A SERMON PREACHED at great Yarmouth, Upon Wednesday, the 12. of September. 1599 By W. Y. The argument whereof was chosen to minister instructions unto the people, upon occasion of those present troubles, which then were feared by the Spaniards. Eccles. 9.18. Better is Wisdom, than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good. Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, dwelling on Adling hill, near Carter-lane. 1600. TO THE Worshipful, Master john Felton the elder, and Master Thomas Manfield, Bailiffs of the Town of great Yarmouth, grace and peace in our Lord jesus Christ. IT is feigned of the Poets (Worshipful master Bailiffs, ovid. Metam. 11. Riws aquae Lethes, etc. that there is a River in Hell called Lethe, of which whosoever drinketh, forgets all that he hath remembered before. Whatsoever they have imagined, sure it is, that the devil hath an hellish device, to make the ears of the people drunken with vanities, that whatsoever instructions have been delivered unto them, yet, for the most part, they are soon forgotten, and the remembrance of them no more to be found. I will not condemn them for so weak of memory, as Massula was, who forgot his own name: or so dull of capacity, as the Thracians, that could not reckon above four, yet sure it is, the small profit and practise that ariseth by the preaching of the word, argueth the dryness of their brains, or that God speaks once and twice, and man regards it not. Many there be which will go to hear sermons, but few that can go to remember them: could we as well remember, as we can hear, no doubt, Christianity would flourish as the vinetree, and bring forth plenty of fruit: but because it is otherwise, sermons being once preached, become as music unto us, delighting our ears only for a time: but being ended, their sound vanisheth away. Therefore (though I may seem to add more fullness to the sea) I have published, and in publishing, enlarged this sermon, which was once preached before you, that if your memory fail of that which was then delivered, the ear may hear it again, and the eye see it, and the mind conceive it, and the soul receive and taste the benefit thereof: Efficacior lingua quam litera, Barnard, Ep. 66. and though it be now less persuasive, then when it was pronounced by the gesture and countenance of a living man: yet wants there not to answer it, that you may read and read it again, meditating thereon not once or twice, but often. Many wise and learned have prudently and painfully laboured in this course, and the world floweth with diversity of Books, as the sea with variety of fishes, and therefore mine might have well been spared: yet was the argument (of which Ispake) so fitting to the time when I spoke, that lest we should be as forgetful of these instructions, as it seems we are of those rumours of wars and troubles which then suddenly befell us, I have ventured to acquaint you with the same matter again, and to make the benefit thereof more public, which then was but private to your own ears. Now, because you are the men, whom the Lord hath made his lieutenants over this town, next under her Majesty, Num. 27.17. to go in and out before this people: I have made you the patrons of this my simple labour, as you are Patrons over those (for whose benefit it was preached, and is now published) both to lead them forth, and to bring them home, that the congregation of the Lord, might not be as sheep without a shepherd. And even as the Loadstone doth by a secret operation and virtue attract iron unto it, so your virtuous and religious minds, entertaining and patronizing this, may (with the Loadstone) draw others of the iron sort, and those of base metal than yourselves, to entertain, receive, and peruse it, to their comfort, being guarded with the countenance and credit of your names. If any Christian receive profit by it, jam. 1.17. let him, who is the Father of lights, and giver of every good and perfect gift, and the increase of these which are unperfit, have the praise thereof; there shall none of his glory cleave to my fingers: neither is that which I have done, for any earthly respect, or worldly consideration: for I have had that which I expect, and more I neither look for, nor desire. Only this, that the Lord in his mercy would grant, Oculus & sceptrum. Emblen. Egyptiac. quo Magistratuum regimen desig. Psa. 2.9 that as he hath set you on high, and graced you with the government of this people: so your eye & your sceptre may be joined together: that first you may be quicksighted to discern sin, and sin being discovered, to bruise it in pieces with your sceptre of government, that judgement may praise you in the gate, and justice advance herself in the great congregation: that unity, peace, and concord may be established, virtue, godliness, and religion furthered: that the preaching of the word may more and more flourish, & work mightily in the hearts of the people for their conversion: Mat. 4.13. and that Yarmouth may be with * So the word signifies. Capernaum, even a place of repentance, situate by the seaside. The Lord, even the most mighty God, inflame your worshipful & zealous hearts with a care hereof, that during the heat of the day, and the time of your government, ye may be Paragons to those which went before, and examples to as many as shall follow. And thus I commend you unto the Lord, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you further, and to give you an heavenly inheritance, among them which are sanctified in Christ jesus. From the Priory in Yarmouth, Oct. 24. 1599 Your Worships in the Lord, William Younger. A SERMON PREACHED AT great Yarmouth. The Text. jeremiah 4.14. O jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? THe purpose of the Prophet in the former part of this prophesy (Worshipful and well beloved) is to work conversion in the hearts of the jews: Eccles. 4.12. and because (as Solomon says) A threefold chord is not easily broken: so to the end that he might with greater force, & more vehemency, draw them thereunto, he hath twisted and twined together a threefold cord, an argument of a triple force and efficacy, to move them to repentance. First, from the consideration of his benefits and mercies bestowed upon them, in the second and third verses of the second Chapter. Secondly, from covenants and promises made unto them, in the fourteenth verse of the former Chapter. Thirdly, from judgements and threatenings denounced against them, in the seventh verse of this Chapter, where the Prophet saith: Verse. 7. The Lion is come up from his den, the destroyer of the Gentiles is departed and gone forth, to lay the land waste, and the Cities shall be destroyed without an inhabitant. So that you see how wisely, & with what powerful discretion, the prophet enforceth his exhortation. 1 From benefits bestowed: 2 From promises made: 3 From judgements threatened. So as, if benefits would not allure them, promises may provoke them: if promises could not provoke them, judgements might fear them: when Nabucadnezzar should come as a roaring Lion from his den, and their enemies the Chaldeans, to lay the land waste, and to level their Cities with the ground, when places full of inhabitants, should be left without inhabitants, when all the orders and companies of Israel, from the highest Cedar, to the lowest shrub, from the Prince of high estate, unto the man of low degree: when the heart of the king should perish within him, and the hearts of their nobles languish: their priests astonished, and their Prophet's wonder: when the habitations of Zion should be burnt with the fire of the enemy, and the streets of jerusalem scoured with the judgements of the almighty: when they thought still to have enjoyed peace, the sword should pierce their flesh, and when they had swallowed up abundance, by reason of peace, they should wallow in the blood of their own destruction. I say, when all this, as sudden as a tempest, as swift as a flying Eagle, should come upon them, than should they confess their own woe, & profess their own destruction: Woe be to us, for we are destroyed. Vers. 13. Wherefore, as the Prophet had often before in the 1, 4, & 8. verses, laboured for their conversion: so likewise, in this verse which I have read unto you, O jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? As if he should say, The Lord hath a quarrel against thee, O jerusalem, he hath sharpened the arrows of his displeasure, he hath bend his bow and made it ready: the instruments of his wrath, and engines of his indignation, are provided for thy destruction: Nabuchadnezzar and the Caldaeans are in less than an hours warning to execute his command, they stay but for the Lords watchword, to say unto them, Go, and they go; Kill, and they shall devour: thy case being thus, there is no other remedy to be had, or course to be taken for thy safety, but this: Wash thy heart from wickedness, O jerusalem. The words (as you see) do contain nothing else, Divisio. but an exhortation to repentance; and in it I observe these two things. 1 The exhortation itself. 2 The reason of it. The exhortation itself, in these words: O jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved. The reason, in the words following: How long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? In the exhortation itself, I propound three points to be handled: 1 The person exhorted: O jerusalem. 2 The thing required: Wash thine heart from wickedness. 3 The end: that thou mayst be saved. In the reason or argument, uttered by way of complaint, these five things offer themselves to our consideration. 1 The circumstance of time, whereby the argument is enforced: How long? Quousque 2 The thing which he complains of: not actions or words, which are easily discerned, but thoughts. Cogitationes. 3 The qualities of these thoughts: they are not of any holy and sanctified disposition, but they are wicked. Impiae. 4 The continuance: for they have not their motions and flittings, as the wind in the air, which is sometime in the East, and sometime in the west, but they abide by it, Manent. they remain. Fiftly, the place of their abode, is not in any place about, In medio tui. or without us, but within. Of these in order: and first, for the first, that is, the person exhorted. O jerusalem, etc. Almighty God made a law, Deut. 2.10. that no City should be destroyed, First person exhorted. before peace were offered unto it, When thou comest near a City to fight against it, thou shalt offer it peace: and we read in the second of Samuel, 20. that the prudent and provident woman of Abel, objected this law to joab, in effect, when he had cast up a Mount against the City. That speech of our Saviour Christ, unto the Cities of Coraysin and Bethsayda, gives us to to understand, that there were many notable things wrought in them, before the woe took hold upon them. So the Lord here threatening judah and jerusalem, with the sword of the Gentiles, that the scouts came from a far country, to compass it round about, as the watchmen in the field, for the utter subversion and desolation thereof: yet he offers peace unto it. The Prophet comes to jerusalem, with a sentence of safety in his mouth, as Noah's dove came to the Ark, with an Olive branch in her bill. If a man should weigh the justice of GOD in a balance, and narrowhe examine it, he shall never see it his manner, to punish any place, or plague any people, without just cause: for, though he looks, for a time, with a fierce countenance, and threatens to send down his judgements as thunderbolts, and his wrath as a mighty tempest, to seize upon the wicked: yet he powers down a sweet shower of his mercy before, so as, if there be any insight or foresight in them, of God's hand that hangs over them, they may prevent it. The Lord here proclaims open war against his people: yet the Prophet delivers unto them many good exhortations aforehand, as jonathan shot arrows, to give David warning, that by repentance they might prevent his judgements. O jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, etc. The same love (beloved) which the Lord in former times bare to jerusalem, Use. and to the Cities of judah, is like to the laws of the Medes & Persians, Dan. 4. which are never altered, but ever, and for ever are continued: and his mercy towards his people, riseth up by degrees, like the water in Ezekiel, Ezec. 4.7. which at the first time came but to the ankles, the second time to the knees, the third time to his loins, the fourth time it was as a deep river, and not to be passed over; for the further he waded, the deeper he was plunged: so God's love is inscrutabile quiddam, a thing unsearchable, & his mercy past finding out. And if ever age in former and precedent times had experience of it, if ever jerusalem and the Cities of judah had a taste of it, if ever the sweet showers of Manna reigned down upon the Israelites; surely the sweet showers of his mercy have plentifully been powered down upon us, and his love hath embraced us on every side. For God is not delighted in the destruction of a sinner: he takes no pleasure to see the workmanship of his own hands, and the children (as I may say) of his own loins, murdered and massacred in the streets, by the sword of the enemy: and hence it is, that the Lord in so many places, and at sundry times, by the mouths of his Prophets, hath used exhortations even without number, to dissuade them from the cause of God's judgements, that is, from sin, disobedience, and transgression. Especially, from the beginning of this prophesy, jeremy hath been very earnest: as in the third Chapter, the Lord condemneth Israel for an harlot. Lift up thine eyes, Oh Israel, unto the high places, see and behold if thou hast not played the harlot, etc. Thou hast sitten waiting for them in the ways, as the Arabian in the wilderness: yea, the land is polluted with thy whoredoms and abominations: yet, when Israel had done all this, God said, Turn unto me: notwithstanding, she returned not, as her rebellious sister judah saw. Again, in the fourteenth verse: O ye disobedient children, turn unto me, and I will take you, one of a City, and 2. of a tribe, and will bring you into Zion, and I will give you pastors according to mine own heart, that shall feed you with wisdom and understanding. The like in the 22. verse, and in many other places: the Lord seems to be moved with a pitiful compassion and commiseration over his own people: their case was pitiful in his sight, and their careless regard wrought sorrow in his heart, when he saw that howsoever he was provident for their salvation, yet were they very forward in their own destruction: and the more careful he he was for their conversion, the less respect had they to his admonition. Indeed true it is an ancient father saith, The wicked alacrius currunt ad mortem, quàm nos ad vitam: they run far faster in the way to condemnation, than the godly do in the way to salvation: as the Psalmist notes them for their haste, when he describes the ungodly, as if they had wings on their heels: Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ps. 145. Yet the Lord (who as David saith) is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness, laboureth to draw them home: his heart breaks within him, and his bowels yearn with grief, when he sees jerusalem: that is to say, his own people, how wilful they are in their own destruction. As I live (saith the Lord) I will not the death of a sinner: As if he should say: The fault is not mine, when sinners drink the dregs of iniquity, when the scourge of my judgements fasten upon them: for I have no pleasure to see the workmanship of mine own hands perish in confusion: As I live, as I live (saith the Lord) I will not the death of a sinner. Marcellus, Valerius. after his soldiers had conquered Syracuse, not without the great slaughter of many, was so compassionate over them, that he went up to the highest tower in the Castle, and with tears lamented the ruin & overthrow thereof. Plutarch speaks of one Pollio a Roman, who having invited the Emperor Augustus to a feast, would have thrown his servant into a deep pool in his rage, for a small matter. The Emperor beholding his angry spirit, controlled him with these words, Homo cuiuscunque conditionis, etc. A man, of what state or condition soever he be, if there were no other cause, but because he is a man, is more to be valued and esteemed, than all the gold and silver in the world. Well, whatsoever may be said of Marcellus for his clemency, over those whom he had slain: or of the mild and human spirit of the Emperor Augustus, judging it to be very noble and honourable; yet is there no comparison to be made betwixt him, and the Emperor of heaven and earth, even the God of the whole world: who, as the Prophet saith, is merciful gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness. For if Mercy were not before him, and Grace behind him, if long-suffering stood not at his right hand, and great goodness at his left: if these Peacemakers (as I may call them) being qualities in his nature, did not mightily prevail with him, why, so great is our sin, that the world could not stand, but had long ere this time perished like Sodom, and had been destroyed, as was Gomorrah. Therefore would you know, what upholds the frame and structure of the world? why, it is Mercy: would you know what upholds the good estate of Israel, of our land? His Mercy: would you know what continues the days of our ancient mother in Israel, our gracious Sovereign, that as yet we cannot say of her, as was said of Moses, Deut. 34.7. that her eyes have waxed dim in her head, or her natural force abated: but still flourisheth as the Palm tree, and groweth up as a Cedar in Lebanon? 'tis Mercy. In a word, you know the cause of the Gospel's continuance amongst us, that yet with freedom we may hear the sound of it in our Temples, and with peace behold the open faces of God's Prophets, which bring unto us the glad tidings of salvation: why we enjoy other blessings and benefits in the land, and are not taken away from us, by the violence and rapine of foreign strangers? it is his Mercy, his Grace, his long suffering, his great goodness, that he bore to thee, O jerusalem, even to us, his own people. Mat. 23, 37. our Saviour Christ doth there challenge jerusalem for great cruelty, that he had sent Prophets, but she had slain them: and Apostles, but she had stoned them. O jerusalem, jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which have been sent unto thee: how often would I have gathered thee together, even as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not? The hen was not more tender over her young ones, than I was over you, saith the Lord: and my love and kindness, and loving kindness was not once or twice, but often. Neither would I have committed the trust of you to any other, but myself would have gathered you together. What love and kindness could I more show, but you would not? I would (O jerusalem) but thou wouldst not. How often beloved, hath the Lord wooed us on this manner? how often hath the heavenly trumpet of his mercy sounded in our ears? how often hath the sweet showers of his mercy fallen upon our heads, even as abundantly, as the Quails upon the Israelites? If you should deny it, I would ask the stars in the heavens, the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and all these would witness with me. How often hath the Lord cried unto you in effect, Yarmouth, Yarmouth, thou that swellest in the vanity of thy conceit, that sayest with Laodicea, Reu. 3. I am rich & increased with goods, and have need of nothing: and therefore pride and envy strive which shall get the upper hand, as the unruly waves of the sea encounter one another: wickedness walks up and down among you without controlment, and iniquity runs full sea in the channels of thy streets, and the course thereof cannot be stayed. Sodom and Gomorrah lie not in the dust for greater abominations, then are daily committed: thou Yarmouth, that art in this case, How often would I have gathered you together, even as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not? Thus the Lord reasons with us (beloved:) Many fruits of his blessings have you tasted of, both by sea and by land: from time to time hath he sent home your ships, balanced with the riches of the Ocean, as if they came laden with treasures from Egypt: for which, the Lord increase not only plenteousness within your vessels, but even thankfulness within your bowels. Many excellent and powerful instructions have been delivered unto you, by the mouths of his servants, the Prophets. All this hath been to this end, to gather you together unto the Lord: his blessings temporal, and his graces spiritual, have been as two hands, to draw you home unto him: but as yet, for aught we see, you will not. Therefore look unto it: if the like should befall you, as here to jerusalem, (either in this place by Nabucadnezzar and the Chaldeans, or there, by Titus, Mat. 23.37. and Vespasian:) that your enemies should entrench your town, and environ you round about, that hunger and famine should tyrannize over your bodies, whereas now plenty sits at your doors, to welcome your friends: that the sword of some foreign Nation should shorten your days, whereas now the sword of good Magistrates is carried before you: if your houses of pleasure, should become your prisons: if your loving wives should be deflowered, and your tender infants murdered in the streets before your faces: If this, or a greater evil should befall, which the Lord in his mercy turn away, beloved, is it not just? shall we challenge God of his equity, or charge him of injustice, and say: Lord, why hast thou done this? surely no: many times (saith the Lord) would I, but you would not: for I am a God merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness: but the more I was merciful, the more you were sinful: the more I was gracious, the more you were graceless: the longer I was in suffering, the longer were you in sinning: and the greater I was in goodness, the greater were you in transgression: therefore, because I then would, but you would not: perhaps now you would, but I will not. Bethink yourselves of your estate present: bethink yourselves what may befall. O jerusalem, etc. Secondly, jerusalem (the elect City of God) most holy, most glorious, built upon holy mountains, no City in the world comparable thereunto, jerusalem Metropolis judaeorum Nico. de Lyra gloss. ordina. Esay 2. Mich. 4. as well for the loftiness of the seat, for the temperature of the air, for the moderation of the heavens, and fruitfulness of the soil: and yet all this serves not so much for the credit of it, as that The Sceptre went forth from Zion, & the word of God from jerusalem. It was the only place of God's only worship: the Lord had a delight to have his name there: neither had any more privileges, more teaching or preaching, than they had: yet for all this, they wanted perseverance, they could not continue unto the end: yea, these which should have been schoolmasters to all other Nations round about them for knowledge. Yet see the testimony that God gives of jerusalem: Ch. 5.1. Run to and fro in the streets of jerusalem, behold now, & inquire in the open places, if ye can find a man, or if there be any that executeth judgement, & seeks the truth, & I will spare it, saith the Lord. Lo, my beloved, not a righteous man, not a faithful soul (it seems) found in jerusalem, either among their princes, or among their people. Whereby we learn, Doctrine. that howsoever we have the word of God preached, and the heavenly oracles of his will revealed unto us, from the bosom of the almighty, by the mouths of his Prophets, and other privileges and prerogatives given unto us, which God hath not vouchsafed to other Nations: yet cannot we challenge this privilege and prerogative of perseverance. So likewise, the Churches of Constantinople, and of Ephesus, excellent privileges they had, and great prerogatives they were graced with, yet could they not persevere unto the end. Well, the uses in a word, Use. 1 that we are to make hereof, are divers: first, in that jerusalem, thus privileged and blessed, could not persevere, it serves to teach us, that in any place which the Lord hath countenanced with the preaching of his word, if the hearts of the people be not set to obey, the Lord will give no blessing unto it. If preaching & practising be not joined together; if the Gospel & obedience walk not hand in hand; if God's word, & our works; if the light of his Gospel, and the light of our godly conversation be found asunder: alas, we may with Esau deceive ourselves, Gen. 26. and think to have a blessing, when we shall hit upon a curse. Therefore, let us not content ourselves with the outward sound of the word, if the inward obedience of the heart be absent: though we bring our Bibles to Church under our arms, it is not that will make us good Christians, if our hearts be not set to obey: but we must join the outward ministery of the word, and the inward obedience of the heart together: no sooner must the Lord open his mouth, but we must open our ears, & drink the sound of his word, into the secrets of our hearts, which may become mighty, and by the operation thereof, make us fruitful unto salvation. Secondly, Use. 2 in that jerusalem could not continue & persevere, it serves to teach us, that we which have had the excellent benefit of his word, and by the beams of his glorious Gospel, have been enlightened in the ways of salvation: Gal. 5.1. 1. Pet. 2. we must (as Paul admonisheth us) standfast, and not be as variable clouds in the air, that are carried about with a tempest, but steadfast, constant, and confident, in the profession of the Gospel. For if we prove either fainthearted, or faithless hearted Christians: if it be said of us, as Paul said of the Galathians: Gal. 5.7. Apostatas. Ye did run well in the race of Christianity, but now, ye slide back: our end shall be worse than our beginning: for it had been much better that we had never learned the truth, nor known the way of righteousness, then after we have known and learned it, to return with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. Use. 3 Thirdly, 1. Cor. 10.12. Non locus, persona, dignitas privilegia, aut immunitates possunt nos ab ira Dei eximere. in that jerusalem could not persevere, it teacheth us that of the Apostle: We which think we stand, must take heed lest we fall: let us not boast of those privileges and blessings that God hath enriched us with: for were they never so many, or never so great, jerusalem had more, and greater: yet, though she was highly in credit with the Lord, and countenanced of him as the Empress of the world, her glory is here threatened to be laid in the dust. Gen. 11.2 Let Nimrod and his company build a City, whose towers and turrets may reach up into heaven: yet shall Babel be Babel: the thing itself shall be the confusion thereof. The whore of Babylon may advance herself in pleasures, Reu. 18.8. and in the pride of her heart say, she sits as a Queen, and shall see no mourning: yet shall her plagues come at one day, death, sorrow, and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire: for strong is the Lord God, which will condemn her. Reu. 18.8. Therefore, if we assure ourselves of the continuance of God's favour amongst us, by our outward prosperity, or think to stand hereafter, as we have stood hitherto, we are deceived: for were we as dear and near unto the Lord, as jerusalem, or answerable unto it, either for bravery of buildings, commodities of merchandise, store of munition, to drive back the force and fierce assaults of our enemies, yet are they not sufficient to drive back the gun-shot of God's displeasure, when for our transgression, he intendeth our destruction. Fourthly, Use. 4 seeing we see jerusalems' estate to be this; it teacheth us to commend our prayers and supplications unto GOD, for this special blessing of perseverance: for what profiteth a man, Simile. to sail a long voyage prosperously, and with success, if at length he makes shipwreck, being ready to enter into the haven? So, what will it avail us (my brethren) sailing in the full sea of God's blessings, and in the floods of his abundant mercies, with the winds of prosperity, and before we come to our journeys end, make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience? It is not sufficient for us that we run, but we must so run, as we may attain. It will not avail us to begin well, if we do not continue to the end: if we have begun in the spirit, Gal. 3.3. there is no perfection to be looked for in the flesh. That seed is in vain cast into the ground, whereof a man filleth not his bosom in the time of harvest: and the profession of the Gospel is ill begun, and to no purpose, except we persevere unto the end. Now, it may be demanded, Why did the Lord look for such measure of obedience, Object. perseverance, and other fruits in jerusalem, more than in the Chaldeans? Answ. The reason is, Because he had bestowed greatest blessings upon them: and the Lords manner is, where he bestows greatest blessings, there he looks for greatest obedience: and where there is greatest preaching, there doth he expect greatest practice. That Parable of the figtree, Luk. 31.6. planted in a vineyard, serves fitly for the illustration hereof: A certain man (saith he) had a figtree planted in a vineyard, and because he had planted it, he came and sought fruit thereon, but found none. Then said he to the dresser of the vineyard: Lo, this 3 year have I come, and sought fruit thereon, & have found none: cut it down, why keepeth it the ground barren? This vineyard, beloved, is the Church of God: the figtree, though it be there meant of the estate of the jews, yet by it may be understood the estate of every several soul: the planter thereof is Christ, the dressers are his servants the Prophets. Now (saith Christ) I have planted a figtree, great cause therefore that I should have fruit of it. Well, any time these three years have I come and sought fruit thereon, but have found none. Neither is it only fruitless itself, but it makes the ground barren and fruitless likewise. Surely, my purpose is, it shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. O Lord (beloved) an happy thing were it, if in our vineyard we had no such unprofitable figtrees; if in our Church we had no such unprofitable professors: upon whom God's Prophets and ministers have bestowed cost, and of whom, no doubt, the Lord hath expected and waited for, not three years, but many years, the fruits of his blessings: but alas, we deceive his expectation: long hath he thought for, and sought after the fruits of his Gospel, but lo, nothing but weeds of disobedience spring up amongst us. What will be the end of this? Surely, we may justly fear the like judgement, that befell to the figtree: Cut it down: why keepeth it the ground barren? We may (I confess) be suffered to grow for a time, to flourish for a season, yet utter destruction will hap in the end. We know heretofore, how the Lord hath dealt with us, for we have played the hypocrites with him, and therefore hath he made the earth, and the creatures thereon, to play the hypocrites with us. The Lord hath expected the fruits of our obedience, but behold, it is like unto a shadow, something in show, but nothing in substance; or even as Ephraim's righteousness, Ose. 6.4. like to the morning dew: so we (in former years) have expected the fruits of the earth from him, yet have we been partakers of the curse that job speaks of: job. 31.40. That thistles have grown in stead of wheat, and cockle in stead of harley: so as the husbandman sorrowed and sighed within himself, when he saw no better fruit of his labours. Thus hath the Lord caused the earth to deceive our expectation, because we have deceived his: and though now on a sudden, he hath equally divided the pipes and cunduites of his mercy, and opened the windows of heaven, and hath sent down a gracious rain, upon the ground of the good and of the bad, of the just, and of the unjust, filling our bosoms with abundance of blessings, that our vineyards clap their hands, and our fields do rejoice and sing: yet let us beware that this sudden prosperity and plenty, be not to fat us against a day of slaughter. Let us therefore consider our estate what we are, and what we have been, even a people blessed of the Lord: but we may speak of ourselves, as Pliny speaks of a certain country, that ex siccitate lutum, ex imbre pulverem, etc. drought hath caused dirt, and rain hath stirred up dust amongst us: for what hath the sunshine of his mercies? but caused us to lie in the mire of our abominations: and what hath the moisture of his graces? but even dried up the fountain of grace in us: so as we are given over to work transgression with greediness: the increase of his blessings have increased our iniquities; and the abundance of his mercies have brought forth abundance of sin in us: for what have we, but in stead of obedience, rebellion? in stead of knowledge, ignorance? Is there no complaint of oppression to be heard in our streets? do not rich men grind the faces of the poor, plucking their skins from their bodies, and their flesh from their bones, as the Prophet speaks? Is not one man ready to pull out the throat of another, urging, and using extremity, rather than a good conscience, in matters of law? Is there no swearing, and forswearing? no profanation of the Sabbath amongst us? do not Absaloms' adulteries run for merriments in our age? and have we not those, fit for the company of Sodomites, then for the society of Christians? and behold, yet, and yet greater abominations than these? Are these the fruits of the Gospel? is this the issue and effect, that God's word hath wrought in us these forty years? have we answered the Lords expectation, in the smallest measure of obedience, as he hath answered our desires, in the greatest measure of his mercies? Surely no. Oh beloved, what then remains for such unprofitable figtrees? Cut them down, cut them down (saith the Lord) burn them in the fire. So much for the first point, the person exhorted, and the instruetions thereof. Now followeth the second point, namely, the thing required. Wash thine heart from wickedness. THe Prophet doth here touch jerusalem to the quick, Quid lavandum. Fons vita when he comes to the heart: which, (as Physicians say) is the fountain of life: it is the first thing that liveth, and the last thing that dieth in a man. The heart is like an Instrument: if it be in tune, and well struug, Dulce melos. it makes a sweet melody: but if it be out of tune, all the parts and powers of mind and body are out of course. Or as the stone of Scyros, Plin. lib. 36. Cap. 17. if it be cast whole into the water, floateth, and swimmeth aloft, but if it be parted and divided, it sinketh to the bottom: so is it with the heart, so long as it be kept whole and undistracted, why, it swims, and all things run currant with it: but if broken or divided, it sinketh like lead. It may be compared to the apple of a man's eye, which will be troubled with a little moat: so is the heart tender of itself, and will be disquieted with a rebellious affection: or look even as a steele-glasse is bright and pure, yet the breath of ones mouth will dim it: so is the heart, a thing in itself bright and pure, yet are there many wicked and contagious vapours in the soul, that dim and obscure the integrity thereof. When God looked down from heaven, Gen. 6.5. He saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth: and did God behold but the earth only? surely yes, he took a view of man's heart also; and there he found the heart, and not the heart only, but the thoughts of the heart, and the imaginations of the thoughts: the mother, her daughters, and their children evil, and not only evil; but only evil, and evil continually. Above all things (saith the Prophet) man hath an unfaithful heart, as deep as the deep sea, nothing can sound it: as wide as the wide world, nothing can contain it: as large & spacious as hell itself, who can find it out? If a man possessed as much ground, as ever the devil showed the son of God from the high mountain; if he had the whole world, yet could man's heart contain another & if he had two worlds in his possessio, yet the heart of man would be casting for a third: therefore it is worth the noting, that which Philip of Macedon is reported to have observed in himself, when by wrestling, he had taken a fall in the sand, and seeing the impression of his body therein, was thereby (as it seems by his words) brought into consideration, that a small parcel of ground, & in comparison, but a span of earth contained his body, but the whole world, were it much wider than it is, sufficed not his covetous heart. Well, whatsoever the heart of man is, I leave unto God, the searcher of all hearts to examine: & whatsoever Philip of Macedons covetous heart was, & the hearts of those, which in the time of Noah were swept away with the waters of the flood: yet here we find, jerusalem hath a wicked heart, & so wicked, that unless it be purified, purged, and washed with the waters of repentance, destruction upon destruction is proclaimed against it, verse 20. Wash thine heart from wickedness. Where first of all we note, that our repentance must be like the repentance of Niniveh, it must begin with the King: he must first arise from his throne, and throw away his costly robes, and cover himself with sackcloth and ashes, and then proclaim the like to his subjects and inferiors: that is to say, the heart which sits in the body, as a king in his throne, and hath all the inferior powers at command, when jonas shall denounce judgements, and the Lords ministers proclaim repentance, it must first rouse and raise up itself: and when that gins, the inferior parts are easily brought to order: therefore saith the Prophet, Wash thine heart from wickedness: not thy face, or thy hands, or thy feet, or thy upper garments, but thy heart, O jerusalem. Simile. Our hearts may be compared to the rudder of a ship, or the balance of a clock: the ship (we know) is a great and an untoward vessel; and if it be left to itself upon the seas, it runs to a thousand dangers: but let the rudder be well guided, and the whole body thereof, with all that belongs thereto, is directed without hazard: so, if the heart go aright, it goeth not alone, but all the parts and powers of the soul and body, immediately follow in the same safety: even as a clock, Simile. if the balance thereof stir, all the other instruments and weights follow in a good course: but if that stand still, every one of the rest go out of order: so, let our hearts move and step forward in the course of Christianity, all the instruments and members of the body will go onward likewise: but if the heart stays, the body stirs not, but standing still, is the apt to receive any corruption. Well, First instruction. the instructions that we learn from hence, are divers: first, in that we must begin with the heart, it teacheth us, that true repentance standeth not in outward behaviour, in outward ceremonies, or in a civil kind of life: but it must arise from the heart. We cannot chase wickedness from our eyes, from our hands, from our tongues, or from our feet, if first it be not chased from the heart: for the eye may be wicked, the hand may be wicked, the tongue may be wicked, and the feet wicked, but the heart is the seat of wickedness, it is a fountain of iniquity, the streams whereof overrun the whole body: therefore to good purpose is that of joel: Vena scin datur cordis. joel 2.13. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: because it was the manner of the ancient times, when any were possessed with grief and discontent, to rend their garments, manifesting by their outward behaviour, their inward sorrow: as in the example of David for Saul, 2. Sam. 1.11. and for his son Absalon, 2. Sam. 10.31. 2. Sam. 13.31. of joab for Abner, and of other. Now, lest this ceremony, or such like, should be rather of fashion, then from the affection of the heart, joel disclaims from them, as things which the Lord regardeth not, if the purity of the mind, and sincerity of the heart be absent. It is not outward sanctification, outward holiness, outward behaviour, that the Lord requires, but the purifying and purging of the heart from sin: For God seethe not as man seethe: 1. Sam. 16.7. Prou. 15.11. man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the heart: therefore, Wash thy heart, O jerusalem. I might here by the way, take occasion to fight a battle with hypocrites, Hypocrites. whom we may compare to boat-men, that look one way, but row another: or like to Mercury's Images, that point the way to others, but themselves stand still and stir not one foot: or like to stage-players, which for an hour or two, seem to be greatstates-men, but the play being ended, they are as base companions as they were before: or like unto the Carbuncle, which hath a show of fire, but no true fire: so they; a show of zeal, but no true zeal: Mat. 23.27. or as those painted sepulchres, beautified to the eye, but within, full of rottenness and corruption. These will seem religious amongst you, though not refrain their tongues, Iam. 1.26. but deceive their own hearts; whose religion (by the judgement of the Apostle) is vain. But to leave them (because my purpose was but to take them by the lap of their garments at this time, for a remembrance only) let us that will be Christians in deed and sincerity, be wary that we play not the sophisters with ourselves, thinking that outward purity and sincerity stand for currant in the sight of God. It is the pureness and sanctimony of the heart only, Our repentance must be, now corporis, sed cordis. Eiusdem capitis. that the Lord requires: we may pray with the Pharise, Luke 18.11. and kiss Christ with judas, Mat. 26.49. and offer sacrifice with Cain, Gen. 4.3. and fast with jesabel, 1. Kin. 21.9. and humble ourselves with Ahab, vers. 27. and present an Oblation with Ananias, Acts 5.2. and lament with the tears of Esau, Gen. 27.38. yet all these are nothing, if the heart be not only devoted and consecrated unto God. Wash thine heart from wickedness. Second instruction. Secondly, in that he saith, Wash thine heart from wickedness, we see how loathsome a thing it is in the sight of God, to have a wicked heart, an heart not sanctified and upright before him. An happy thing were it, if we could bethink ourselves, what an enemy we carry about with us in our breasts, when we have wickedness in our hearts. It is like death, Malitia. which having once seized upon the heart, all the members of the body are immediately captived: so, let the heart be wicked, and the whole body is wicked: for out of the abundance of the heart, the head deviseth, the hand executeth, the tongue speaketh, the eye seethe, the foot walketh: I. King. 15.30. and even as wicked jeroboam made all Israel to sin, so the wicked heart makes the whole body to sin. Therefore should every one of us pray with good King David: Psal. 50. Create in me, O Lord, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. We must dislodge our hearts of this great evil, and make them the wagons and chariots of the Spirit, wherein he may sit to guide our whole body: and the privilege which hereby we shall reap, is singular: Rom. 8.14 for (saith Saint Paul) So many as are led by the Spirit, are the sons of God. Now, the Lord hath given us our hearts and bodies, to be resting places for the holy Ghost, and wherein he should take delight to seat himself. But alas, the Spirit sits in the streets, judg. 19 like the Levit that came from Gybeah, and no man receives it into the house of his heart: nay, we choose rather to make them dens for the devil, storehouses of sin, and even a Dagon of all iniquity. Should it be thus with Christians? God forbidden: the Lord hath given thee a body, to be the temple of the holy Ghost: shalt thou now take this body of thine, and make it the body of an harlot? God forbidden: the Lord hath given thee hands, as organs, to perform the necessary actions belonging to thy welfare, shalt thou now divert them to an ill use, and make them instruments of murder, violence, rapine, & oppression? God forbidden: the Lord hath given thee a tongue, an excellent benefit of nature, to convey unto thy brother the secret conceits of thy mind, both for the praise and glory of God, and for thy profit and benefit in thy trade of life: shalt thou now make it a tongue of blasphemy, unchastity, cursing, swearing, and forswearing? God forbidden: the Lord hath given thee eyes to behold his creatures upon the face of the heavens, & the superficies of the earth, to behold the admirable works of the almighty, in the frame of the world: and they are as two lights, for without them, the whole body should be possessed with darkness: now, darest thou attempt to make them instruments, to solicit the heart with uncleanness? or make them windows of vanity, by beholding the beauty of the strange woman? nay, rather let us say with Ioh, job. 31.1. I have made a covenant with mine eyes, not with an unchaste affection to behold a virgin. Foedus pepigeram cum oculis meis, etc. Pro. 23.26. Rom. 12.1. Thus have you heard, that the Lord hath given us an heart, that we might, as Solomon's wisdom requires, give it unto the Lord again: he hath given us a body, that we might, as Paul requires, offer it up unto him again. All powers and parts of both hath God given unto us, that we should dedicate them to him again: but alas, we bestow them upon Satan, sin, and the pleasures of the world. jehu used not the temple of Baal more basely, than we use our hearts, making them cabins of unclean spirits, full of deadly sins, whereas they should be vessels of holiness and honour unto the Lord. 1. Thes. 4.4. Let us therefore in the Lords fear, supplant this bitter root of wickedness in our hearts, and plant in them the graces of the spirit, that the heart may be as a sweet garden furnished with virtues, as with fragrant flowers, that he may say of it, as elsewhere he speaks of Zion: Here will I dwell, for I have a delight herein: so shall he which created it, have it; he that gave it, receive it again; and he which preserves it in this life, may preserve it for ever. Thirdly, Third instruction. in that he saith, Wash thine heart from wickedness, it gives us to understand, that sin is a corruption: for the word here which the Prophet useth, Lava: Ablue. is a borrowed speech, taken from the manner of those, which are wont to rinse or wash any thing that is filthy or polluted: for our hearts being as sinks or channels apt to receive any filth and corruption, are to be purged and scoured with the bosom of repentance, and washed with the tears of contrition, that they may not appear loathsome unto God. The leprosy of Naaman, 2. King. 5. a grievous leprosy: Verse 14 yet when he had washed himself seven times in the waters of jordan, his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. So likewise we have all a more grievous leprosy then ever Naaman had, and are more loathsome in the sight of God then ever he was in the sight of men: Esay 1.5 for there is nothing whole within us, but wounds, sores and swellings, and our hands are full of blood, yea from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, we are nothing but blemished with iniquity, Esa. 1.16. and stained with corruption: therefore saith the Prophet, Wash you, make you clean: we must with Naaman to the waters of jordan, and there wash ourselves seven times and we shallbe clean Neither must we follow our own carnal reason; for than we will judge Pharpar and Abanah, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel: but we must take the direction of the man of God, and jordan is the place must do us good. If we consult with flesh and blood, about the matter of our conversion and washing away of sin, we shall never be clean: but if we follow the advice of Elisha or any of God's ministers, were pur leprosy worse than naaman's the Assyrian, the waters of jordan would wash it away; were our hearts like Ahabs' chariot, 1. 1. King. 22.38. Kings 22. even imbrued with blood and filthiness, yet would they be clean, being washed in the pool of Samaria. Were we either sick, joh. 5.3. or blind, or halt, or withered, and had never so many diseases, or never so much distraction in our limbs, yet if we wait for the moving of the water, and step into the pool of Bethesda, and there wash ourselves, we shallbe recovered: were our sins like crimson, Esay 1. yet they shall be as white as snow, and were they as red as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool. This is the great benefit that we shall reap and receive after our baptism & regeneration in the waters of repentance, as jonas in the waters of the sea, wherein being thoroughly purged & washed from our corruptions, by the blood of the immaculate Lamb, we shall with jonas receive a new commission, and be invested into our former credit and favour with God. For this same corruption of sin, which lieth in the heart unwashed away, is a bird, which (as I may say) sings two manner of notes, or hath two manner of calls. It either calls to us, or it calls to the Lord: when to us, it calls for repentance; when to the Lord, it calls for vengeance. So that, though sin lieth shrouded full low in our hearts, and wickedness be harboured in the secrets of our souls, yet is thy sin like the sin of Sodom, the cry of it is exceeding great: for they are so many in number, so divers in nature and different in kind, that being in thy heart, they are like unto a sort of fierce Lions and cruel Tigers in a den, Beasts of divers kinds. which cannot agree together. And therefore, if thou labourest not to empty thyself of them, and open thine care unto them, when they cry and call unto thee for repentance, the Lord will open his ears, when they call to him for vengeance. It is lamentable to consider (yet it ever hath been, and I think it will be) that men are possessed with smallest care in matters of greatest danger. The infection or corruption of the body every man will labour to purge & wash away, but the corruption of the soul, & the wickedness of the heart no man regards: nay, after sin committed (as the Prophet fitly notes) No man saith, What have I done? O miserable & wretched man that I am, what have I done? though it be an aspiring kind of wickedness, as that of the Ninivites: jonds 1.2 ascending, climbing, and being feathered with the wings of presumption flies up into the court of heaven, even daring to show itself in the presence of the most high: though it extends to the annoyance of the earth below, to the provocation of the heavons above, to the punishment of all the creatures in and between them both: nay though it strikes and strikes with a double hand at the majesty of God himself, yet no man says, What have I done? O Lord, (beloved) a long time have we been acquainted with sin, but can our acquaintance gain us no experience of sin? will you ever look upon the pleasure and profit that sin brings unto you; but will you never have an eye to the policy and subtlety thereof? Indeed we make much of it: Easola voluptas, solamenque mali. Aenei. 3 we nourish it in the secrets of our hearts, and keep it warm in the inwards of our souls: we are as loath to forsake sin, as jacob was to forsake Benjamin: and to departed from iniquity, as Lot was to departed from Sodom: but shall we never look into the mischief that ensueth of it? When shall we once be wise? They say that no element is ponderous or weighty in his proper place: as for example, we feel not the weight of the air, although we live within the circle and compass of it. Suppose a man should lie in the bottom of the sea, it would not offend him with any pressure or burdensome weight, although it ill annoyed him otherwise: so is it in the estimation of sin: we live and we lie in it; but alas wretches that we are, we feel not, no, we feel not the weight and burden thereof, how it even presseth our souls unto condemnation. Sin is not heavy unto us, by reason of the inclination of man's will thereunto, which greedily doth ingurgitate & readily swallow up a whole sea of abomination. It may seem strange which is written of the nature of thunder, that it bruiseth the tree, yet breaketh not the bark, it cracketh the blade, but never hurteth the scabbard: such a thing is the nature of sin, it will bruise & wound the heart, but never harm the eyes, or the ears, or the hands; it will pierce and afflict the conscience, but never hurt the outward man; it is even a plague unto the soul, & yet a pleasure unto the body. Well, the time will not permit to set out sin as it deserves, & to acquaint you more with the nature of it, although I would to God we were less acquainted with the use, & less affected with the desire thereof: yet so violently are our headstrong affections carried and ravished, that we add sin to sin, and join them in a league of friendship, & when we have so done, we lay iniquity upon sin, wickedness upon iniquity, rebellion upon wickedness, and transgression upon rebellion, and nothing else but an heaving, and heaping up of confusion upon confusion, Gen. 11.2. as if Nimrod were amongst us, & Babel again to be built, the towers whereof might reach up unto the stars. Well beloved, let us lay the foundation of sin as low as we will, and build as strongly thereupon as we can, as if we were assured, that the hand of God's judgements should never raze it up; yet no doubt we shall find, that it is now high time for us to leave our sins, seeing we see the Lord gins to leave us for our sins. It is now high time for us, not to wash our hands with Pilate, but our hearts with jerusalem; to change our Morian skins, to put off our stained and defiled garments, to entertain repentance into our souls, seeing that even now we fear the reward of our impieties, and the portion of iniquity to be shared out for us. If ever before it was needful, surely now much more necessity enforceth, and time it is for Abigal (if she respect her own safety) to arise and meet David with a present to appease his wrath, 1. Sam. 25. for it seems he is now at hand with his sword girded upon his thigh: though not to lad our Asses as she did, with two bottles of wine, with frails of raisins, and a sheep ready dressed, or such like provision: but to lad our bodies and sinful carcases, which we have used as Asses to bear the huge burden of our sins with sackcloth and ashes, Saceus & jeiunium sunt arma poenitentiae. with fasting & mourning, which are the armour of repentance to withstand his judgements. Let our eyes be as 2. bottles of wine, to carry with us, the tears whereof we may drink, to comfort us in the assurance of God's mercies, & our broken & contrite hearts as presents which the Lord will have respect unto, and receive kindly at our hands, Verse 35. & lay his sword down which he hath taken up against us. and bid us return in peace unto our houses. Oh that I could possibly prevail thus far with you, to possess your souls with the consideration of this point. Though this sudden opportunity of repentance were not offered us, yet let us examine our estate, and we shall find, that (alas) we are not sinners of yesterday; we are not newly entered into Satan's school: but we are of a great standing: for in sin our mothers conceived us, in iniquity they brought us forth, and we drew corruption from their breasts; all which, as we have grown with them, so they have grown with us. We have long and overlong traced the footsteps of wickedness, and trodden the paths of injustice; we have tired ourselves, and surfeited ourselves with the works of abomination: we are not fallen of ignorance (alas) as our forefathers, which knew not the Gospel; but willingly & wilfully have we brought ourselves into the habit of sin, into the nature of sin, into the custom of sin, and within the compass of Gods most fearful judgements, to seize upon soul and body, unto condemnation; and not upon ourselves only, but such is the corruption thereof, that it hath overspread the face of the heavens, of the earth, and overunne all the creatures, that even they for our sin must one day come to judgement. O then how needful is it, that with jerusalem we should wash our wicked hearts from this corruption with the tears of repentance, that she might sit in thy heart, and with her strong sighs and groans break the heavens which are hardened against thee, and draw down the Lords loving favour to thy soul. If the infant in the cradle cries for milk; if the Lion in the forest cries for food because they want it: how should it move us (my brethren) to send up our cries for the favour of God, because we have it not! The tears of our eyes being shed in true contrition for our sins, will be as little messengers to the great and angry God of heaven and earth, to entreat a truce betwixt him and us his creatures, and as gun-shot, will batter down the partition walls of our sins, and cause his loving countenance to shine upon our souls. Let us therefore in the fear of God make experience of this, and though for the time it may seem bitter as Aloes unto the flesh, yet is it wholesome and medicinable unto the soul. And look as it was the manner of ancient times, when trouble or heaviness befell to any, they presently called for women and others who were tender hearted and skilful in mourning, to cause them mourn the better: so we which would feign learn to repent and lament for our sins, and know not rightly how; let us have recourse unto the book of God, and there may we behold the tears standing in jerusalems' eyes, and in the eyes of Marie Magdalene, 1. Sam. 1 & of Anna the wife of Elkanah, that their weeping might procure our weeping, their grief provoke our grief, their passions move our affections with the like lamentation and sorrow for our sins. So much for the thing required, Quorsun being the second point, Wash thine heart from wickedness. Now follows the third, which is the End, End. That thou mayest be saued. I Doubt not, salva sis. Verses 5.6.7.8. but the trumpet blown in the land, and the cry, which said unto them of judah, Assemble yourselves together, & get you into strong cities; and the standard set up in Zion, and the plague threatened to be brought from the North, juterfector Gentium. and the Lion that should come from his den, and the Dry wind in the high places of the wilderness, and that suddenly; (for it should be as a tempest and swift) for his horses are lighter than Eagles; might easily persuade them of imminent and present danger, except they had the hearts of the Leviathan, as strong as stones, or as hard as the neither millstone, not to receive any impression; or their joints tough as Elephants, that nothing could ●end them. Therefore their danger threatening such extremity, it was more than time to take some course for their own safety. The Poet notably describes the fear that Aeneas and they of Troy were in, Aenci. 3 and the great speed they made to escape the danger of the Cyclops. Praecipites metus acer agit quocunque rudentes. Excutere, & ve! 'tis intendere vela secundis. When they saw the company of giants clustering upon the shore, Aetni●● fratres. resembling the strength and fortitude of mighty Okes, or lofty Cypress trees, that their very looks threatened destruction, it was no time for them of stay, but speedily to hoysse up their sails, Parebiaz●nt●. & nimbly to betake them to their oars; rather than the giants should offer violence to them, they offer violence to the sea, and hasten away. The only course that Icrusalem hath to prevent this imminent distress, which was even at their shore ready to assault them, is swiftly to sail away in the waters of repentance: every man to betake himself to his oars of true contrition and invocation unto God, to labour painfully in the sea of their sinful hearts (though they be well washed & drenched with the waves thereof) for their own safety and preservation. Wash thine heart from wickedness, We Deus te in favorem recipiat. That thou mayest be saved. In the handling of which I will first speak of the sense of the words secondly, of the use. For the first, the word in the original signifieth, Salutem, opens, opitulationem. A versu quinto. either safety, help, or aid: and here it may fitly bear a double sense; first, by the relation of matter going before: for in the former part of this Chapter many judgements are exemplified by many figures to come upon jerusalem by Nabuchadnezzar, and the Chaldeans, who should cut them down with the sword, & lay their land waste. Now this being so, the Prophet stirs up jerusalem to repentance, that she may be saved: that is to say, In this common calamity and judgement which is to fall, yet that she may be secure and safe from the touch thereof, and be restored to the favour of God: and therefore, that the faithful among them should not despair, but rather lift up their heads and cheer themselves with a hope of safety in time of danger, as also to cross the crooked generation of hypocrites, showing that there is no way to appease God's wrath by any shifts, but by true conversion which must begin at the heart. Or thus, Repent, that thou mayest be saved in the day of judgement by the redemption of Christ, because without repentance there is no salvation. And so for the sense. The use follows. In time of danger, or of prosperity, 1. use. or whensoever, is any thing sweeter unto us than our life? or more precious than the breath of our own nostrils? Why (says the Devil) when he informed against job, job. 2.4. Skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath, he will give for his life. Be it a life of sorrow, misery, and vexation, yet naturally we love it better than death. Tanti est contemplatio coeli & lucis ipsius, etc. So we may behold heaven and the light thereof, in our own estimation it is so much worth, that we are content to endure any misery for it. I will appeal to no other witnesses at this time, then to the Gibeonites, josuah 9.24. who did that which they did, and became slaves to the host of Israel. For fear of their lives they were content to endure any slavery and bondage, so as they might escape with life. And therefore that action of Cleombrotus may seem strange, that reading Plato's discourse of the immortality of the soul, fell from the top of an high wall, of purpose to break his neck, the sooner to attain to immortality. Howsoever, this action of his, as one says, was Potius magnè factum, quàm bene factum, a great act, rather than a good act. It seemed likewise that Achaemenides the unfortunate companion of Ulysses, Comes infoelicis Vlissis. Virgil. Spargite me fluctus, vastoque immergite ponte. 1. King. 19 little regarded the benefit of life, and thought it rather a glory to die, so it might be manibus homin●m, in some manlike manner. And that of Elias in the sacred volume savoureth much to this purpose, It sufficeth, Lord, take away my soul from me, let me not live any longer to be eye-witness of that misery that jezabel hath threatened unto me. Well, howsoever, to let them pass that are so weary of their dearest friend, sure it is, every thing in nature desireth being, from the greatest to the smallest: and this great benefit repentance brings with it, life in the midst of death, safety in time of calamity, preservation against judgements, deliverance in time of danger. O jerusalem, if, when Nabuchadnezzar shall come as a fierce Lion from his den, & the Chaldeans as cruel Tigers to devour thee; when mine indignation shall be thy portion to drink, and when destruction upon destruction shall befall for the execution of my vengeance: yet if thou wilt be saved when others must be destroyed, here's thy remedy, Wash thine heart from wickedness. So you see the Prophet reasoneth with them a fructu poenitentiae, from the benefits arising from repentance. To give you the taste of it in a word: If the seas which are as a girdle to this Island (environing and encompassing the same about) were at our command, or that the Lord should put the rains and government of the mighty waters into our hands, that we might rule them as we list for the subversion of our enemies; or that our land were walled with brass, and strengthened with the strongest defence against our Nabuchadnezzar of Spain, and our enemies the Chaldeans: Yet would not all this make so much for our safety, as if we had repentance in our hearts, a special antidote against any judgement. In deed we fear the forces of our foreign foes, and we may justly: but our greatest enemies are our home-bredde sins. We stand quivering and shaking under the rod of his judgement, the fear whereof hath so possessed us, that we run hither and thither, and are almost at our wit's end, as if there were no God to go before the shields of Israel. What is the cause hereof? Alas, our guilty consciences do accuse us, and we can not but confess, how just our destruction is. For were we penitent sinners, and at peace and reconciliation with God, we should not need to fear what man can do unto us: but till sin be removed out of our hearts, and our iniquities as rebels, cast out of our souls; until we become penitent for the manifest & manifold transgressions of our lives, alas, we must yet live in fear of the Spaniard; neither may we fear Spain alone, but even the heavens, and the stars in the heavens, to sight against us, judg. 5. as they fought against Sisera; the earth, and the creatures on the earth, to plot out our subversion: for the Lord will use them as his men of war against us, and make them at utter defiance with us. Nay, we may fear our hands, which we account as our dearest friends: for he can make them as the hands of Saul, I. Samu. 31.4. even instruments of our own confusion. If therefore we will have peace in our land betwixt Spain and us, we must labour for peace in our consciences betwixt God and us. If we would have God's judgements removed from us, we must labour to remove our sins, which are the cause of them, and then will the Lord pass his word unto us, that we shall be saved. Prou. 16 17. To departed from evil (saith Solomon) is a fortress and a bulwark, to preserve the righteous from judgements. If the whole world with engines of war threatened our confusion, yet if we were engrafted into Christ, and made one with him, (betwixt whom there is now as great a separation as Abraham's gulf, Luk. 16. by reason of our manifold sins and transgressions) there is no doubt, but his loving countenance and merciful eye should ever be upon us, & his right arm stretched out for our defence. Will any man hurt the apple of his own eye, and not rather to be tender over it? why, we are as the apple of the lords eye. Will a man cast off or dishonour the signet of his right arm? why, we are his signet: will a man use violence to the wife of his own bosom, who is one flesh with himself? why we are the Lords spouse, Cant. 5.1. & he hath made us one with him, and therefore may look for protection and defence at his hands, and not for strokes and violence, as if our God were a stranger unto us, & had never given us pledges of his love. Thus as you see the danger that we may justly fear by reason of sin, so likewise the comfort and confidence that we may have, if we become penitent for our sin. Therefore which of these two makes greatest for our safety, judge you. Secondly, Use. 2 to speak of salvation by the redemption of Christ (who gave his blood once for our ransom) it is a thing generally desired of us all, Reu. 1.5. heb. 9.14. Gen. 27. nay many make claim unto it, as Esau did unto the blessing, & yet must go without it. The way that leadeth thereunto is narrow, Mat. 7.13. and scarce one amongst a number finds it: we are as lame cripples, we cannot so much as get to the beaufull gate, except we be carried; Act. 3.2 much less into the temple itself, unless our lameness be taken away. There is but one way unto it, and that is by repentance: he that seeks salvation & God's kingdom any other way, takes a wrong course: it will not be got either with pleasure or profit: all the gold of Ophir, the treasures of Ezekias, or the riches of Solomon will not buy it: only repentance will so far prevail, that thou mayst be saved. And therefore Christ told the jews (who thought themselves privileged, and therefore condemned the Galileans) Except you repent, Luk. 13.3. ye all shall likewise perish. Therefore bear this principle in mind, for it stands as firm as the pillars of heaven, that without repentance there is no salvation. And thus much for the Exhortation itself and the parts thereof. First, the person exhorted. Secondly, the thing required. Thirdly, the end. Now follows the reason: How long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? THis is an argument used by way of complaint; wherein (if you remember, we observed these 5. points. First, the circumstance of time, wherewith the argument was enforced: How long? Secondly, the thing which the Lord complains of: they are thoughts. Thirdly, the qualities: they are Wicked. Fourthly, their continuance: they remain. Fiftly, the place of their abode is, within us. Concerning the four latter, though we may compare ourselves to the sea, into which all the rivers of the earth run, & is never the fuller: so though all the instructions in the Scripture be applied unto us, yet many are never the better, and therefore necessary to handle these severally, Division. which would minister excellent matter unto us: yet, let it suffice, to fasten only upon the sense of the Prophet, and deliver from them jointly such instructions, Coniunctum as flow from the words themselves for our edification. But first, for the circumstance of time, How long? A word of great consequence: Quousque It implies thus much: Is it not sufficient (O jerusalem) that I have borne with sin so long, and do you think me still able to endure it? Have I but hitherto winked at your iniquities, and will you yet and yet vex my righteous soul? Is this the fruit that my long-suffring brings forth in you? Wert thou borne sinful, and wilt thou die sinful? Is there no place for repentance? How long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? Thus the Lord reasons with jerusalem and with us. And surely it is fearful, that our sin should grow to such an height, and iniquity wax so ripe, that the Lord should thus complain of it, How long? When God sends judgements upon us, & the fingers of his wrath fasten either on our bodies or goods; when pestilence came with commission from the angry God of heaven, to attach our sinful and rebellious carcases, and the bodies of our sons and daughters; when we feared to draw our breath in the streets, lest we should have drawn our confusion, and not an haires-breadth there was betwixt us and death; when the unsatiate mouth of the grave still craved for more, and never thought it had enough, and spared not to swallow up our sweetest comforts; when day by day we followed our friends with weeping, our neighbours with mourning, & our nearest kinsfolks with lamentation, to bring them the way of all flesh; when death was as a tyrant amongst us, Mors tyramnns, Cicero. and the pestilence as an unmerciful soldier that spared none: then (beloved) what did we? Surely, we cried & cried, How long, Lord, Lord, how long wilt thou absent thyself hiding thine eyes from beholding, and stopping thine ears from hearing the words of our complaint? How long, Lord, wilt thou give us gall to drink, and fill our souls with bitterness, as with wormwood: Lord, how long, how long, Lord, shall it be thus or thus with us? Thus we pressed the ears of the Lord with our how long, and he heard it. He looked down from heaven and beheld the sorrow of the sons of men upon earth. He commanded his Angel to stay his hand, clearing our air from infection, and seasoning our joints with health. Thus did the Lord help us, when we could not help ourselves. But (alas) he cries and complains of our wicked thoughts, sinful lives, and adulterous conversations; but we give him not the hearing. Lo, beloved, our unequal hearts, and the unkindness wherewith we requite him, who so kindly hath dealt with us. Let. God complain, but we will not complain. He cries, How long? We cry with salomon's sluggard, Not long enough: Yet a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the arms together. judg. 1.15. ios. 15.18. And as Achsaph in the book of judges, was importunate for riches, and never thought herself satisfied: so is it with us; when we have committed one sin, we think we may commit a second; and that being done, we will yet venture upon a third. If we lived one hundredth years, we could be content to live another, so we may live to sin; & when we have lived two, yet we think it not enough. Well, let us in the fear of God slake the thirsty desire thereof, and labour to rid ourselves of it: for he that hath fewest sins, in the day of judgement shall find he hath too many: and let us weigh the Lords cause in our own balance; that as we think, we may justly complain, when the weight and burden of his judgements are upon us: so let us think the lords complaint equal, when the weight and burden of our sin is upon him. Esay. 1.14. Secondly, Use. 2 this How long is like Cynthius to pull us by the ear, and admonish us how we spend our time: for God will have a reckoning of every idle hour that we spend; therefore it should teach us to walk circumspectly as the Apostle speaks, Eph. 5.15. redeeming the time, that what time soever heretofore hath been ill spent, we may have an eye to the time to come that it may be well spent: for we know not whether we have forty days respite allotted unto us, as the Ninivites had: but sure an happy thing is it for him that hath time & place for repentance, and woeful will it be when the whole course of our life is spent in vanity and profaneness; and in the end and upshotte thereof the Angel of God shall answer us, Time shall be no more. Esau had a time when he might have repent, but being overslipped, he had no place for repentance, Heb. 12.17. though he sought the blessing with tears. These times are not allotted for the body, but for the soul. Rom. 13.11. And now is the time not of pleasure or delight, but of salvation, if ever we will have it. Therefore let tempus vitae be tempus poenitentiae; let the time of our life be the time of our repentance. So much for the circumstance of time How long: Now it follows: How long shall thy wicked thoughts remain within thee? HE the hath planted the ear, doth not he hear? & he the hath created the eye. doth not he see the thoughts of the heart? Man can but judge of actions and outward appearances only; but the Lord knoweth the heart. Penetrate Deus usque ad ine timos recessus cordium. Psa. 139 15. There is nothing hidden from God, either in heaven or earth, or within the reins and hearts of our bodies, or of the lowest destruction, but he seethe it with eyes ten thousand times brighter than the Sun. My bones are not hid from thee (saith David) though I was made in a secret place, and fashioned beneath in the earth. And in the 94. Verse 7 Psalm, speaking how the wicked smote the Lords people, and troubled his inheritance, slew the widow, and murdered the fatherless, it went to his heart to hear them say, Non respicit jah. The Lord shall not see it: As if their wickedness could shroud itself from the allseeing eye of his eternal Deity. They are not only our actions and words, that are apparent unto the Almighty, Thoughts but the thoughts of our heart, whether they be good, or evil. Thus the LORD saw jerusalems' thoughts, Wicked. and he beheld them wicked: according to that of the Prophet, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, Psal. 94. that they are but vain, or, vanity itself. Verse 11 Quod ipsae sunt vanitas, traiectio. And Gen. 6.5. The Lord saw the imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart evil. The thoughts of the heart are like unto a gadding servant, when he should employ himself to his master's business at home, he runneth and rangeth after his own pleasure: so when our thoughts should be attendant to the heart, for the service of God, they are here and there, and abroad, after their own vanities: nay, many mar them, Cogitationes vanitatis: sic Cal. super ter. as foolish parents do their wanton children, by too much cockering and favouring of them, and by giving them too much liberty without restraint; but suffer them to follow their own lusts, winding themselves so much into favour with us, that they prevail so far, as from an unchaste imagination, the body is carried into an unchaste action; and from a proud & an angry thought, comes forth many times a blasphemous oath: yea, they will urge and press us onward unto evil: we can no sooner shake off a wicked thought, but with the Egyptian fly it will light upon us again. Genes. 6.14. Therefore as God commanded Noah to pitch the Ark within & without, that no water should get in: so should we pitch the arks of our souls, that no violent and disordered thoughts might rush in to oppress us: or as we hedge our vineyards from wild beasts, so should we hedge our hearts with the graces of the Spirit, from unruly and untamed affections, not to give them the least ground of advantage; but to observe that heavenly principle of an heathen Poet; Principiis obsta. Withstand beginnings, because they may be compared to Panthers, who have sweet smells, but devouring minds; and the conceit of a wicked thought may seem pleasing and delightsome, but in the end it devours like a two edged sword. Captains. Mat. 8.9 We should be masters of our thoughts, as the Centurion was over his servants, that when we say to a wicked thought, Go, it should departed: and when to a good thought, Come, we should then embrace it. But if with deceit, Ios. 9.23 like the Gibeonites, they get themselves within us, and like hypocrites, fain themselves otherwise then they are, let us with the host of Israel, set them to hue wood, and to draw water; employ them to the servilest and basest duties, or rather, slay them out of hand, lest the Lord slay us: for they be not the actions or words only of the oppressor, adulterer, or proud man, that shall be punished; but he will scatter the proud, or any other whatsoever, in the imaginations of their hearts, Cogitationibus cordis ipsorum. Luk. 1.51. & for our thoughts we must come to judgement. Well, the Lord here deals with jerusalem, as a Physician with his patients, who prescribes such a medicine for their maladies, that he would not any corruption should be left behind, whereby they might either seem loathsome unto him, or deceive themselves with a vain hope of security, when there is no such matter. For what though the whole world had judged well of jerusalem, or though by any outward ceremonies they had seemed conformable, if still the thoughts of iniquity had * Pernoctare, hospitari, murmurare: sic enim hebraice significat. lingered in their wicked hearts, which would have been as an inward corruption festering in a wound, and in the end have brought greater misery upon them? Where note, Instruction. 1 that (when we see any judgement ready to fall upon us) in the matter of our repentance, we must deal with simplicity, and not to dream of any shift or vain excuse, to bear us out against any judgement; whatsoever we may do with men, yet must we deal in singleness of heart with the Lord: for there is neither thought, any shift, excuse, or device, but the Lord is inward unto it; which if he once perceives, it enforceth him to a further revenge. Eph. 5.6. It was the caveat which Paul gave to the Ephesians: Let no man deceive you with vain words: for, for such things, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. If men either excuse sin in themselves, or mock at the judgements of God, the anger and wrath of God in the violentest manner comes upon them. Secondly, Instruction. 2 let us learn from hence, that though we reform some few sins, and restrain ourselves from outward offences, whereof the world condemns us, yet can we not promise ourselves security, if we have any wicked thoughts reigning and remaining in our hearts. And therefore because man's nature is so subject to corruption drawn from Adam, that the brightest fire hath some smoke, the clearest fountain some mud, and the purest heart some infection, we must in the sincerest manner that we may, wholly resign ourselves into the Lords hands, and commit the ordering, disposing, and sanctifying of our thoughts to his good will and pleasure; knowing that in him lieth all our safety & security from all judgements; and for ourselves, were we as just and upright as Daniel, yet might we say with him, Shame (Lord) and confusion belongs unto us. Thirdly, let us learn, Instruction. 3 not to think it a small matter, when any old sin or corruption remains within us. For if ever any thing be dangerous, surely this is most dangerous, when a sin that sprouted up in us thirty or forty years ago, & still the same sin remains in our hearts, In medio tui. and lurketh in the inwards of our souls, surely, it is now grown to a great tree, & not easily to be plucked up. For it is the nature of sin, when custom gives it any encouragement, first it is an egg; secondly, a cockatrie: thirdly, a serpent; four, a fiery flying serpent. For as it remaineth, it keeps not at a stay, but it groweth up, & gets heart, strength and encouragement, that it fares like a sleepy Lion, Gen. 4.7 which if a man gins to rouse, is ready to fly in his face. Therefore let us crush the heads of our wicked thoughts, while they are but little serpents, and not suffer them to remain in our hearts so long, lest at length they get strength to overmaster us. Lastly, by the tenor of this argument we may see, how the Lord is grieved with the delay of repentance in any sinner: Simile. we know in our own ordinary affairs (either in following matters of law, or when we have any suits & requests to exhibit to princes or men of state) delay breeds many dangers, Mora trahit periculum. and makes us that we either go without the thing that we sue for, or else we obtain it with great difficulty and charge: after the same sort, if any desires this heavenly promotion, which all the kingdoms in the world cannot purchase, and be slack in following the suit thereof, to think as Naaman thought of the waters of jordan, 2. King. 5 that other waters may be as good, & so another time as meet, and shall not to morrow be as to day, etc. surely he shall either go without it, or else obtain it with great difficulty: for the longer that we remain in sin, the further off will the Lord be from us, yea so far, as it shall be hard to find him; and the more sins that a man committeth, the more walls of brass are built and made up betwixt God and us, that the cries of our sinful hearts can not have passage unto him, nor his mercies unto us. Were it not much better than (beloved) to seek the Lord while he may be found, Esay 55. and to call upon him while he is near? to put up our supplications into the hands of this heavenly Prince while he now passeth by us, then to stay and delay till he shuts himself up in his chamber of presence, and then will not open unto us? Oh that we could once be wise and provident for our own salvation! When Abel offered sacrifice, he brought the first fruits of his sheep, and the fat of them to offer up: Gen. 4.4 And the Lord had respect unto it. And shall we think to spend the first fruits of our age, and the prime of our years in sin, and the service of the Devil; & when we have thus spent the strength, sap and greenness of our youth; and grow old and withered, lying like brands in the fire of sin, Zach. 3. wasted and consumed to stumps, as the Prophet speaks; and then offer up our old, adulterous, broken and shattered sacrifices unto God? shall we think (I say) the Lord will regard them? or that he will thus be mocked at our hands? Surely no. Our safest course (beloved) will then be, not to grieve the Lord with delays, that he should justly complain of us, as of jerusalem: How long shall the wicked thoughts remain within thee? Is it not yet enough? Are ye not content to grieve men only, but you will grieve me also? etc. But rather forthwith whiles we are in our best strength, Eccles. 12.1. before the evil day cometh, to season our green vessels with the liquor of his spirit, even with holiness and sanctimony of life, and to think the prime of our years, and (as it were) the maidenhead of our youth, in the purest and holiest manner, to be better bestowed on the Lord, who hath promised himself to be a most loving and faithful husband unto us, then upon the Devil, which is our professed enemy, and seeks our overthrow every way. O let us consider how brittle a staff we leave upon, when we trust unto our old age, which when it breaks, the splinters & shivers thereof will wound us. If we repose any confidence to the hour of death for God's favour, we tread but upon ye; which if it be melted with a little heat of God's anger, alas, we sink into the gulte of destruction. Indeed many are blinded in giving credit to Satan, when he saith unto them, Ye shall not die, or the time is not yet, etc. thinking that God's mercy will wait upon them when their eyes shall be closed up, or obtain that at the hour of death, which they have contemned all their life: but let us for our parts labour for it, even while it is called to day, yea while the Lord calls, and says unto us as he said to Adam, Where art thou? Gen. 3.9. & never colour nor cloak our filthiness with the Fig leans of our devices, or shroud ourselves in the thickets of our wicked imaginations; for than we shall show ourselves of what house we come: but rather endeavour to be new creatures in Christ the second Adam: yet let it repent us that we have deferred the time so long, and suffered sin to grow to such a height, to the greater offence of our heavenly father, and to the greater hazard of our own salvation: and as he hath thought long for our turning unto him; so let us think long for his turning unto us, that there may be amity, league, and friendship betwixt God and us, and then shall we live without fear of any foreign enemy; Exod. 14 14. yea we may then hold our peace, for the Lord will fight for us, and put all our enemies unto the sword: he will make us return into the court of heaven with palms of honour in our hands, and crowns of victory upon our heads; and the whole Trinity shall with one voice say, Amen, for the confirmation of our eternal happiness. Then shall we have no more wars, nor rumours of wars to dismay us; no more enemies to fear us, no fear to grieve us, no grief to trouble us, no trouble to disquiet us, no sickness to distemper us, or death to dissolve us; but life in him who liveth for evermore. The Lord possess out souls with a desire of it, and give a blessing to that which hath been delivered. Amen. FINIS.