave. The Powers of Darkness are not staggered with a sigh, nor overwhelmed by a tear; they are not vanquished by a faint, languishing, gasping breath. Could Satan, having fortified his interest by vicious habits and customs be so easily ejected out of possession, Qui promisit poenitenti veniam, non prom-sit peccanti poenitentiam Aug. dethroned out of his Dominion; yet that God, who hath promised remission to him that repenteth, hath not promised repentance to him that sinneth, especially voluntarily, deliberately. We are not ascertained of future grace, to excite, to promote this duty; nor of time to actuate, to exercise it. In all the pomps, the jollities of life, we are upon the border of death. Drusus received a death's wound by a pear, Adrian by a hair. An excessive delight hath, to some, by a sudden dilatation, dispersion of the spirits leaving the heart unguarded, ushered in the terror of death. God's sharpest judgements, inflicted or dreaded, are the most piercing motives of penitential duties. That there is wrath to come, S. Matth. 3. 7. 8. is the Baptists rousing Topick to awe the repentance of his Auditors. My Text produces a more powerful Spell to conjure it. You shall all likewise perish. This short menace is more piercing, than Ehud●s Dagger. This is no panic terror. This Prophecy was reduced to a History in Sacred and Secular Interests, to the impenitent Israelites. It imports not a particular, personal; but a National, Universal destruction, of Temple, City, People. They perished before they perished, (as Salvian observes of his Gallican Contemporaries) being divided, Perierunt antequam perierunt. Salu. depraved, before they were destroyed. Crumbled they were into factions, Pharisees, Sadduces, Essenes', Herodians. Their Civil dissensions were more fatal than Foreign Invasions; whilst they were attacked, stormed by the Roman Soldiers, they were bandied, engaged against themselves, sheathing their swords in one another's bowels, under the conduct of fierce Zelots, of Religious Assassinates. Joseph. lib. 6. c. 11. de Bello Judaico. They drank to one another the blood of the People. The edge of the famine was yet sharper than of the Sword, more dismal than that of Athens, wherein a Father and a Son fought a duel for a prize, the provision of a Mouse. In a more prodigious instance at Jerusalem, Joseph. l. 7. de Bello Jud. cap. 8. Aegesip. de Exc. Hieros. an eminent Matron, of a Noble Exstraction, of an ample Fortune, butchered and cooked her own Child; made the Issue of her womb, the repast of her stomach; a savage unnatural Sacrifice to her keen appetite. This is no Tragical Romance, but an Historical truth, solemnly asserted by Josephus and Aegesippus. As there was a general Convention from all parts of Palestine, to celebrate the Feast of the Passover, when the Jews crucified Christ; so also when the City was surrounded by Titus. The Judgement was as diffusive, as the guilt. The multitude of those that perished in the Siege of Jerusalem being computed to amount to 110000 persons, besides 90000 prisoners. No Nation more perversely impure, none more irrecoverably miserable. Christ (the Mirror of Candour) pathetically lamented, when he denoun'cd their destruction; and Titus (renowned for singular clemency) when he inflicted it; and yet the obdurate Jews relented not, when they sustained it: more impenetrable than Iron, not softened in the fiercest Furnace of affliction. And the extent of the Fate is observable, You shall all perish; so is the similitude, You shall likewise perish. Some, like the Galileans in the Temple, were mixed, mangled with their Sacrifices. Others, like those crushed, shattered at the Tower of Siloam, were covered with the rubbish of the demolished, battered Structures of the City. The Inhabitants and the Habitations were, in the same devouring flame, consumed to ashes. Their crimes were yet greater than their punishments; Humiliati. non humiles. Bern. vile, despicable they became, not contrite, humble; like Ivory blackened, sullied they were by that fire (that tribulation) which should have refined, beautified them. Their state of living, dying impenitents, sharpens the doom in my Text with two edges, (in Lyrd's gloss) You shall perish temporally, you shall perish eternally. The distresses of the Earth are, to persevering, unrepenting sinners, the Prologue to the black Scene, the succeeding torments of Hell. The impenitent Egyptians, that pursued the Israelites, were transmitted from the fierce surges of the Red Sea, to the fierce flames of the burning Tophet. Having thus accomplished my first Task, the Explicatory part of my Text; said I, Accomplished it? rather huddled it undigested, unpolished; as the Israelites did their dough, unkneaded, unleavened at their sudden departure out of Egypt. There remains a requisite Applicatory Meditation, without which, I should entertain this great Assembly with an Harangue, rather than a Sermon. In order hereto, to recapitulate, to sum up what I have enlarged; I have unclaspt my Text to two Propositions. The one Negative, Implicit; the other Positive, Explicite. The Negative, Implicit, being thus unveiled: Neither the miserable Galileans, nor those unfortunate Wretches at Siloam, were greater offenders than other Israelites. I have offered at a double survey of the Negative Proposition, Historical, as to each instance severally, Doctrinal jointly, in this tenor. The greatest pressures, the sharpest miseries, the saddest periods of this life, are no demonstrative arguments to conclude the greatest sinners. In the second Proposition, I have pointed out the restrictive, adversative Particle, [But▪] that links the parts; regulates our censures. Every man, Si stultum quaeram meipsum reperio. Sen. upon an impartial scrutiny for a sinner, like Seneca's inquest for a fool, (both being of the same lineage) will return the same Verdict with that Stoic, I find myself. When Christ advertised his Apostles, that one of them should betray him; they impeached not, defamed not one another, but each suspected the corruption of his own heart, wherewith he was best acquainted, most strictly examined, S. Mark 14. 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. They said to him one by one, Is it I? According to the Original, Is it not I? A good man being a rigid Interpreter of no defailance but his own. He who with a contrite severity will put his hand into his bosom, will, like Moses, take it out white as snow, not for innocency, but leprosy. I have observed two evident symptoms of the Divine destructive displeasure, when the sin and the doom are like parallel lines, and when the latter is the close train of the former. I have, in the second Proposition, recommended the Duty to be discharged, Repentance, to bewail that guilt we have committed, not to commit that guilt we have bewailed; not to be scanty, dilatory in the exercise of it, but expeditely, vigorously to rectify our judgements, to refine our affections, to reform our lives; to crucify those lusts that have crucified our Redeemer, that these Scorpions may afford medicines for their own stings. To abstain from our Viands, and not iniquities, is the Fast, not of sacred Converts, but of damned Fiends. It is a disconsolate severe determination of St. Augustine, plures perierunt poenitentia, quam peccato. Aug. which I can never recollect without anguish of spirit, More have perished by repentance, than by sin. This Restorative hath degenerated to a Bane; this Balsam of Life, misapprehended, misapplied, hath wounded multitudes to death. To promote an accurate unblemished repentance, I have set out the penalty to be incurred upon the neglect of it. A Sentence like Elijah's little Cloud scarce discernible at first aspect, but being dilated, blackens the Heavens, teems with showers of perils, disasters. I have pointed out the extremity of the Judgement, not a decay, but a period, [You shall perish] the Universality [All] the Similitude [Likewise] enwrapped in the same dismal fate. It was an interval of forty years before this doom was fulfilled. Christ thus long protracted the Execution, after he pronounced the Sentence. Nabuchadnezzar had a years respite after Judgement was past, for transforming him from a humane to a brutish shape. The Ninivites were reprieved forty days, and they repent in sackcloth and ashes. Non mutat voluntatem, sed vult mutationem. God then reversed his Judgement, without any stain of instability, inconstancy; not by changing his will, his purpose in himself, but willing, purposing a change in the effect, as the Schoolmen state it; whose decision not apprehended by Jonah, excited his peevish regret. He preferred the imaginary reputation of a Prophet, before the real preservation of a populous Kingdom; being discomposed, that God was more merciful than himself. Let not these Ninivites rise up in judgement against us. If we do not seasonably dread the menace, arrest the judgement, we shall irrecoverably sink under the pressure, the horror of it. We have of late years enjoyed tranquillity, plenty, the delicious fruits of peace, whilst other Countries have been Aceld●ma's, fields of blood, exposed to the rapines, the outrages of War; Cities besieged, battered, stormed, defaced, rifled: Proprietaries, Masters, treated as Aliens, not only as strangers, but prisoners, vassals in their own houses; (the Edict of insulting Soldiers, being no less unmerciful, unreasonable, than Egyptian Taskmasters) whilst populous Territories, furnished with the choicest accommodations, have been depopulated, wasted, even reduced to Deserts. They have been subjects of intelligence, of discourse; no motive of commiseration towards others, of reflection upon ourselves. Who less afflicted, have been more depraved. I wish from my Soul it were a scandal to assert it. Our ingratitude, clogged with our impenitence, una cademque dies vidit civitatem magnam, & nullam. Sen. Evagr. l. 4. c. 5. may reserve for us the dregs of the Vi●l of God's indignation. Our safety may be least, when our security is greatest. One and the same day was the computation of a great City, and of none at all, as of Antioch; part buried in an Earthquake, and the rest made its own Funeral Pile, burnt to ashes. That day that produced fire and brimstone to Sodom and Gomorrah, might shine with as clear, as bright a morning-dawn, as any other. The intemperance of the inhabitants of the Old World, did serve to introduce, to usher in the Deluge. They were eating (the Original imports rioting with brutish appetites) and drinking; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ S. Matth. 24. 38, 39 their sensualities indulged, pursued, till the Flood overwhelmed them. When enormities of vices, prodigies of crimes, pass for garbs, for ornaments; when it is generous to be intemperate, courteous to be debauched, modish to be unchaste, fashionable, reputable, to be profane; gallantry of humour, elegancy of style, to blaspheme; a Master piece of wit to carp at, to deride the wisdom of God; when Theatres are more resorted to, more regarded, than Temples; when mortification of body is ascribed to distraction of mind; when Prayers and Fasts become incitements of Drolleries, of Scurrilities; when there is not so much piety as hypocrisy; not so much beauty of holiness, as the paint, the varnish of it, even to outstrip the spirit of darkness, not to regard to appear Angels of Light. We may then imagine God pathetically expostulating the case, Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? When the indignation of that God is inflamed who is a consuming fire; when all the expedients, the methods of the Discipline of Heaven, prove ineffectual for reclaiming a People; then a day, an hour, a moment may suffice to blast the most flourishing Dominions of the World, to deprive the greatest Peers and Potentates of lustre and of life. When Phoc●s raised Walls and Bulwarks to outbrave Heaven, he was advertised, There is wickedness within; which being enclosed, immured, will demolish the firmest Structure, uncement every stone, lay Turrets flat and level with the ground. The Fabrics, the Houses, the Palaces of impenitent sinners can fall no lower, themselves may: The Poet's solace is a fallacy in Divinity, Qui cadit in terram, non habe●● unde cadat. There is a lower descent than the grave, than being inmates with wretched Worms, in being consorts with the damned Spirits; lower than the putrefaction of the earth, the damnation of hell. But I forbear. I must start back from this dreadful dungeon, lest I be taxed, as Oecolompadius was, that I am Commissioned to Evangelize, to preach the glad tidings of the Gospel; not the terrors, the thunderbolts of the Law. That I am sent, not to be a Herald, to denounce fire and sword; but to be a Legate for reconciliation, to be a Factor to negotiate the best Merchandise, Peace; to promote the best Peace, not with Earth, but Heaven. The Romans would not treat with Pyrrhus, Plut. in vita Pyrrhi. unless he would first depart out of Italy. There is an Italy of Transgression as well as Climate. There can be no League, no Correspondence betwixt a carnal, polluted Italy below; and a spiritual refined Jerusalem above. When a grave Athenian Ambassador repaired to Corinth to agitate a Confederacy, observing a greater Traffic there of Vices than of Commodities, their arrogance plumed with their wealth, Strabo Geog. l. 8. a riot, a debosh, being their civility, their lasciviousness being their piety, above a thousand beautiful Damosels being Votaries of Venus, not consecrated, but prostituted in the Temple; he resolved to desist from his Embassy, apprehending so vicious a place not worthy of the close amity of Athens. The holy One of Israel will unite, confederate with none that persist to be profane, impure. Though God will heal the bleeding wounds of a contrite disobedience, yet he will not cure the festered ulcer of an obdurate heart, an unrelenting spirit. That I may not close my Sermon with my Text, in perdition, in perishing, lest I seem to depart hence, not with the benign influence of a Star, Non comminaretur non poenitenti nisi ignosceret poenitenti. Tertul. de poen. c. 8. but with the malignity of a Comet; I shall, in the last place, invert the Scene. God would not threaten to doom, to destroy the impenitent, unless he would remit and save the penitent. God's mercies are intermingled with the severities of his menaces, like the Sunbeams in showers of rain. He denounces his judgements, that he may not inflict them. He shows his Axe before he wields it; 'tis like that carried before the Roman Consuls, wrapped up for an abatement of severity: When he lays it to the root of the tree, he expects we should prevent the fatal stroke. It is the Prophet's insinuating address, his cajoling eloquence, Isa. 1. 16, 17, 18. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, Learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool. O that this rational overture might not only convince, but convert the pretended Oracles of Reason, the modern Gnostics, who outvigh the Ancient for intellectuals and impurities, for wits and vices. An unhappy faculty, to be ingeniously ungracious, acutely profane and miserable. To stagger such Sophistry of Miscreants, the Prophet Amos sets out God's fierce displeasure, as the Painter did Agamemnon's deep sorrow (for Iphigenia) covered with a vail: having impeached their impenitence, more obdurate than Marble, (not to distil a tear in a reiterated storm) not to relent in varieties of distresses, it being the sharp accent of every judgement, the tragical aggravation of each affliction, Amos 4. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. (five times recorded in one Chapter) Yet have ye not returned to me, saith the Lord. God at length pronounces a Maze, a Riddle of a doom, to perplex and scare untractable offenders, Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel. It is a clap of thunder, without a flash of lightning, a Relative without an Antecedent, a locked Cabinet without a Key. No judgements expressed, that all may be expected; all to be dreaded, that none may be sustained. It is the Prophet's practical inference in the same verse, ver. 12. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. This is the best refuge, as in National, so in Personal anxieties, distresses. Let us meet the Lord of Hosts in his fiercest marches, in the approaches of his judgements; that either with Ahigal's prostrate submission, 1 Sam. 25. 35. we may prevent, or with Hezekiah's devout humiliation we may reprieve, Isa. 38. 5. or at least with Elias entire resignation of himself, his Family, his Posterity, to the Divine Pleasure, 1 Sam. 3. 18. (It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good) we may, if not unsting, yet unvenom the sharpest tribulation, we may render this Viper a Restorative. I shall conclude with the borrowed Rhetoric, Parcite regi, parcite populo, pascite animabus vestris. the Sacred Charm of a former Age, overcast with clouds, the wombs of tempests, Spare your Sovereign. A vicious person is no less an enemy to his Prince, than a Rebel against God. A Religious Joseph did support the dignity of Pharaoh's Throne; did preserve, secure the prosperity of his Dominion for his time. Spare the people. A wicked man is a pest to the generation wherein he lives, his private mischief (like achan's) may produce a public calamity. Kings 2. 12. Elisha accounted Elijah the Chariot and the Horsemen of Israel. St. James the Just was called, Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. ● 24. Oblias, as being the Fence, the Bulwark of the City of Jerusalem, of the Region of Palestine. The justice, ●umb. 25. 8. the zeal of Phineas, did restrain the contagion of a spreading, pernicious Pestilence. Let our devout repentance stand in the gap, to divert a destroying Angel. Lastly, Spare your own Souls, since they are ransomed by no corruptible treasure; let not them again be captivated by any vile secular interest, nor yet by a more vile, impure, sensual delight, since they are the purchase of Christ's precious Blood; let them not become the prize of his and our malicious Enemy: Let us shun his baits, his snares here, that we may eschew his fetters hereafter. From which; God of his infinite mercy preserve us, for the Merits of his blessed Son, by the Graces of his holy Spirit. To which Sacred Trinity be ascribed Glory and Honour, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, this day and for evermore. AMEN. FINIS.