THE PURIFYING OF  HEARTS and Hands: OPENED In a SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS, at their solemn Fast, January 28. 1645. in Margaret's Westminster. By RICHARD VINES, one of the Assembly of Divines.  PSAL. 24. 3, 4. 
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?  
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.  
Published by Order of the House of COMMONS.  
LONDON, Printed by G. M. for Abel Roper, at the sign of the Sun against St Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet. 1646.   

Die Mercurij 28ᵒ. January, 1645.  
ORdered by the Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT, that M. Long and M. Holland do from this House give thanks to M. Vines for the great pains he took in the Sermons he preached this day, at the entreaty of this House, at St Margaret's Westminster, (it being the day of Public Humiliation) and to desire him to Print his Sermon. And it is Ordered, that none shall Print his Sermon, but who shall be licenced under his hand-writing.  
H. Elsing, Cler. Parl. D. Com.   

I Appoint Abel Roper to print this Sermon.  
Richard Vines.   

TO THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS Assembled in Parliament.  
Such Auditors who will suffer the word of exhortation, 
Heb. 13. 22.  as they encourage the Minister to do his, so they shall be sure to know their duty; which is not ordinarily the happiness of great personages. This Sermon was preach upon one of the days of your solemn approach and drawing nigh to God. It was no season to present you with fancies dressed in cobweb lawn, or thin notions clothed with air. The Popish fasts did but change solid meat into sweet meats. The subject of the sermon is cleansing and purifying; which as it was necessary by the law, before the unclean person might draw nigh to God, so it is required of you, If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy hands towards him; If iniquity be in thy hand, put it fare away: for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, job 11, 13, 14, 15. It is a liberty which Ministers claim by virtue of their commission, to speak, exhort, and rebuke with all authority, Tit. 2. 15. You that are the tutelar patrons and assertors of just liberties, do like yourselves, in countenancing and encouraging this also: so shall you have the ministry of the Word always ready to help you, to beat your corruptions black and blue, which to do, is both the duty, and beauty of your sackcloth-dayes. 
1 Cor 9 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The Lord who hath said, That the pure in heart shall see God, Math. 5. 8. And that be that hath clean hands, shall be stronger and stronger, job 17. 9 so draw nigh to you in the light of his countenance, and strength of his arm, that you who have defended Religion from being trampled upon, may preserve it from being torn in pieces, and see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your lives. So prays,  
Your servant in Christ lesus, Richard Vines.   

A SERMON PREACHED before the Honourable House of COMMONS, upon the day of the Monethly-Fast, January 28. 1645.  JAMES 4. 8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. 
MY work at this time (by agreement) is to bring up the rear of this text, 
See M. C●…t his Sermon upon the former part of this text.  that it may appear to you in a full body; you received (in the forenoon) the invitation to that, which is not only the main duty, but also the chief good of man, To draw nigh to God: And you have (I hope) tasted of the sweetness of that promise which God doth make, or the entertainment which he gives to such; God will draw nigh to you; so the Prodigal son arose and came to his father, 
Luk. 15. 20.  and his father ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The lost son comes, the compassionate father runs. God answers his people in a way of retaliation: if they draw nigh to him, he will draw nigh to them: and this drawing nigh of God to us, is like the nearer approaches of the Sun, which by his heat and prolifical influences, gives life and beauty to those things that before lay dead and buried, shrouded in the winding sheet of the winter snow.  
That part of the Text which comes under my hand (Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded) contains in it,  
1. The Prohibens, or impediment prohibiting this mutual drawing nigh of you to God, of God to you; and that is, the pollution of your hands, the uncleanness or corruption of your hearts; for it is not possible there should be coalition, or communion between God and wicked men; therefore it is said, Psal. 18. 26. with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward: Plato saw this truth 
Plato in Phaedane.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith he) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the law of contrariety forbids purity and filthiness to touch, that is, to have fellowship or communion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Touch not the unclean thing, 2 Cor. 6. 17. God is so fare from drawing nigh unto, that he will hid his eyes from unclean hands. The reason why he delighteth not in our fattest Sacrifices, why our incense is an abomination to him, why he hateth our new Moons and appointed feasts, why he will not hear our multiplied prayers, is the uncleanness of our hands, Isa. 1. from the 11. to the end of the 15. verse; Thou art of purereyes then to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity, saith the Prophet, Hab. 1. 13. that is, 
See the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explicated in M. Gataker his learned Treatise, called, God's eye on his Israel  thou canst not countenance the violence and oppressions of thy people, the grievance and vexation done unto them by wicked men, much less, draw nigh to men of such unclean hands.  
2. The removens prohibens, or the removal of that impediment, and that is, cleansing of hands, and purifying of your hearts, for saith the Prophet, Isa, 1. 16. Wash ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your do from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow: (And then it follows) Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Our dissimilitude and unlikeness to God, is a bar to this mutual acquaintance and communion, for a man unlike to God, cannot but dislike him. As white is no more contrary to black, then black to white: so God's holiness is no more contrary to our wickedness, than our wickedness is to his holiness: and therefore there can be no drawing nigh together, unless either God recede from his holiness (which cannot be) or we be cleansed and purified from our uncleanness, which ●s the only way to make this communion close, sweet and firm.  
That the Text is proper and seasonable for this day of our Humiliation is plain, not only by that which immediately follows in the 9 and 10. ver. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. But by the Text itself, for what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the main business of a Fast, but to search for the Lord with all our heart, to lament after him, to draw nigh unto, and meet our God? and what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or main business of them that fast, but to bring forth the wickedness that is in their hands, and the predominant corruptions that are in their hearts, and as witnesses against them, to cast upon them the stone of execution that they may die. A Fast is not merely a sermon and a prayer, there is a propriety in that ordinance or duty. The sermon should spread your sins before you, and your confessions and prayer should spread them before the Lord. The sermon puts the ashes on your heads, and dresses your souls in that sackcloth, which you are to wear as mourning garments, in your prayer and humiliation. I wish our Fasts may not lose their property, like physic, which by often taking, becomes at length a diet, rather than a medicine.  
There is in the words triplex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a threefold conjunction.  
Sinners and double-minded cleanse and your Hands purify Hearts.  
I shall first break the shell, by explication of the terms.  
The word [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] sinners, as it signifies in general any sinner, in opposition to a righteous man, Rom. 5. 19 As by one man's disobedience, many were made [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many be made [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] righteous: so in special it also signifies a wicked man, one of flagitious life, a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, therefore it's often said [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] Publicans and sinners, and Luk. 7. 37. a woman in that City which was [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] a sinner, that is, an adulteress, or a harlot, as it is generally expounded; and if we survey the beginning of this chapter, what brawlings, envyings, lusts, selfseeking, did reign amongst this people, we shall see good reason to take the word sinners, for such as did lie in more open and scandalous sins, men of unclean hands.  
The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, double-minded, is once before used in this Epistle, chap. 1. 8. and signifies such as have double, (or as the Syriack expresseth it) divided hearts, it answers the Hebrew expression: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  a heart and a heart, which the septuagint do interpret word for word, 
1 Chron. 12. 33. Psal. 12. 2.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Symachus (whom Chrysostom on, Psal. 12. 2. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) renders it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we shall best understand the sense of the word, by comparing it with the opposite thereunto, and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ephes. 6. 5. Col. 3. 22. Simplicity, or singleness of heart, it is a grace recommended to servants, In singleness of heart as unto Christ, not with eye-service as unto men; And again it's said, In singleness of heart fearing God: doing whatsoever you do from your heart, as to the Lord, and not to man; where you have singleness of heart described, to be the steerage of the heart, by the fear of God in a right line, to intent and aim at him and his glory, in all you do; for those crooked, serpentine, and subtle wind and turn of heart, which are called, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Psalm. 145. 4, 5. crooked ways, that are like a winding way, or winding brook, that runs in and out; or, like a winding stair case, where a man goes but three or four steps, and then turns to another point, are set in opposition to uprightness of heart; such off and on, such in and out hearts cannot be upright, they then are double minded.  
1. Whose hearts are not single and entire with God, but divided between God and self, being biased with carnal and worldly lusts, policies or ends.  
Like the heart of an Adulterer, or Adulteress (so these double minded ones are also called, verse 4.) which is divided between husband or wife, and some other strange love.  
2. Whose hearts are not fixed upon one centre, but uncertain, movable, and inconstant with God, Cap. 1. ver. 8. A double minded man is unsettled in all his ways. The word is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies that he is at no settledness within himself, but off and on, by reason of lusts that mutiny within him, and carry him away from choosing, and resting upon God alone: and this inconstancy rises from the former, namely, the division of the heart, for it being divided in itself by reasonings, self-interests, lusts, cannot be constant in attendance upon God. It is but by accident that the weather cock points towards the Sun, namely, because the wind and Sun are both in one corner. If the wind turn, it turns away also.  
2. Cleanse and purify, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these words are promiscuously, and indifferently used by the Septuagint, to interpret the Hebrew words that signify to cleanse and purify; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  and there is in these words an allusion to legal uncleannesses, and the purifying of them; for as in the law, before an unclean person might draw nigh to God, he must be purified from his uncleanness: so those that will draw nigh to God, or would have God draw nigh to them, must cleanse their hands, and purify their hearts. 
Eo lavatum, ut sacrificem, nunc lavabo ut rem divinam faciam. Plaut. in aulul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Plutarch. in M●…io.  The Heathens had their ceremonious washings, and purifyings, as preparative to their sacrifices and prayers; and this heart-purifying, and hand-cleansing, is that purgatory thorough which we must go, if we will draw nigh to God in worship and communion; God will be served with clean creatures.  
3. Hands and hearts. The heart is the womb, where lust is warmed and conceived; the shop, where the forge, anvil, bellows, fire are for the forming of lust, and making of it ready. The hands are put for the executive and instrumental powers, that bring it forth to light, and act it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. 6. 13. the weapons of unrighteousness unto sin: In short, the outward and inward man being filthy and unclean, must be purified from corruption of heart and life. For he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Psal, 24. 4. 5. shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.  
I shall now come to the matter of the Text which I will handle.  
1. In the two parts of it distinctly. Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts.  
2. As these two parts are in connexion one with the other: cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts.  
3. As they stand both together, in reference to our drawing nigh to God, and his drawing nigh to us. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, etc.  
You may easily see that here is very little speculative, or notional matter, but practical, and such as will fall most properly into use, and into matter of application. We have now to deal with your hearts and hands, and not your brain. Here will be no fine thin wafers which will melt upon your tongue, and vanish in a little sweetness; and yet such novelties and running banquets are all for the palate of these queasy times; o Religion! how art thou turned into a kind of Philosophy of opinions, in danger to be a mere sceptic, or terra incognita, an every thing, a nothing, a thing for a wanton fancy to play withal, a smooth tongue to talk of, made up of a brain and a mouth, without heart and hands. How can it be otherwise when the tree of knowledge is so much preferred before the tree of life?  
From the first part, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, I observe,  
1. A corrupt and wicked life argues a man to be a stranger to God, and God to him.  
2. They that will draw nigh to God, must cleanse their hands.  
A corrupt and wicked life argues a man to be a stranger to God, and God him; 
Doct. 1.  for otherwise a man might draw nigh to God, and have unclean hands too, which the Text supposes that it cannot be. That power which draws a man into acquaintance with God, doth proportionably kill sin. That power which flows from God in acquaintance with a man, kills sin too: whether I go out to the sun, or the sun come in to me, the darkness is expelled: sin hath not dominion over them that are under grace, Rom. 6. 14. the knowledge of God sets a man lose from his bondage to the enslaving lusts he before served, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, John 8. 32. draw nigh to God, and be unclean if you can. That faith which is uniting to Christ, is a purifying faith; rebellion against the Commandments of God, is inconsistent with communion with God; you may fast, and pray, and ask, that you may consume upon your lusts, ver. 4. like a cutpurse in a Church, who comes not thither to seek God, but his prey.  
They that draw nigh to God, must cleanse their hands; 
Doct. 2.  I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine Altar, O Lord, Psal. 26. 6. Where you may observe, that thanksgivings and praises, which the Psalmist calls sacrifices of shouting, or loud music, Psal. 27. 6. and wherein they used (as one saith) th●… agere circum altar, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lori●…ut ●… Psa●. 16. 6.  are to be performed with washen hands: so in your prayers, the Lord requires that you should lift up pure hands, 1 Tim. 2. 8. and what a sweet reflection may you make upon your deliverances which are wonderful, when you can say, I was upright with God, and I kept myself from mine iniquity? Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight, Psal. 18. 23, 24. If ye fall into straits, and be plunged into depths of misery; If your face be foul with weeping, and on your eye lids be the shadow of death; what a lifting up of the head will it be unto you, to be able to say, Not for any injustice in my hands? Job. 16. 17. If the Lord shall deliver this Island from the oppression and injustice under which it hath groaned; what a crown and comfort will it be to you, that it is delivered by the pureness of your hands? Job. 22. 30. To conclude. If there be a frustration of our counsels, and our endeavours bring forth nothing but wind; You shall find the reason why God makes all void and ineffectual, Isa. 59 6. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.  
That nothing may be lost, let us pick up the particulars that are offered unto us in this point.  
N =" 1" 1. That God invites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, great sinners to draw nigh to him, and promiseth to draw nigh to them, O ye sinners, no such strangers to God, but they may come into favour, intimacy, and communion with him; great sinners are oftentimes made great Saints: God engraves his image in untoward wood, that the churlishness of the matter may the more commend the workman; he calls them to him, being yet overwhelmed with sin, and in their drawing nigh to him they are cleansed; as Christ sent the Lepers to the Priests, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they were going they were cleansed, Luk. 17. 14.  
2. He bids these sinners cleanse and purify, their hands and hearts? but how can corruption cleanse itself? can unsavoury salt season itself? No. God purifieth the heart by faith, Act. 15. 9 and every man that hath this hope, purifieth himself, 1 John 3. 3. Christ is he that comes by water and blood, 1 Joh. 5. 6. that is, by all manner of purifying, typified by legal purifications. This is (saith a learned man) one of the mysteries of this law (of purifying) that a clean person was himself made unclean, 
Ainsworth in Numb. 19  by touching the holy water, sprinkling it upon the unclean: and this is the great mystery of the Gospel, that he whose blood cleanseth us from all sin, 1 John 1. 7. and in whom being a clean person is no sin, should yet be made sin for us, and for our cleansing. And as an unclean person is said to purify himself, Numb. 19 12, & 20. because that (though there was a peculiar water for that purpose, and that also to be sprinkled on him by another) it was his duty to come unto that purifying water, and make use of it: so are you to purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands, by coming unto that blood of sprinkling, Heb. 12. 22, 24. Faith will bring you to this purifying blood: one touch of Christ by faith, draws virtue out of him, which will dry up your running issues. Humiliation, though it do not properly cleanse your hands, yet it plucks off the gloves, and makes them bare for washing: and godly sorrow with its seven daughters as they are expressed, 2 Cor. 7. 11. are cleansing things. This is the way of your cleansing and purifying, this is your duty, and this through grace is your ability; for the regenerate being principled, doth act; being purified, doth purify himself; and being kept by the power of God, doth also keep himself, as it is said, 1 John 5. 18.  
3. Sinners are to cleanse their hands: but what are those sins? they are generally those outward sins, or ways of wickedness wherein men use to walk, and which do denominate a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a sinner of deeper die; but in special we find some more eminently called sins of the hands, as oppression and violence, jonah 3. 8. blood, Isa. 1. 15. bribes, Isa. 33. 15. injustice, job. 16. 17. as there are also eye-sinnes, ear-sinnes, tongue-sinnes, etc.  
4. Why is cleansing the hands set before purifying of the heart? for the rule is, make the tree good, and his fruit good: in vain, do we go about to sweeten the stream, when the fountain still sends forth bitter water? To this I answer, that though it be but a solicitous trifling, to vex every prius and posterius which we meet with in Scripture, and is but a curiosity to take pains to say nothing, lest we might seem to leave any thing unsaid, yet there may some account be given of this transposition: as 1. The Scripture sometimes puts that first, which is visibly first, the sign before the cause, as when it is said, Calling and Election. 2. Because conviction gins at some grosser sin, there the conscience gins to take fire: and God who hath the ordering of sin, makes some great sin very serviceable and useful, to be, as it were, an entering wedge to break the knotty heart all to pieces. 3. Because grace having once got footing in the heart, presently enters the field against this kind of sins, as having greater guilt, and by their bulk making the greatest interception of the light of God's countenance, and more inconsistent with a state of salvation, than those rebelling and molesting corruptions which are within.  
For the reason of this point, 
Reasons.  That they who draw nigh to God, must cleanse their hands. I shall offer only this. That these sins of our hands, do keep us at distance from God, and God at distance from us; your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, Isa. 59 2. This is the worst effect and fruit of sin; that it is privative of our union with, and fruition of God: Depart from me, is as terrible a word as everlasting fire: It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Judas 13. the blackness of darkness, the lustings of corruption which are in the regenerate, are (as I may call them) transparent sins, they obstruct not our communion with God; like the motes which are infinite, but hinder not the suns bright beams from us; but these hand-sins or wickedness of life, are opacous, and put us into the shade, by their interposition between God and us, and doubtless while we are in love with sin, God is as unpleasing to us as we are unpleasing to him, nor would we any more draw nigh to him then he to us. Give me leave thus to convey the notion that I have upon this point, Commerce is one thing, Communion is another: As a man will have commerce or trade with an enemy, a stranger, any body, to trade with him for profit, and to gain some commodity which he hath in his hands; but Communion, which is in way of love, friendship or acquaintance, he cares not for, nor would by any means admit of; so a man, whose hands and life are full of sin, and his heart full of enmity to God, may yet have some commerce with God in duties or ordinances, to serve his turn upon God, uti Deo at fruatur mundo, and to make use of him for his own ends; as it's said, ver. 4. You ask, that you may confame upon your lusts; but communion in way of league and friendship with God, and fruition of him in way of special love and favour, he neither can have, nor will, except he also give a bill of divorce to his best beloved lusts.  
I come now to make application of this Point to you, 
General Use.  and the Use is in the text, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. It's unacceptable work to be set upon, for a sinner to cleanse and purify, and to cleanse his hands too, which are full of profitable sins, Turn ye every one from your evil way, and from the violence that is in your hands, Jonah 3. 8. It is a wonder that the ship wherein we are, so laden with sins of all ranks and subordinations of men, King, Princes, Judges, Lawyers, Gentry, Ministers, people (especially in such grown seas as we have been in) should live to this day; for you know we entered into this wilderness, wherein we yet wander, with our former Egypt-sins upon our backs, and we alas did not first make even before we went upon a new score; we fast, we pray, we Covenant, and yet we are as double minded, as foul handed as before; ungodliness, unrighteousness, self-seekings, hypocrisy, religiousness for our ends abound amongst us, and contempt of the Ministry more than ever, so that preaching of the word by the Ministers of this Kingdom, which for soundness, spiritualness and success, hath not been (I was going to say) paralleled, (I may truly say) excelled in any part of the world, is by very many now judged to have been a Monopoly, and fit among other Monopolies to go down and to be made a common trade. Not many years ago, when it was both danger and disgrace to hold forth the profession of the name of Christ in truth, what appetite had Christians to the sincere doctrine of Christ, and of regeneration and mortification of sin? How did they, in their private meetings, lay siege to the throne of grace with united strength, and antidote themselves against the infectious air of those times? whose eyes were thought too dear for those faithful messengers of God at whose feet they sat? what contending was there for the faith once delivered to the Saints? what burning love had they each to other? what oneness of heart and mind? Now alas, some of those good ears of come are mildewd, and many run all up into straw, and do not eat so well; Religion vapours itself out into notions and disputes of no value, breaks into parties, and is broken in pieces by mutual animosities; 
Ammianus Marcell. lib. 21 de Constant o Grotius de veritate, lib 1. in initto.  so it is observed, that that sincere and true godliness, which flourished and was warm in Christians under the persecuting Emperors, post Constantinum caepit refrigescere, after Constantine, when it was both safe and honourable, it began to cool, and to break out into ambition, pride, contention, etc. If you will not own your sins, we that are Ministers must cry aloud, Isa. 58. 1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins: and observe, I pray you, to whom the Prophet is commanded to cry aloud, namely, to such as sought the Lord daily, and delighted to know his ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God; such as did ask of God the ordinances of justice, and took delight in approaching to God, that fasted and afflicted their souls, ver. 2, 3. such as made religious duties the panders to their lusts, and the covert of their injustice and oppression, hiding their filthy sores under a velvet plaster; Sin lies fast asleep and most secure in such men, the form of religion is a buffcoat to their sins; and therefore cry aloud, and cry impartially against the sins of all sorts of men, so as not to lick the sores of great ones, and by't the sores of poor ones, for that is rather to upbraid men with their poverty, then reprove them for their sins. You know that Physicians, Chyrurgians (and so Ministers) are sometimes allowed to be cruel; and the truth is, I fear we have leapt up the pills of reproof in so much pap and sugar, that by allaying the bitterness we have frustrated the operation. Oh that you were all of you too generous to be flattered, and that you would search out particularly your own personal and bosom sins, swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, injustice, oppression: for whiles we speak generals, no man thinks that the Cock crows to him, and so goes not forth to weep bitterly; upon a general indictment of a man to be a fellow or thief, there can be no proceeding to sentence, except the fact in particular be expressed; so while you say only in general, We are sinners, and do not arraign yourselves upon particulars, saying, This is my iniquity, you can never judge and condemn yourselves as you ought. So much for the general.  
Now particularly to you (Honoured and Worthy) 
Particular Use.  that are Members of the Honourable House of Commons, as you are single persons, search yourselves, consider your ways; Is there any thing in your hands to be cleansed? You are to purge the corrupt leaven out of your own houses, yourselves, your families, your places of office and trust are the proper sphere of your activity; you are for Ecclesiastical reformation, and the sweeping out of corruptions out of the house of God: but are you as intent upon personal reformation of your own ways? do your own houses lie clean? have you real principles of godliness in your own hearts? or are you carried merely by the Parliamentary genius or stream, by a rapt motion? In one word: are you not afraid of holiness? These are things sadly to be considered. For can you think that in good earnest one black-more should go about to wash another? would you not say, Why doth not he first make himself white, that the other may thereby be persuaded he can make him so too? If any of you should lie in known sins or lusts, can you comfortably, conscientiously, and zealously contribute to the reformation of others? you may indeed do that which is right in the sight of God, but where is your comfort, if it be not done with a perfect heart? He must needs be afraid to hedge in the Sacrament, and to make it inacessible to the scandalous and profane, or to settle a faithful and searching ministry in the place he lives in, that knows he shall but thereby make a rod for himself. I beseech you therefore to search yourselves, that you may not be Carpenters to build an Ark for others, and yourselves be lost. It is a great honour to be a Member of this Parliament, but it is as great a burden too, as ever English men underwent: and I shall crave leave to tell you further, that you may become the greatest sinners in the world by it, for now the sins of the Kingdom: may become yours; the Heresies, blasphemies, and crying wickednesses of oppression and injustice may become yours; they are other men's sins by commission, they are your other men's sins by your omission of that opportunity, and duty of your place to provide for remedies preventive and removent of them, so fare as they may come within your knowledge, and the reach of your power. That which Scripture calls partaking in other men's sins, adds more guilt to men of all sorts, especially Ministers and Magistrates, then is generally thought of. Take heed of making yourselves partakers of those sins and abominations, which you hate the thought of: and the Lord keep alive your zeal by this quickening consideration.  
2. So much being spoken to any of you respectively, as single Members: Give me leave to address myself in a word or two to you the Honourable, and for ever to be renowned body. Is there any thing in your hands, the cleansing away whereof may cause you to draw nigher to God, or God to draw nearer to you? you have had a miraculous hand with you this last year; and there is with you as a token of Gods drawing nigh to you, such a chain of successes and victories, consisting of so many links, without any flaw or breaking off between them, as very few people have to show in the world again; I beseech you watch the door against the entrance of that which usually attends either great parts, or great benefits received, and that is pride: as we easilyer take cold when we are warm: so its natural to man to be puffed up with success. I shall offer to you this humbling consideration; when Israel was in the act of leading two hundred thousand of judah in triumph, having gotten a mighty victory over them; there was a Prophet that pressed upon the Conquerors a seasonable argument, that took very much with them, and wrought them into a more equal temper, and it was this, 2 Chron. 28. 10. but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God? So say I to you: are there not sins with you, even with you? reflect upon, and examine yourselves. There are very many hard cases in the Kingdom. I am not so out of myself as to lay them at your door, as you are a body, because indeed I cannot, (and yet if I could, I durst do it) but I most humbly give caution to you, who are the shields, the healers. There are many forlorn and desolate persons, that follow you with cries for the price of their husbands and father's lives or limbs. It is not charity, but justice to refresh their bowels: many have given down their milk freely, and yet after all have their breasts bitten until they bleed, by unlawful plundering, spoil and violence: many instruments employed, are very sharp bitten and prey for themselves. The intention of the Physician and of the Leech is not the same. He intends to draw out the blood in due proportion, as his patient can bear: She hath no other gage of her sucking, then till she be full as she can hold. It were justice to squeeze these sponges, that have sucked themselves full, and to leave them as dry as they were at first. Let difference be made of men's faults in their punishments: there is no reason, that Peter who denied his Master of infirmity, and judas that betrayed him deliberately, should be both in one predicament. Let not justice be biased by partiality. A Judge ought to look with no other eye, but the eye of the law, which looks at things, and is blind to persons. Let justice be sped, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Arist. Ethic. lib. 5. cap. 7.  that expenses and attendance eat not out the principal in question, Amos 5. 24. Let judgement run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream; and above all, shake your hands from bribes: whether bribes by presents, or by kindred, friendship, favour, one puts out the eye as well as another, and there may be quid pro quo bribes, when a man will lend his vote to one, to have it paid him again, in a cause when he will call for it, and opinion-bribes, (as I may call them) when a man will endeavour to carry another thorough, because he is of his opinion and judgement in other things; Oh let justice dwell in your tents, and in your hands. And if in this ataxy, or confusion of things it be impossible to prevent, or remedy many miscarriages, as I think it is, (considering that many who run in to the common scathe-fire, do not intent the quenching of it, but the seeking of an opportunity, in that confusion, to rob them that are in misery, and to fish for themselves) than my prayer shall be that of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 30. 18, 19 The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary.  
And so I pass on to the second particular in the Text, Purify your hearts, ye double minded; whence I take up these two points.  

1. Double minded men have corrupt hearts.  
2. This double mindedness hinders both our drawing nigh to God, and his drawing nigh to us.   
Double minded men have corrupt hearts: 
Doct. 1.  for it's said, purify your hearts, ye double minded. Doublemindednes is a division of heart between God and some other preponderating lust, or self-interest; and so where there should be no division, but singleness and integrity, there is division; For all the heart, all the mind, all the soul, and all the strength, is that which God calls for. There are some that have no heart, they have no thoughts of God, no relish of him, no bias towards him▪ it was an ill omen in sacrifices, quandocor desecisset, when there wanted a heart; there can be no expectation of any return of heartless prayer, heartless performance of duties; and this is the common posture of spirit of the ignorant, and secure worldlings. There are some that have double hearts, they pretend to have a zeal of God, and they profess the name of Christ, and hang out the Christian colours: but through hypocrisy and partiality to their own ends, and self-respects they halt between God and Baal, or endeavour to comply with two masters, or they part their friendship and love between God and the world, as ver. 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? There are some that have one heart, and this is that which God promiseth to his Covenant-people, and wherein he delights, when the heart is totum homogeneum, whole and undivided from him, then is it a perfect heart, and of a happy temper or constitution, being of chaste love, affection and faithfulness to God, not vitiated or deflowered by carnal copulation with other base lusts or ends; do but observe our Saviour in that saying of his, Math. 6. 22, 23. how he opposeth unto a single eye, an evil one; If, saith he, Thine eye be single, and then when you would have expected that double should have been opposed to single, he saith, But if thy eye be evil, thereby signifying, that if it be not single, it is naught and evil; and whereas one might think, that a double eye hath more light than a single: our Saviour tells us the plain contrary, that a single eye makes the body full of light, but a double eye fills it full of darkness; It's true, there is in a double minded man, some eye to God, that is, so as to use his name to serve self-ends, or to colour and cover his sinister aims and intentions. As a harlot whose heart goes after unchaste loves, will yet have a husband too, (that is) to colour and hid her lewdness; such are these which are double hearted: they have a Sabbath for God, and six days for their lusts: they retain to God, and wear his cloth, and sometimes wait and attend, but they are their own men for the most part, and work for themselves; Religion unto them is but the stalking horse, under the sides whereof they creep, to get a shoot at their own game; how often doth God in Scripture find fault with this kind of professors? when ye fasted, saith he, Zech. 7. 5. did ye at all fast unto me, even unto me? and again, when they howled upon their beds, they have not cried unto me with their heart, they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me, Hos. 7. 14. An Israelite that is without guile, that hath but one heart, is a rare man, and worthy of an Ecce. Behold, indeed an Israelite.  
In the opening of this point, I shall follow the thread of that explication of this word (double minded) which I gave in the beginning.  
1. This double mindedness is an uncertainty of the heart with God, not fixed upon a centre, but off and on, as times, occasions, and interests do lead on, or draw off, so fare you will go with God, as your way and his do fall out to hold together: and until you must pull down Jeroboams calves, as well as Ahabs Baal, and then you part with him when it comes to such a pinch; so also in adversity or affliction, we make nautarum vota, mariners vows (as they do in a storm) and when we are on shore, and landed out of danger, we eat the Covenant we made before, Psal. 78. 24. etc. When he slew them, than they sought him, and they returned and enquired early after God, and they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did but flatter and lie unto him, for their heart was not right with him, nor were they steadfast in his Covenant. If the heart was right with God, it would be certain and steadfast with him. Constancy is but the daughter of sincerity. It's a hateful thing to set sail to every wind, and to change colour so often, being no faster tied to God in the tempest, than we can be loosened in the calm; Be what you were in the storm: in your affliction you will abide to be spurred withoutkicking, and are very tame under reproofs: but when you are lifted up and are at shore, then to put you in mind of your vows and Covenants in the day of your trouble, is as an unpleasing a thing, as to put a Mariner at shore in mind of his vows or promises made at Sea. It's no great danger to reprove men sharply when they are low, any coward may strike a man that is down, but (believe it) when men are aloft and high, and may more safelier be dealt withal by stroking, then by the spur, than it is somewhat to come nigh the heels of truth, for it may haply strike out his teeth.  
2. This doublemindednesse is a division of the heart from God. 1. It is divided between the promises of God, and the difficulties opposite, when a man lays his dead body and the dead womb of Sara in the scales, against the promise of having Isaac, this is sense fight against faith. 2. Between conscience and lust, conscience dictates, lust bypasses, the inferior appetite mutinies against the superior light, and leads it captive, video melior a probòque, deteriora sequor. 3. Between Religion and policy: and then Religion commonly goes by the worse, Jeroboam and the Kings of Israel, to comply with their politic respects, set up, and continued a self-devised worship. 4. Between God and the world, or God and our own ends, as they here in the Text: when we make God a mere servant to ourselves, and move upon a private centre of our own: the heart is cunning and subtle in squinting towards its own ends: visibly we will be for God: under hand we seek ourselves: so the planets in their daily motion from East to West, move as the fixed stars, but they have another motion of their own, which is creepingly by stealth, and more unperceivable than the other.  

Use.  For the use of this point, let me turn the words of the Text once more upon you, by way of exhortation; Parify your hearts, ye double-minded, cast out those dividing lusts, policies, ends, which draw you away from God; and pluck off those false byasses of self-interest, and selfseeking, which cause you to wheel off from the true mark or scope of all your desires and endeavours: you will be found faulty if your hearts be divided, Hos. 10. 2. simplicity of heart is of great account with God; there is asinina simplicitas, & columbina, the simplicity of the ass, and of the dove; the former is a defect in the understanding, the later is the grace of an honest heart; and this sure is that which is of esteem with God. In matters of judgement and justice between man and man, you are to have two eyes, to look both ways but as they that take aim shut one of their eyes, lest the sight should be distracted; so in your aims and ends, your eye is to be single, in intending God, and not self: let Christ increase, though you decrease.  
The greatest matter above-board, and which all men's expectations and mouths are full of, is the settling of Religion and of the Church. Religion is (rerumpublicarum quoddam quasi coagulum) that which caements Commonwealths together, 
Cunaeus lib ●. cap. 15.  though now it be made the ball of contention, and the great divider of us into parties; we divide it, and are divided, being fare more than double-minded thereabout. Oh that God was first set into possession of his right, and that his Tabernacle was pitched, before any of the lots, for our own liberties or interests were drawn. This was the oath that David swore in his afflictions, Psal. 132. 2, 3, He swore unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of jacob. Surely I will not come unto the Tabernacle of mine house, nor go up into my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of jacob; and this is the first Article in our vow and Covenant. What the real impediments are, doth not fall within my way: but the self-interests are to be searched out. Not yet, say some, and their reason is the same, with that of the common sort of people, against enclosures in former times: If every man's own should be enclosed, they should lose their freedom of common, and that liberty they usurped all the field over, or (as others hope) that after we have turned round awhile, we may haply return to the same posture we were in before, and having lost our way in the mist, may come back again to the same place whence we set out at first. If any, (say others) let it be a George on horseback that stands at door with a wooden dagger, but keeps no body from going in, the thief passes under his nose into the house, as well as the trueman. Not this, say some of those that are toward the law, for then haply many contentions might be quenched at the bottom of the chimney, before they flame out at the top: and such may be the want of grist, as it may tend much to the hindrance of their mill. Nothing that's one, say the Libertines, for we have gone lose so long, that now we cannot go straight laced. It's irksome to wild birds to be cooped up in a cage under discipline.  
Those that have been such proficients in the school of liberty in a few years, as to commence teachers and preachers of the Word, or have grown to be such illuminates, as they pretend, will no more rejoice in, or accept of a Government which may degrade them, or resolve them into the first matter or elements of their composition, than Soldiers of fortune (as they are called) can rejoice in a peace concluded and settled. There might be named many other such like ends and interests, which carry stroke with men, and are the causes of our divisions; which would in great part be quenched, if the game was played on all hands, by conscience and singleness of heart: let us therefore search out those self-respects which lie close in us, that we may find the head of that Nilus which thus overflows the banks. That doublemindednes which keeps us at distance from God, doth also keep us at distance from one another, and therefore that we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Phil. 2. 2. of one accord, I do for my own part conceive it much conducing, that whatsoever touching the settlement of the Church, shall pass your hands, may (in the main parts thereof) go forth into the world, seconded with the reasons and grounds of it: for doubtless, the reason which induced you to set the stamp of authority upon it, will avail much to make it pass currently with others. You know, the Gorgon's head which struck all men dumb in former times. The Church, the Church, is not likely to have the same operation now, in this seeing and searching age: though men will willingly be subjects to your authority, yet also, as they are men, they will be slaves to reason. There is in your hands already (Renowned and Honourable) something which was printed by your appointment, for your satisfaction, in one main proposition, which if it might see the public light, might give light to many who are yet in a cloud or mist.  
So much for this point. There is yet a second, arising from these words: Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. And that is,  
A double-minded man through the uncleanness of his heart, 
Doct. 2.  keeps at distance from God, and God keeps at distance from him. He that is biased with some predominant lust, cannot close with God sincerely, universally, neither will God impart himself to such a man; For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord, james 1. 7. would any of you settle an acquaintance or friendship with a known Vertumnus, that will be a parasite at one time, and a judas at another? God is choice of his friends, he owns not such as serve their lusts, and are in heart divided from him. I have no time left me for this point: as neither for the consideration of both parts of this Text in connexion together: clean hands, and pure hearts: nor lastly, for the consideration of them both, with reference to our drawing nigh to God, and his drawing nigh to us; wherein I might have shown you how communion with God, and the power of godliness are linked together; Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.  
FINIS.