dence in such things? better have no confidence, than Self-confidence: which is a refuge of lies; an hiding place that waters will overflow, Ifa. xxviii. 17. And man is never fo broken, as when he is fruftrated in his expectation.

4. Hence we have an account of the general madness that rules in the commonwealth of men. What can the tranfaction be, when the convention is made up of vain and, empty perfons? the world is a very chaos, and confufion; fo that, if things be tolerable in the world, that is much more than we can groundedly expect from men.

. Whatever is of any confideration in the world is to be accounted to God, who made a chaos and confufion the ground-work of a glorious creation.

DISCOURSE VIII.

Preached before the Honourable HouSE of COMMONS,, February 4, 1673..

JER. vi. 8..

Be thou inftructed, O Jerufalem, left my foul depart from thee; left I make thee defolate, a land not in

habited.

T

O awaken your apprehenfions upon this occafion, I fhall make ufe of the words of king Hezekiah, when he rent his clothes, and covered himself with fackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord, upon an occafion of Sennacherib's

:

cherib's invading Judah, and sending revilìng RabShakeh to infult, and triumph over them his words were, This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of provocation, Ifa. xxxvii. 3. For our further advantage upon this account, I will adjoin the words of the prophet, Joel ii. 2. A day of darkness and of gloominefs, a day of clouds and of thick darkness: v. 3. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burneth. By fears and apprehenfions people are appaled, and all faces gather blackness, v. 6. This seems much to fuit with our condition; and if so, it becomes us (as Ezra fometimes did, Ezra ix. 13.) to make a due acknowledgment to God, and to state things right for all this is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespasses; for God hath punished us less than our iniquities deferve, viz. in the late devouring fire, and a little before, in the raging peftilence, and by feveral other judgments. But now God hath given us a very great deliverance, and we have out-lived all thefe judgments, and we have cause to say that God is righteous, not in the sense that fometimes the word is taken, viz. to punish condignly; but righteous in the sense of the prophet, Dan. ix. 7, 8. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee; which he explains v. 9. To thee, O Lord, belongs mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against thee. God hath been gracious, and God is righteous; he hath been gracious and merciful for we are before God, all of us in our tranfgreffions, and we cannot ftand before God because of them : wherefore let us be ingenuous, and let us reafon God's caufe with ourfelves, as Ezra once did with

;

the

the people of Israel, should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with a people of such abominations; wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst confumed us, fo that there should be no rem nant nor escaping, Ezra ix. 14.

We profefs, by our affembly this day, to do what king Hezekiah did; to make hearty application to God, to humble ourselves before him, to deprecate his offence and difpleasure, and to reprefent before him, the fad and deplorable condition of the nation, and to do alfo what the prophet Joel called the people to: Thus faith the Lord, turn ye even to me, with all your heart, with fafting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rent your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. And also what we find the prophet Jeremiah iv. 4. in the like cafe directing to; Circumcife your felves to the Lord, and take away the fore-skins of your heart, left my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Let us close with that of Daniel iv. 27. Break off your fins by righteousness, and your iniquities by acts of mercy, if there may be a lengthning of your tranquillity. For a day of humiliation, is a day of repentance, in order to reconciliation with God; and the truth of repentance lies in real reformation, in leaving off fin; in converfion and turning to the Lord. It is not to bow down the head as a bulrush, and to spread fackcloth and afbes under us, Ifa lviii. 5. But as the Ninevites did, who though a people that were not under any inftitution of God, before the prophet Jonah's denunciation against them (that we know of ;) yet they teach us

the

the true nature of a fast; for they fay, Cry mightily unto God, and let every one turn from the evil of his ways, and from the violence that is in his hands, Jonah iii. 8. So the prophets upon all octafions do infist, and lay ftrefs upon the indifpenfible neceflity of morals; by which I understand things that are good in themselves, good in their own nature, and-quality; that are not only recommended to us by institution, Ïsa. i. 16. Wash ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your doings frombefore mine eyes,ceafe to do evil, learn to do well. This is the prophets direction. And he speaks undervaluingly of facrifices of all forts, tho' the foundation of them was divine inftitution. And as the prophet begins, fo he ends, Ifa. Ixvi. 3, 4. They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. Wherefore, what do facrifices in this cafe fignify? No more than flaying a man, or cutting off a dog's neck, or offering of fwines blood: he that burneth incenfe, is as if he blessed an idol. These things were once commanded by God, and were acceptable to him, if men were not wanting in moral duties: for there is no difpenfation for immorality, there is no diffembling with God; he will not take facrifice at our hands, if we be not refined in our fpirits, and reformed in our lives. It is but to cozen ourselves, to think that any thing will be an apology with God if we ourselves do only pretend to repent, and do not reform. To do juftice, to walk humbly before God, and to fhew mercy, these are things beyond thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil; more pleafing to God than if a man should give his firft born for his transgression, the fruit of his body for the fin of bis foul, Mic. vi. 6. &c.

It

It fhall be my business this day, from this fcripture, to prefs not only what is external, and in fhew, but what is vital, internal, folid and fubftantial in the motion of repentance, which now the nation doth profess in this folemn application unto God. Our great and loud fins, they are the things that expofe us to God's difpleafure, indignation and wrath. And because generals do not affect, I fhall inftance in fome particulars: our falfenefs and treachery to the true religion, in which this nation hath profpered above a hundred years our affected atheism, and avowed profaneness, beyond what former times have had experience of: our wantonnefs and licentiousness, disgraceful to human nature: our high immoralities and debaucheries in feveral ways. Thefe have brought the judgments of God upon us, and turned God from us in difpleasure. And none that is fober-minded can think otherwife, if he acknowledges God's government of the world, and doth confider that wickednefs and unrighteoufnefs are an abomination to him. For as Mofes told the children of Ifrael, Num. xxxii. 23. Our fins have found us out and as the widow of Sarepta said, Art thou come to call my fins to remembrance? 1 Kings xvii. 18. which words carry this intimation, that if we hear from God in a way of displeasure, we should suspect ourfelves, and find out the Achan that is among us. The prophet Micah vi. 9. faith, The Lords voice crieth unto the city; and then it follows, hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.

In the words of the text, you have these things confiderable.