IN this and the two next Chapters, The Division of the Chapter. we have a heavenly Conference and Dia­logue betwixt Christ and the Church of Israel, in the time of her affliction in Babel.

The Dialogue hath Three or Six parts: Three Questions of the Church, and Three Answers of Christ.

In the first verse of this Chapter, The first Pars. we have the first Que­stion and Answer. The Church, about that time of the Captivity to which this part of the Prophecie relateth, was much oppressed with many Enemies. God, after all his wrath, begins to arise, and take order with them who long had deyoured her; especially with Edom, the neerest and most bitter Enemy of Jacob. When she sees the sudden and un­expected Vengeance on Edom, admiring who could be the [Page 2]author and worker of it, she proposes the Question, Who he was that had destroyed Bozra, the principall City of the Edomites, and was marching in his great and glorious strength from the Land of Edom, the service there being en­ded, to other of the Enemies Countreys.

Unto the Churches Interrogation, Christ answers, That it was he himself, who now, by his works, was demonstra­ting the truth of his ancient promises, and shewing the might of his power to save his people from the Enemies op­pression.

Observe, The Doct [...]ine. When the Church hath wrestled long with her ene­mies, and is ready to faint and give over; on a sudden, Christ, the King and Captain of the Host of Israel, comes down, and breaks the strength of the prevailing enemy; to the Church her great admiration.

The second part of the Dialogue is in the next five verses. The second part of the Chapter. The Church finding it was her Lord and God who was be­gun to take vengeance on her enemies; before he go, she is desirous of more conference with him, and proposes a se­cond Question, Wherefore his Garments were red, as if he had been treading a Presse of red wine?

The Lords Answer is, That the set time of his Venge­ance upon her Enemies was come: That though her strength was gone, and among all her friends there was none able to stand against her foes; yet he alone would do it, and by his own Arm had destroyed already some of them with so great a slaughter, that all his glorious Raiment was stained with the blood of the slain.

Hence observe, The first Do­ctrine. first, When the condition of the Church is most desperate upon earth, then is the day and hour of her certain re­dresse from heaven.

The Church, The second. deserted of her self and all men else, hath one fast friend, who alone is worth many Ten thousands, able to draw her out of all deeps.

In the day of the Lords anger, The third. wo to all the enemies of the Church. When the Lord begins to trample them in the Wine­presse of his Indignation; if there were no more but the dash­ing of their bodies in pieces, the watering of the ground with their blood, and the staining of the garments of their killers therewith; if no more followed, it were well to them: But they must drink after death in the Cup of the everlasting fury of the Almighty, as John comments it, Rev. 14.10. They shall be tormented with fire and brimstone for ever and ever.

In the third part of the Dialogue from the seventh verse, The Subdivision of the third part. the Church finding her Deliverance sensibly begun, but not accomplished (for though Edom was destroyed, yet Babel was sitting like a Queen over the Nations, and most over the rubbish of desclate Jerusalem) she turns her self to her present Redeemer, and most humbly supplicates him to per­fect what he had begun, To deliver her fully from the great burdens both of sin and misery that yet lay upon her. This Prayer is set down in the remnant of this Chapter, and all the next; whereunto a large and gracious Answer is retur­ned by Christ in the 65 Chapter, thorow the whole.

The first part of the Prayer is Thanksgiving, Its first member. from the seventh to the fifteenth.

To prepare their hearts for petitioning, they lay out before the Lord the great goodnesse which he of old had bestowed on the house of Israel, his wonders in Egypt, his glorious works at the Red Sea and in the Wildernesse, the constancy of his kindnesse, notwithstanding their Rebellion and vexing of his Spirit: Though sometime he punished them for their sins, yet he never left them, for the glory of his Name, and the Multitude of his mercies: Not onely Moses his Shepherd, but the Angel of his Presence went before them: He was afflicted in all their afflictions; he bare them, and carried them in his arms all these days of old thorow that howling Wildernesse. This is the Churches Preface to her subsequent Prayer.

Hence observe, first, The first Do­ctrine. Thanksgiving is the meetest usher which [Page 4]a Petitioner can have to the Throne of Grace. Praise perfumes the lips of a Supplicant; it sweetens, it softens, it opens the heart of a Seeker, and fits it singularly to receive all its desires from God.

The kindnesse of God in the days of Moses, The second. and the most ancient times, is the Churches Inheritance to the worlds end. All the favours of God registred in Scripture, all the gracious ex­periments of the Saints in any time, in any place, are our Pa­trimony, serving as ruled Cases, to strengthen our Faith, Hope and Patience in the days of our adversity.

The sins of many persons, The third. remove not the favour of God from an elect Nation. There is no interruption of the course of mercy towards a People, by the destruction of many par­ticular persons. Great Vengeance may be upon Thousands, the carcases of Ten Thousands may fall in the Wildernesse, e­ven of Moses himself, and many of the Shepherds both of Church and State; and yet the Lord may graciously march on before his People, till he have setled them and his Ark in peace on his holy mountain.

The Prayer consists of Petitions, The second member. Complaints, Confessi­ons of sin, Professions of faith, intertexed one with another, as the holy passions of the Supplicants hearts do mix them.

In the fifteenth verse, The matter of the 15 verse. there is a Petition backed with a Complaint. The Lord for a long time had left his People to the outrages of their Enemies, he had as it were left the earth, gone up to the heaven, and miskent all that the Enemy had done to his People: Now therefore they petition that he might be pleased to look down upon them from his ho­ly and glorious Throne in the heaven. For this is the strange faith of the Church, That she is perswaded so far of the power and goodnesse of her God, at that very time when he hath left her to sink in misery for her offences; that even then, if he would but look back to her, in never so far a distance; if from the very heaven, the place of his retiring, he would behold her on the earth overwhelmed with misery; she is hopefull, if she come but in the sight of her [Page 5]gracious Lord, he would not fail to take pity upon her, and deliver her.

To this Petition, a Complaint is subjoyned, of the re­straint and withdrawing of Gods ancient favours: Some­times his zeal and strength had been employed in her defence, his mercies, the tender bowels of his compassions, had been extended towards her; but now all sense of such favours were away.

This complaint, lest it should irritate, The matter of the sixteenth. is presently correct­ed in the sixteenth Verse, with a fair profession of Faith, [...]bove and against all present sense, however the beams of Gods loving countenance did not then shine upon them, as at some other time; yet they professe their certain perswasion, that God was their Father: Though Abraham and Israel, and all their bodily Progenitors should cast them away, as unworthy to be counted their children; yet they did beleeve, that their everlasting and unchangeable God would not cast them off, but deal with them as children, notwithstanding of all their misdeservings.

As for the words in hand in the seventeenth Verse, The division of the Text. the Church goes on to powre out her spirit before him, whom she beleeves to be her Father, in the midst of all her afflicti­ons, in a new complaint and petition. The complaint hath two parts, and the petition is backed with a twofold Reason: The first part of the complaint is in these words, O Lord, why hast thou made us erre from thy wayes? the second part in these, Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy fear? The petition is, that he would return after his long absence. The first reason, They were his servants; the second, They were his inheritance. Let us consider severally, the minde and use of every part.

As for the first part of the complaint, The Exposition of the first pars. four things in it would be exponed: First, What are the wayes of the Lord. Secondly, What it is to erre from his wayes. Third­ly, How God makes men erre from his way. Fourthly; How the Church complains of this divine action. Three of these particulars are easie, and may be dispatched in a word; but in the fourth there is no little difficulty.

For the first; What are the wayes of God. Gods wayes here, are his Commandments, full of holinesse and righteousnesse; they are called Gods wayes, because of their similitude with his nature, that is, holy, righteous, and true: All his Commandments, and conversation, are according to the strait rule of his eternall, and essentiall holinesse, righteousnesse and truth. Secondly, Because they are his Law and Prescription, his will prescribes them as a way to his creatures to walk in. Thirdly, Because of his presence therein, in that way he is to be found: He is graciously present, and doth conntenance all that walk into it. Fourthly, Because of their end; they lead to God, they are the strait way, wherein the godly walk, till they come to the glorious palace above.

The second point, What it is to erre from these wayes. To erre from these wayes, is to sin, as it is expressed Psal. 119.8, 10. To wander from Gods Command­ments. When we leave Gods way, and run out on the right hand, or the left, to the wayes of our own blinde minde, and corrupted heart; our false opinions against Gods truth; our wicked inclinations and actions against his holy nature, and revealed will; all of this kinde is our erring from his wayes.

But the great difficulty is in the third, How God makes men to erre. How the Lord causes us to erre from his way: This would seem to make God the cause and author of sin, which is a horrid blas­phemy against many Scriptures, and all reason. To eschew this huge, great, and intolerable inconvenience, sundry fa­mous interpreters do translate the originall otherwayes then we read it; Not, Why hast thou made or caused us to erre? but, Why hast thou suffered or permitted us to erre? So Juni­us an excellent translator: And many hundred yeers before him, the Chaldee Paraphrast did render it, Why hast thou cast us away to erre from thy wayes? This interpretation is approved by very Learned and Orthodox Divines, who bring this reason for it, That the Hebrew word here, is not simply in the active form, not in Kal, but, as they speak, in Hiphil, whose signification oftentimes is not to make or cause, but to permit.

Indeed, this translation does eschew fully the difficulty; The Grammati­call solution of some great men is not selid. yet we dare not venture upon it; for as it seems it were to make too bold with the Scripture. The Septuagens, the an­cient Latin, the French, the Dutch, the Italian, and many more, reads it just as our English, Why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayes? The Grammaticall reason alleaged, hath no strength in this place; for be it so, that Hebrew Verbs in Hiphil, sometime have a permissive, and not an active sense; though this in any word is very rare, and the examples al­leaged, are very questionable; yet for the Hiphil of the word in hand, we deny that ever it can be so exponed. A number of places of Scripture may be produced where Hithah must be actively exponed, as here our translators read it; but not one, if it be not this in question, can be brought where it may be exponed of a meer permission, without some agency and operation upon the erring and seduced person. We dare not trust the solving of so weighty a difficulty upon such a meer Grammatication.

Holding therefore to our vulgar translation, The matter of a sinfull action must be distin­guished from its form. How does God cause us to erre, and yet is not the Author of our er­rours? For the understanding hereof, we must distinguish sin, and the actions of God about sin. In sin there are two things, albeit inseparably joyned, yet essentially distinct; The matter and form, the act and its pravity; the one is naturally good, the other morally evill: This is visible in two actions whose matter is the same, but the forms much different: For example, the stoning of Naboth, and the stoning of A­chan; the substance of the actions, the casting of the stones at both, was the same; but the forms was much different: The casting at an innocent man, and at a man condemned by God, and all Israel; the one form makes the stoning of Na­both an act of unjust murder, the other form makes the sto­ning of Achan, an act of just punishment.

The acts, not of Gods will and decrees, Three acts of Gods effectuall providence about sin. for such con­cern not the words in hand, but of his actuall providence about the matter and form of sin, are many: The most considerable of these to us, for opening of our Text, are three: [Page 8]His concourse, his efficacious permission, his judiciall tradition, so to speak.

For the first, An active concourse in the substance of the action. the Lord hath an actuall, yea, an active concourse; and if you will, an efficiency in every act of sin, so far as concerns the substance or matter of the sinfull action; for in him we live, we move, and have all our being, in the most sinfull action, the matter of the act being a posi­tive entity, it must be a naturally-good thing, and have its existence from the first and universall mover, the fountain of all Being: Without this kinde of efficiency and concourse, Shimei could not have moved his tongue to curse David, nor Doeg drawn his sword to have killed the Priests: When God denies this kinde of concourse, sin is necessarily stopped: When he removes the life of the two Captains, they cannot oppresse Eliah. When God leaves the life, but takes away the sight from the Sodomites at Lots door, and the power from the arm of Jeroboam, their sin is impedite. When by suspending of his operation, he takes away the will from David to kill Nabal, though both life and power remained, the sin is marred. But for such kinde of working in the sinner, and cooperation with the sinfull act, Sin uses not to be ascribed to God, more then the generation of living Crea­tures, to the motion and influence of the Heavens; for effects are denominate from the second and particular causes, not from the first and universall, though their efficiency and concourse be never so necessary and certain.

The next action of God about sin is, An efficaci­ous permission of the sinfulnesse of the act. his efficacious per­mission; This for its object, hath not onely the matter and substance of the sinfull act, but its very form, its pravity, its anomy, its sinfulnesse: This malignant quality is a morall evill, and so cannot be of God, who is goodnesse it self; its a privation and defect, and so the cause of it is not efficient, but deficient. If we would render the cause of a lame mans crooked walking, we behoved to distinguish betwixt the walking, and its crookednesse: The walking we would ascribe to the motive power of the mans soul, and to the instruments of motion in his body; but the crookednesse of [Page 9]it, to the defect and hurt of some instrument of motion, not to the soul, or to the faculty, or to the instrument of moti­on, but onely to some defect of the instrument. So the fin­fulnesse of sin is to be ascribed not to any efficiency of God, but to the deficiency of mans will, which now is sinfull, and before sin, was weak, as being made of nothing, and so able to change it self from good to evill; but however, the sinfulnesse of sin cannot be charged on Gods either efficiency or deficiency, yet it must exist by his free per­mission; for nothing can have any existence in the world, any being in the dominion of God, without the leave and permission of the great Lord and Master of the World.

That action of God which in respect of sin is called a permission, in regard of the sinner is a desertion: This is really one thing with desertion. This con­sidered, will help to clear that which is the hardest knot in this matter; the efficacy that is said to be in the permission, and yet without all efficiency of the permitter, in the sinful­nesse permitted.

This matter which naturally is exceeding dark, will be best seen in similitudes: When the Sun goes down, the dark­nesse of the night necessarily doth follow; when the Sun declines towards the Southern signes of the Zediack, the Winter blasts certainly do come on; the Sun the fountain of light and heat, in propriety of speech, cannot be called the cause of the nights darknesse, or of the Winters cold; yet these, as ordinary and necessary consequents, are usually ascribed to the Suns removall. Hot water removed from the fire, becomes incontinent cold: A ruinous Wall, when its props are removed, falls quickly to the ground: The coldnesse of the water flows not from the fire, but from its own nature; the falling of the Wall comes from the naturall heavinesse of the stones, which, without the impediment of a supporter, makes them to fall downward. It is so with God and man; when he withdraws, we become dark as midnight, cold like Ice, we fall to the ground.

These effects necessarily follow his desertion, but not as effects, onely as consequents; their proper cause, is neither [Page 10]in God, nor his removall; but in our nature, which of it self, since the fall, is full of these malign qualities.

This kinde of providence about our sins, is expressed in words of the active form, of blinding the eyes, and hard­ning the heart: Not that the Lord infuses any darknesse or hardnesse in the heart, which is not its own; but because up­on the removing of his illuminating and softning Spirit, the naturall blindnesse and hardnesse of mans spirit, lurking be­fore, doth then appear.

The third action of God about sin, Gods third action, is, a Ju­diciall Tradi­tion. is that which I did call, a Judiciall Tradition, when God, as a just Judge, punishes sin by sin; when he gives over men not onely to their own heart, but to the devil and his instruments to be tempted, se­duced and drawn away to commit wickednesse with greedi­nesse. However all the sinfull actions be immediately the works of the sinner alone, and the upstirring to these actions be from the devil and his instruments, laying arguments, ob­jects and occasions, as baits and snares, in the way of the sinner; yet God, as a just Judge, sending out Satan and men as his executioners and making way for mens own lusts to break out on the objects set before them: For these acts of Judgment, both in our Text, and oft elsewhere in Scripture, the cause of mens sins, not as they are sins, but as punishments of sin, is ascribed to him, 2 Thess. 2.10. Because they received not the love of the truth, God shall send them strong delusions to be­lieve a lye. He was to send on them The Man of sin, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and with all deceiveablenesse. The committing of the sin is ascribed to the sinner, who believes the lye; the tempting to it, is ascri­bed to Satan and his Antichristian Instruments; the sending out both of Satan and Antichrist, the giving over to delusion, is ascribed to God the righteous Judge, by these means punish­ing former sins. Rom. 1.18, 21, 24, 26, 28. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousnesse of men; because, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God: wherefore God gave them up also to uncleannesse. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections. God gave them over to a reprobate [Page 11]minde. The sinfull acts flow from the reprobate mindes and vile affections of the sinners; yet God the Judge is thrice said to give them up to these their own sins. Rom. 11.8. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear to this day. Let their Ta­ble be a snare, a stumbling-block, and a recompence to them: Let their eyes be darkned, that they may not see. 2 Chron. 18.22. The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy Pro­phets. Many such places there are, where God, as a righte­ous Judge, is made to give over sinners to the devil, to other wicked men, to themselves, to be led in more and greater sins, as punishments of the former.

Thus far Protestant Divines do go; Protestants are unjustly accu­sed for making God the au­thor of sin. and all the acts which any of them ascribe to God about the causation of sin, may be referred to one of the three named: All which stands well with the holinesse of his Nature, and extreme contrarie­ty to sin. The Papists and Arminians do slander us most unjustly, as if we did blaspheme the holy Lord, in making him the author of sin: All of us ever have abhorred such Do­ctrine: We never ascribed to God more acts of providence about sin, then the most clamorous of our enemies them­selves expresly have done. The three forenamed acts, by Bellarmine and Arminius are attributed to God, in as ample and unadvised expressions as ever fell from the Pen of any of our approved Divines.

I grant, the Libertines of old, This is the blasphemy of the Libertines, and of M. Ar­chers book, justly burnt therefore. and their children the Anti­nomians this day, do cast out on this subject many abomina­ble Blasphemies: but these were ever detested by all Ortho­dox Protestants, as the vomit of the father of all lyes and blas­phemies; which makes us the more to marvel what these men can mean, who lately here, under the name of M. Archer a famous Independent in his time, have printed the worst and grossest of these Blasphemies. Surely, if such kinde of Doctrine be entertained by any of that Party, our Disputati­ons will not stand long at Church-Government; but the world will be confirmed in that opinion which some wise men long ago have given out, That Independency was not [Page 12]so much loved for it self, as for somwhat else, A liberty, without censure, to vent such Doctrines as the conscience of Orthedox Divines will never be able to hear with patience. But in this I will not enter: The zeal of the whole Assem­bly and both the Honourable Houses against the blasphemous Heresies of that infamous Book, doth quiet and secure our mindes herein.

The fourth word to be exponed, Why doth the Church com­plain of these acts of God about her sins? is the Interrogation and Complaint, Why hast thou made us to erre? The Church being now before God, and laying hold on his fatherly compassions, pours out before him the troubles of her heart. That which troubled them most, was their sins and obstinacie in Rebellion, which they complain to the Lord had befallen them in his great wrath, through his deserting of them, and giving them over to be led away by their own lusts, and Satans tentations. This part of Gods wrath upon them, in punishing their sins with more blindnesse, and making them erre farther from his ways, was their greatest misery, the true cause of all their outward plagues, and a grea­ter plague then all the rest; as we may see in the sixth of this Prophecie, where the Lord, for contempt of the Prophets Ministery, doth punish the body of that people with Spiritu­all Judgements, and makes their heart fatter, their minde blinder then before: And from this Spirituall evil, he makes all their Temporall desolation to flow, as out of its proper Fountain. Of this misery the people here complain to God, not to lay their sins off themselves, on the Lord; but to witnesse their deep sense of them, as coming on them through Gods just desertion, and deserved judgement: Not to upbraid the Lord with their miseries, but to spread them out before his feet, as their onely hope from whose hand alone they ex­pected a remedy. The first Do­ctrine. The godly pour out all their com­plaints in Gods bosom.

From the words thus exponed, observe, first, The children of God, in their worst estate, are so familiar with their heavenly Father, as to pour out in his bosom the complaints of whatever misery lies upon them. At this time, as appears by the words both before and after, the peoples condition was exceeding [Page 13]hard. We are all as an unclean thing; our iniquities, as the winde, have taken us away. Thou hast hid thy face from us, and con­sumed us, because of our iniquities. His zeal, strength and mercifull bowels seemed to be restrained towards them; yet they come before him: and that which troubled them most, their wandring from his ways, they spread it out before his feet, as the matter of their chiefest complaint.

The truth of the Doctrine may be seen, Lam. 4.1. The Proof hereof. Re­member, O Lord, what is come upon us; consider and behold our reproach. In all the Chapter, and the whole Book, there is a familiar complaining to the Lord of all their miseries. Mo­ses and Aaron, in all their tribulation, run to the door of the Tabernacle. Jacob, at the side of the foord Jabbuk, in his great fray for Esau, betook himself to weep and pray. Da­vid, in his present danger of stoning by his own men, com­forted himself in God. Hezekiah spread out before the Lord the railing of Rabshakeh; and, after his desperate sicknesse, turned himself to the wall to pour out his heart to God. The examples of this practice are innumerable.

The Reason of it is, The Saints interest in God: The Reason. He is their Father. Poor children in distresse, whither shall they go, but to their father? Neither sin nor misery will annull that more then naturall relation, that supernaturall Paterni­ty and Filiation. Though God clothe himself with a cloud in his anger; yet faith will make the soul, with Moses, run thorow the fire and darknesse to him. The Prodigall, in the midst of his misery, resolves to return to his father. The Spirit of Adoption, in our hardest times, will make us cry, Abba, Father. This reason is used in the same place, ver. 16. Doubtlesse thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us. Vers. 19. We are thine; thou never bearest rule over them. The next Chapter, vers. 8. But now, O Lord, thou art our Fa­ther; behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

The Use is for our Encouragement to continue this pra­ctice with all earnestnesse and perseverance. The Ʋse. If there be any means to draw down a blessing from the heavens on a distres­sed [Page 14]Nation, it is the prayer of the Saints: This is the hand that hath drawn up this sinking Land from the pit of ruine; that hath set our feet on that Rock of safety whereon now we stand. Whatever difficulties are yet before us, by this means, or none else, will they be gotten overcome: Though all other should give over this holy exercise of Fasting and Praying, or turn it in a sinfull and provoking formality; yet it behoves us to keep it on foot, remembring both the expresse command of the Lord, Call on me in the day of thy trouble, I shall deliver thee, Psal. 50. Lam. 2.19. Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches pour out your hearts like water, before the face of the Lord; Lift up your hands towards him. And your own visible experience: As no people have sown more plentifully this pretious seed; so none have al­ready reaped more evident fruits thereof: Be not weary of this good work, untill all our desires be accomplished.

In the next place observe, The second Do­ctrine. Sins are heavier then afflicti­ons. The Proof. That the chief part of the Saints complaint to God, is of their wandrings from his wayes. Their sins are heavier to them, then all their affli­ctions.

This is proved from divers Scriptures, Psal. 38. When the Prophets trouble was great, Nothing sound in his flesh, The Arrows of the Lord sticking in him, Gods hand pressing him sore; yet the chief burden whereof he complains, was his sins, verse 4. Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Psal. 40.12. Innumer­able evils have compassed me about, but mine iniquities have taken hold on me; for them he was not able to look out, his heart failed him: Daniel c. 9. complains of the heavy wrath and curse that was powred out on Jerusalem, and of so great af­flictions as had befaln to no Nation under Heaven; yet the first, chief, and longest part of his complaint is, of the sins of their Kings, of their Princes, of their Priests, and whole Land.

The reason of the Doctrine, The Reason. Sin is the greatest evill, its the fountain of afflictions: Affliction cometh not out of the dust; trouble springeth not out of the ground: Sin is the root [Page 15]of it. Also sin is most contrary to the nature of God: Wrath and trouble, even the greatest, the very torments of Hell, are not so; for they are according to his justice. The godly there­fore, who weigh things aright in the just ballance of the Sanctuary, esteem their sins much heavier, and more grievous evils, then any they can suffer for them.

The use is for our instruction: The Ʋse. Let our complaints be rightly ordered, and our sorrows rightly placed: Beware to spend the most, or best of thy sense, on thy sufferings: Beware to pour out the vehemency of thy passion, the bitterest of thy sorrows on calamities, either private or publike. The first fruits, the flower, the first-born of thy grief, must be reserved for the chief evill. The naturall and kindely children of God, will have more sorrow at their heart for the sins of the Land, then for the desolations thereof: What ever poverty, disgrace, pain, can befall their person, the very wrath of God, suppose the torments of Hell, will not be so heavy, so bitter, so troublesome to them, as their sins, the cause of all these evils.

The third observation, The third Do­ctrine. Gods hand in our sins, encreaseth their bitternes. An Objection answered. Gods punishing and judiciall hand in our sins, is their aggravation, and increase of their bitternesse: For this is the head of the Churches complaint, That God had caused them to erre from his wayes.

It is true, the Saints in Scripture draw comfort from some acts of Gods mercy about sin, as from his gracious directing of its act to a good end. Upon this ground Joseph comforts his Brethren, that not they, but God had sent him down to Egypt: That their felling of him, which they in­tended for evill, God had ordered it so, that it did become the mean of all their preservation. Also Gods prediction of sin in sundry Scriptures, is made a ground of contentment: All this was done, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, is a common place of comfort against the treason of Judas, and the wickednesse of the Jews. Likewise the Apostles, Acts 4. quiet their minde on this meditation, That God in his eter­nall counsell, had determined what Herod and Pilate in time had done in crucifying of Christ. Of such acts of Gods mercy [Page 16]about our sins, we speak not, be they temporall, be they eter­nall; but of the acts of his justice and wrath, punishing sin by sin. From these actions of God, we can draw no com­fort; but they aggravate the weight of our sins, and increase our grief.

The miscarriage of Absolon, The Proof. his rebellion and incest, could not but grieve David; but to increase his grief, 2 Sam. 2.10. God tells him, I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the Sun, in that terrible vision, Isai. 6. the Lord, to demon­strate his wrath against that people, sendeth to them a message full of anger, Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy. Their excaecation was in it self a grievous evill; but it was more grievous, when it came as a plague from an angry God. John 12.39. Gods blinding of their eyes, that they could not beleeve Christs Word, is brought as an aggravation of their sin, and of the anger of Christ against them, so far, as he went from them, and hid himself.

The reason of this is, The Reason. That these acts of God proceed from wrath and justice, punishing former sins. Again, they are the means to make sin more sinfull, the person being gi­ven over to be carried headlong by his own lusts, and Satans tentations. Thirdly, The punishment of sin in this degree, is much sorer, then if it had been a simple sin, as in the sixth of Isaiah, and elsewhere it appears. No marvell therefore, that men of awakened consciences make it a chief part of their complaint and grief, That God had caused them to erre: This being a figne of wrath, and increase of guiltinesse, and a forerunner of greater punishment.

The use is first for Caution, 1 Ʋse for Cau­tion. To beware of that dangerous errour of taking comfort and encouragement from Gods judiciall hand in our sins, that is, to glory in our shame, and to joy for what we should be sad. It is to cast off our self the burden of our sin, to whom alone it belongs, on God, whose eyes are purer, then to behold iniquity.

Secondly, 2 Ʋse for Counsel. It serves for Councell, to make it our chief grief in our mourning, That we have faln under so heavy displeasure, as to be scourged with the worst of Gods Rods: [Page 17]Of all the Arrows in Gods Quiver, this is the most vene­mous, To be given over by God to sin; this comes from a speciall wrath, and is a presage of very great misery follow­ing. When Gods spirit stirred up David to number the people, it came from his anger against Israel, and was a fore­runner of the destroying Angell: The blinding of the peo­ples eyes, Isaiah 6. and John 12. is made an antecedent of a nationall ruine. When ever we feel this to be our condition, it should be the matter of our most mournfull com­plaint.

The fourth observation will clear the third; it is this, The fourth Do­ctrine. Judi­ciall errours are most la­mentable. The godly, when their eyes are opened to see their wandrings, they are singularly affected with their judiciall errours, As here the Church mourning and praying to God, for sin and misery, begins her complaint for these errours, into which, by Gods anger and judgement, she had faln.

Old Israel by Gods judgement, The Proof. had faln in the grievous errour of civill discord, which cost in two dayes, the eleven Tribes, the lives of fourty thousand men; and in the third, proceeded very near to the extirpation of the twelfth Tribe. When the hand of God was lifted off them, and they began to look back upon their actions, Judges 21.2. they weeped fore before the Lord, and complained to him of the great mis­chief wherein they had faln: Though the injustice and ob­stinacy of Benjamin had been the immediate cause of the dis­sention; yet they pittied their Brethren, seeing it was the Lords judgement upon them all, that had made that breach in Israel, Verse 15. Ephraim in his pride would needs rebell against the house of David, and have a King among them­selves, and Altars of their own making at Dan and Bethel; God in justice gave them over to these sins of continuall sedi­tion and idolatry, till they were totally ruined: He gave them a number of Kings in his anger: Hos. 8.11. Because Ephraim hath made many Altars to sin, Altars shall be unto him to sin. But when the Lord gave repentance to Ephraim, see how much they are grieved, ashamed, and confounded, for their madnesse, wherein by the judgement of God, they [Page 18]were made long to go on, Jere. 31.18. I have heard Ephrains bemoaning himself thus; Surely, after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth. The Jews were plagued of God with a horrible blindnesse of minde, and obstinacy of heart, so that they rejected the Gospel, crucified the Lord of Life, and remain in Rebellion to this day: But when the Lord shall take off the vail of their eyes, and they begin to see their judiciall errours, their madnesse against Christ and the Gospel, wherewith God in justice did plague them; their grief for it will be extraor­dinary, as it is set down, Zach. 12.10. They shall look on him whom they have peirced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mournath for his onely son; and shall be in bitternesse for him, as one is in bitternesse for his first-born. 2 Thes. 2. The Churches of the Gentiles are in Gods justice, many of them given over to strong delusions, to beleeve Antichristian Lyes; but when God begins to open their eyes to see these delusions, their grief and indignation for them is so great, Revel. 17.16. That they hate the whore, who did seduce and bewitch them; They make her desolate, and naked: They eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

The Reasons of this Doctrine, The Reasons. are the same which of the former, especially the second. The singular and extraordinary guiltinesse, that is in these judiciall errours, the blinded soul sees them not, while God in mercy remove the cloud, and send in his light; but then the lightned soul beholding the horrible wayes wherein it hath been wandring, such where­in it would never have walked, had it not been led by a powerfull Divell, set on by the permission and commission of a just God; Seeing in these sins a just God, a wicked Di­vell, and a heart stirred up by extraordinary temptations; by this horrible back-sight is affrighted and amazed, till Faith in the infinite mercies of God, doth calm and set­tle it.

The Use is for admonition: The Ʋse. Beware of judiciall errours; very often they are never pardoned, but bring on destruction [Page 19]both temporall and eternall: 2 Thes. 2.11. They to whom God sends strong delusions, are damned: Isai. 6.11. When God shut the peoples eyes, and made their heart fat, the Cities were wasted, and the Land made desolate: Before Ephraim and Juda recovered themselves from that snare of rebellion, and came to the repentance spoken of, How many hundred thousands and millions of them did perish both temporally and eternally? And these few whom the Lord bringeth to see, and mourn for their judiciall er­tours; How great is their grief? How much do they wish to have seen in time their madnesse, that they might not so much have been plagued therewith?

But what are these judiciall errours which we would beware of? Search the Scriptures, they will make you wise in this very necessary point of knowledge.

For your use, I shall point at some: First, Civill discord a Judiciall errour. Civill Discord is a sin, and a great judgement; a sin to the authors and fo­menters; a judgement to all, as well the innocent as nocent party. Isai. 19.2. God punisheth the sins of the Egyptians with his plague, I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; City against City, and Kingdom against Kingdom; and the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the counsel thereof. The same is the Judge­ment of Israel, Zech. 11.6. I will no more pity the inhabitants of the Land, but I will deliver the men every one into his neigh­bours hands, and into the hands of his King, and they shall smite the Land: and out of their hand I will not deliver them. This is the great Judgement that long hath lien upon us; the re­movall whereof, hath been one chief end of all our late Hu­miliations: The longer it lieth on, it is the heavier; and all good men have the more reason to cry, with Abner to Joab, upon a lesse occasion; Shall the Sword devour for ever? Know­est thou not that it will be bitternesse in the later end? How long shall it be ere thou bid the people return from following their bre­thren?

Our Malignant enemies, the onely authors of our present [Page 20]Discord, have to this day denied us Peace in any just and safe terms. If obstinately they will go on in their refusall, we must proceed in our necessary defence, and crave from the God of Peace, that which these children of Discord do deny unto us; and expect from the heaven such a Blessing upon our Armies, as may force them to permit us to live in quietnesse, when they are no more able to cause troubles. In the mean time, all should continue their prayers to God so to frame the hearts of all men, that the weary and fainting Kingdoms may be delivered, so soon as is possible, from our destroying Discords.

The estate of the world abroad, Reasons why Peace is to be wished. doth much call us to these thoughts. The Desolations of Germany, farther from any appearance of remedy this hour then Six and twenty yeers ago, should be exemplary unto us.

If our mindes be so large as to look so far abroad, we may see the whole Western Kingdoms in a greater danger to be swallowed up with the great Turkish Leviathan, then they have been at any by-gone time: We know his head this day is bent towards Christiendom. The Bulwarks which were wont to keep him out on both hands, upon our East in Ger­many and Hungary, upon our South in Italy and Spain, are so much brangled with Intestine and irreconcileable Divisi­ons, that we have just ground to fear what this his Western Enterprise may produce. England ofttimes hath felt the heavie stroke of the Constantinopolitan Arms, when they were in much weaker and far lesse terrible hands then at this day they are.

If these seem far-fetched fears, look over to the condition of our neerest Neighbours. While we are sleeping, and so soon as awakened, fallen a destroying our selves, the French King hath ingrossed a greater and more formidable power then any of his Ancestors for some hundred yeers did enjoy. No wise man of this Isle will close his eyes at the extraordinary and disproportionate encrease of that Estate.

If there were no other reasons, I believe convincing De­monstrations might be drawn from the present estate of the [Page 21]world abroad, why we should continue to make it one of our speciall prayers in all these meetings, That we might be so happie as quickly to see in all the three Kingdoms a just and well-grounded Peace. But if the fatall obstinacy of our enemies will force us to fight it out; with all chearfulnesse let us go on, till they be brought so low, as not to be willing any more to reject the equitable Offers of both Parliaments.

Onely let this Judiciall Discord be extended to as narrow bounds as is possible: Most of all, Peace among our selves would be kept with care. Let all our Divisions be with the ene­my; among our selves let the bond of brotherly Union con­tinue and encrease. All that are for God, and the welfare of the Kingdoms in the three Nations, are united together by the Covenant and Band of God. All Ages shall call them Cursed, who, for any imaginable advantage, private or pub­like, shal labour to put asunder what God hath conjoyned. The greatest advantages cannot make up the losse which unavoid­ably will follow upon such a Breach. We know the Prince of Discord, that restlesse Spirit, will always be stirring up in the humours both of evil and of good men the sparkles of that fire of jealousie, envie, malice, division, wherewith he en­flamed the nature of all men, in the brest of our old father the first Adam: But all the members of the second Adam should make it not so much their profession, as their reall care and conscience, to smother these smokes, whenever they ap­pear. I am sure, the wisedom, the piety, the peace of minde, the love to his Countrey, of that man is greatest, who with the greatest sedulity employs himself to cast water on every be­ginning, on every the least appearance of any Division which Satan may be working in the Parliament, in the Assembly, in the City, in the Army, and, above all, betwixt the Covenan­ted Nations.

The second Judiciall Errour I point at, is, Ecclesiastick Anarchy is a Judicial error. Our Ecclesiasti­call Anarchy: How great a sin and how great a judgement this is, a little consideration will clear. By this wofull A­narchy, Christ is robbed of a great part of his Kingdom in this Land. That in all the Churches he hath in England, there should be no Government at all, no execution of Discipline: [Page 22]That not one of his Officers should have liberty to keep from his Table, to cast out of his House those that are most grie­vous to him: That for so long a time he should be hindered to keep so much as one Court in any of his approved Chur­ches in England; it is very strange.

Which of you would not take it for agrievous offence, The absurdity thereof. if any would offer to hinder the sitting of the high Court of Parliament at Westminster, or wherever else they please to sit? Yea, it would be taken for a hainous crime, if any in the Citie or Countrey should stop the least Committee, or meanest Officer whom either of the Houses would send out in their name to execute any of their Orders. What man in the Kingdom would not take it for an intolerable affront, if his servant were hindred to close his doors, and keep out of his house his enemies, or any whom he discharged his pre­sence? What grief would it be to any of us, to be forced to see daily, not onely walking in our house, but sitting at our Table, those whom least we desire? We may judge, by what we feel in our own brests when such offences are offered to us, what sense Christ will have of them, when his Spirit so long hath been pierced with them. That Christ, by whose power alone this Parliament hath sitten so long time, in de­spite of their enemies; by whose goodnesse it is that their Sentences get any where obedience; who makes their wills in their private States and Families to be regarded; That he should not be suffered to keep any Court in his own Church, That his Orders should not be regarded in his own House, it is very strange.

Can any man say that ever before it was thus in England these Fourteen hundred yeers, or if it be longer since there were any Churches in this Land? Was ever a totall Anar­chy heard of in any Churches, before these late times? Is it any where else this day to be seen in the world? Doth the Pagan, the Turkish, the Popish Princes or States, refuse or delay to grant Ecclesiastick Government to the Churches that live in their Dominions? Have the Independents, the Brownists, or the Anabaptists, or any of the Hetorodox So­cieties [Page 23]among us, wanted their own Government, since the first hour of their self-erection?

The Judgement of this Errour appeareth in three Circum­stances. It is demon­strate to be a Judgement and Plague.

• First, That it is evident to all.
• Secondly, That it were most easily amended.
• Thirdly, That it is singularly hurtfull.

The Evidence of it may be seen in the confession of all. The greatest and most unreasonable Sectaries, will not deny but every true Church should be without all delay invested with Government: And if you will speak with the men who most have and do retard the erection of the Govern­ment desired, they will professe their true intention and de­sire to see the Church-Discipline established. For this evil Anarchy hath been so oft, by so many of Gods faithful servants witnessed against, that now its defended by none.

Concerning the second. The facility of its erection, it is as clear: For, I pray, who are the men that will take it up­on them to impede it? Can we at this present, or could we for some yeers complain of the violence of a seduced Court? Can the blame be cast on any Popish or Prelaticall Faction? Will either Brownists or Anabaptists professe their deniall to us of what they long ago have taken to themselves? Who then must answer to God for our shamefull Anarchy for so long a time?

The hurt of it is too too perspicuous. Whosoever will lay the Sword, the Pestilence, and all the Calamities that de­stroy the Land, on our delay to build the House of the Lord, shall have for him the Prophet Zechariahs direct Warrant, Zech. 8.10. Before these days, there was no peace to him that went out or came in, because of affliction: For I set all men eve­ry one against his neighbour. And if we indeed believe, It is not the strength of men, but the Lord Christ who setleth troubled Kingdoms; What hope can we have, that he will ever settle our State, so long as his Church lies neglected, in so wofull a confusion?

Beside outward Judgements, this Errour is the cause of [Page 24]the greatest spirituall Mischiefs. The hedge of Discipline ly­ing level with the ground, makes open doors, yea, invites and calls for all the devouring beasts to prey on the Flock of Christ. From this it is, that so many thousand souls are per­mitted to perish eternally in ignorance, in profanenesse, in Heresies, in damnable Sects, without the least controll, or any mans endeavour to reclaim them. So long as the Law permits no Pastor in England to exercise his Pastorall charge on any person, he may well weep and mourn when the devil in his sight plucks away numbers of his Sheep: but with his Shepherds Crook, with the Ordinance of Christs Discipline, to hold off that Lion it is not in his power.

It is not onely the passionate desire of all the Reformed Churches abroad, of all the godly and Orthodox Party at home; but also their confident expectation, That the Ho­norable Houses, without further delay, will at last set up the walls of the House of God, who now is going on apace, by so many Successes, to ruine their enemies, and to settle the state of their affairs, much according to their hearts desire. The neglect of this piece of Thankfulnesse may provoke the Lord to repent him of his favours, and to call back in one day, what he had been giving in many.

I point but at one other Judiciall wandering, False Doctrine is a Judiciall Errour. that which usually and properly goeth under the name of Errour, the word of our Text; false Doctrine, contrary to the ways of Gods Truth. That Errour is a sin, and a Judiciall one, infli­flicted by God as a punishment of former sins, we may see in divers Scriptures: 2 Thess. 2.10, 11. Because they received not the love of the Truth, for this cause God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a lye. Here Errours are Judgements which God puts Satan to bring on men, for their coldrife en­tertaining of the truth. And how grievous a Judgment Error is, this and other Scriptures clear: Here it is made a cause of damnation. That they might all be damned who believed not the Truth.

The Socino-Remonstrants have taught our new Masters to extenuate much, and at last to deny the sinfulnesse and danger [Page 25]of Errour. They would hide the Vipers sting, till the pret­ty and beautifull worm be once taken into the bosom, where a little warmed, it makes it quickly appear how innocent and harmlesse a creature it is.

They tell us, that all sin is in the Will, Errour is a dangerous evil and the cause of damnation. but the seat of errour is the minde: Is not the minde the most high and divine fa­cultie of the soul? Is not the corruption of the best things truely worst? The mindes pollution with the darknesse of errour, is eminently contrary to the light and truth of the divine nature.

Against this greatest of errours, the excusing of all errours, we should minde the truth of God, who cannot lye: In the place cited, errour is made the cause of damnation; else­where the Apostle tells us, That false Doctrine eats up and kills the soul, as a Canker, Gangrene or Pest doth the body. 2 Tim. 2.17. Also false Teachers are called Ravening Woolfs, who tear and rent in peeces the souls of the seduced, Acts 20.29.

The Apostle Peter is in the same minde, 2. Epistle 2. He tells us the condition of false Teachers, They bring in damnable Heresies, their wayes are pernicious, their distruction is swift, their damnation slumbereth not: It is as certain, as was the damnation of the Devils, of the old world drowned in the deluge, of the Sodomites: All this is Peters Doctrine.

And this he had from his Master Christ, Matth. 7.15. Be­ware of false Prophets. When they have the fairest shew of piety, he that knows the heart pronounceth, They are but ravening Woolfs. Matth. 15.14. If the blinde lead the blinde, both shall fall in the ditch: If we beleeve the Lord, a false Teacher doth not onely destroy himself, but draws with him all his blinded Scholers into the ditch of the same perdition.

1 Cor. 12.25, 27. The Apostle tells us, The nature of Shism. That the Church is the Body of Christ, and that Schismaticks make a Schism in Christs Body: that is, they rent his Body in peeces: they who crucified him would not rent his seamlesse Coat; but Schismaticks can tear his skin, cut his flesh, rent his Joynts and Members in peeces.

Understand the Language of them who plead for liberty of errours; What is meant by liberty of conscience, and what is the true sense of their lan­guage who require a tole­ration of Er­rours. If you beleeve Christ, or the Doctrine of Paul attested by Peter, and the rest both Prophets and Apostles, whom I have not time to cite; they invite you to permit ravening Woolfs freely to enter your streets, and tear in peeces all they meet with; to come into your Houses and Chambers, to devour the souls of your best beloved Wives, Sons, Daugh­ters, Servants, and Friends; to lead them all out to a ditch, and drown them; yea, which is infinitely worse, to cast them all in the pit of damnation. These were hard expressions if they were our own, and not our betters, I mean Christ, and his Apostles.

Would you permit any whom you were able to hinder, to rent the Coat of Christ, to tear his Skin, to cut his Flesh, to pull his Arm from his Shoulder? These are the things which too long have been done in our eyes: It were good that such impious actions, so grievous to God, so hurtfull to the souls of men, at last were stopped.

Would you count him a gracious parent, who should wink at any who brought into his house Vipers and Ser­pents, Woolfs and Tigers, to destroy his Children? who brought in Boxes of Pestiferous Cloaths, and boldly spread them on the Beds, and about the Table where himself and family were to sit and lie? This is the office and onely exer­cise of all our Hereticks and Patrons of errour.

All Christians are obliged to the uttermost of their power to quench the fire of Heresie and Schism; but above all other, we have a speciall obligation for this duty; we have lifted up our hands to the most high God, vowing to him, in the sight of all the Neighbour-Nations, our endeavours in the sincerity of our hearts, to extirpate Heresie and Schism, and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine, with­out respect of persons. If herein we should be negligent, would not God avenge our solemn Perjury? If respect to any person should make us ever think of breaking that Bond, and expressely contrary thereto to begin once to tamper about the toleration of errours contrary to sound Doctrine; [Page 27]what might we and the posterity expect from the hand of the God of Justice and Truth?

Let none object the example of the States of Holland to us in this point: The example of Holland an swered.

For first, Where the Will of God is evident, the con­trary example of men is not to be regarded.

Secondly, The evill example of one State, is not to be followed against the good example of all other Protestant Churches.

Thirdly, These States were never bound to God by such a Covenant as we are.

Fourthly, In these States there hath been a connivance at Errours by particular Magistrates for their private gain; but to this hour, was ever any Sect among them, so impu­dent, as to offer a Petition for a Toleration by Law, when lately some assayed to do it, they repented ever since of that folly.

Lastly, Hath not the Magistrates connivance without any Legall Toleration, so much multiplied Sects among them, that for this one thing (though for many other their renown be great) they have become infamous in the Christi­an World? The godly among them have been more grieved with this scandalous sin, then with any other; and those of them who are wise, do see their State this day in greater civill danger by this peece of impious policy, and from it apprehend greater hazards of commotion and ruine to their State, then from any other ground: However, the conni­vence there at Sects, and the multiplication of Sects by con­nivence, is no wayes comparable to what is among us: but we trust that this kinde of our erring from the wayes of God, is near a period, and shall shortly be remedied.

So much for the first part of the Churches complaint, The second part of the Complaint exponed. followeth the second, And hardned our heart from thy fear, Not onely they had wanderd out of the wayes of God in divers by-paths of sin; but in these sins they were obstinate, their hearts had been hard, the fear of God moved them not [Page 28]to repentance: This was a worse evill then the first; so they acknowledge the hand of God, and his sore punishment into it, and of this make a heavy regrate to him.

The originall word that here is turned harden, What is hard­nesse of heart. is but once else in Scripture, Job 39.16. spoken of the Ostridge, She is hardned against her young ones, or is removed from her young ones; she leaveth them alone. It signifies two things, To harden, or to remove. Some of the best Latin Interpreters translate it here, Why removest thou our heart from thy fear? The Chaldee Paraphrast takes it so also: but the Septuagint, and the most of other Interpreters old and late, translate it as we have it: The words will bear both; but for short­nesse I shall hold with our own translation onely.

Hardnesse of heart is a metaphor, importing the wilfull, obstinate, and rebellious disposition of the Spirit against the fear and counsells of God: As hard Wax refuseth the stamp, while the soft receives the impression: A hard Wall puts back the Ball, which the soft Ayr letteth passe through: A Corslet of Iron holds out the Bullet, which the softnesse of the flesh receiveth.

The way how God hardneth the heart against his fear, How God hardeneth the heart. is not by infusion of any hardnesse, or any evill disposition in­to the heart, but by three other actions.

First, By withdrawing of his gracious spirit, whose operation it is that softens the heart, and makes it plyable to the Counsells of God, and subject to his fear: Deut. 29.9. The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day: That all they had seen in Egypt and in the Wildernesse, had not pierced their heart with the love and fear of God. Of this wonderfull hardnesse of the peo­ples heart, this reason is rendered by Moses, God had not given them a heart to perceive.

Beside this negative action of God in hardning the heart, he hath two positive; He gives over the heart to its own naturall hardnesse, that it may be more and more hardened: Thus, the Lord hardened Pharaohs heart: He not onely with­held all the gracious motions of his spirit from him, but let [Page 29]his naturall obstinacy work it self to an acquired habit of hardnesse: And so, what was before naturall, became habitu­all and judiciall. This is the judgement spoken of, the twelfth of John, from the sixth of Isaiah: Make the heart of this peo­ple fat; for their rejecting of my former counsels, let their rebellious heart become-worse and worse, so that thy mini­stery do them no more good.

Thirdly, God gives over the heart judicially hardned by it self, to Satans tentations, whereby it becomes more blinde, dead, and hard, then of it self alone it could be: He sent evill Angels among the Egyptians, for this evill among others, Psal. 79.49. 2 Thes. 2. He sends out Satan to work with Antichrist; for to blinde the eye, and harden the heart with strong delusions.

By all this you understand, why the Church regrates it here to God, That he had hardened her heart from his fear: Hardnesse was naturall to her heart, yet they found Gods judgement, causing in justice that naturall evill to increase up­on them.

From this part of the Complaint, observe, The Doctrine Judicial hard­nesse is the godlies great­est grief. Judiciall hardnesse of heart, from the fear of God, in the times of trouble, is the godlies chiefest grief, and complaint to God. The trou­bles and calamities of the Jews were great at this time, their sins also were great: But behold, here they complain to God more then for either their calamities, or other sins, that God had hardened their heart from his fear, in the midst of all their sins and judgements.

This was it that made the Prophet Jeremy amazed, The Proof. Jere. 5.3. O Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive cor­rection; they have made their faces harder then a rock.

The Reason why this condition of a people is most la­mentable, is first, It is a presage of destruction: The first Reason. When strokes humble not a people, and soften not their heart to the fear and obedience of God, then it cometh to this, Why [Page 30]should ye be stricken any more. After correction is obstinately refused, then cometh rejection. 2 Kings 17.18. God is very angry with the ten Tribes, and removes them out of his sight; the great cause we have, Verse 14. They hardned their necks, like the necks of their fathers, that did not beleeve in the Lord their God. This same was the cause of the ruine of Jeru­salem, Jere. 19.15. I will bring upon this City all the evill that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardned their necks, that they might not hear my words. Jere. 26.29. The Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath, because they had hardned their necks, and did worse then their fathers.

Another Reason. The second Reason. This is such an evill as draweth on eternall perdition after temporall ruine. Rom. 2.5. After thy hardnesse and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath. There is a treasure and heap of everlasting wrath from this hardnesse. Heb. 3.7. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the pro­vocation: Wherefore I was grieved with that Generation, and sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: Meaning such grief and anger in God against this evil, as holds out of heaven.

Thirdly, The third Rea­son. This sin hath extraordinary malignancy in it, though neither eternall nor temporall wrath followed on it: The hand of an angry God, of a working devil, and high degree of corruption, are into it: in its production, all these three have place. Before any be hardned in sin, and become ob­stinate, the corruption of the heart must be great, and highly advanced: Also Satans hand is in the blinding of the eyes, and searing with the hot-iron, in stupifying and making sens­lesse the conscience of the hardned person: and God, as a just Judge, putting on the executioner, must be also about this action. So that this hardning is very oft the signe of a Re­probate to whom God shews no mercy: Whom he will he hardens, and sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy; albeit its not ever so, as in our Text and elsewhere. God hardens the hearts of some for a time, whom thereafter he softens, [Page 31]and to them sheweth mercy: Yet oft, being the case of Re­probates, and ever very like to it, and in it self a degree to that wofull condition; it affrighteth the godly, when they see it in themselves or others, and becometh a great part of their complaint to God.

The Use is for Exhortation, The Ʋse. That we be carefull to grieve and complain to the Lord for this great evil, wherever we see it, in our selves or others. Not onely the most faith­full of Gods Watch-men in all the three Kingdoms, but also those of the people who by the anointing of God have the eyes of their minde opened to see the Spirituall estate of their own or their neighbours souls, bear witnesse with an unanimous testimony, that notwithstanding all the Judge­ments which lie on the Land, yet this hardnesse of heart is greater and more universall then ever they have seen it. This cannot be but the hand of God, adding this Spirituall Plague, as the worst and greatest of all our evils: For this we have great reason to mourn, and intreat the removall of it above all our Woes.

Motives to the Duty we need no other, then the Reasons of the Doctrine.

If thou finde this evil crept in thy heart, as I doubt not but it lodgeth sensibly in some hearts that hear me; or though the Lord had blessed thee with the tender heart of Josiah, to mourn for the sins and calamities that are already, and to tremble for what further is coming; yet if thou see this Mischief proclaiming it self in the countenances and lives of the most of thy neighbours, as truely an observing and conscientious eye will remark too much of it, where­ever he will look, even in the days and places of most so­lemn Humiliation, when hardnesse of heart should be ba­nished farthest away; this evil, I say, wherever found, in thy self or others, should be complained of to God: For ha­ving in it so much of an angry God, a busie devil, and of a high degree of humane corruption; it being also a presage and certain forerunner, if not remedied, of greater Temporal Judgements then yet we have seen, albeit we have seen and [Page 32]heard of as much wo as our fathers in these Kingdoms have felt for some hundred yeers, though all their sufferings were put together: Yet the hardnesse of our hearts, if it conti­nue, will make all we have suffered but the beginning of evils; yea, this hardnesse of heart poisons and envenoms all our sufferings with a cursed quality. Pestilence, wounds, spoi­ling of goods, death, are all sanctified and sweetned to a soft­ned heart; but to a hardned heart they are the first acts of a wofull Tragedie; there is a treasure of wrath, and lake of fire and brimstone at their end attending them.

If we were able, on these days set apart for this end, above all other, to attain the blessing of a soft heart, and the Judge­ment of a heart hardned by God removed, we would quickly be secure of damnation, we would becom certain of the remo­vall of all these Judgements which have very long so heavily lien both on the Church and State, and on the backs, if not of our persons, yet of many in whom our interest is great: we should be assured of heavenly consolations against all e­vils that for the time were on, or hereafter might befall us. Let it therefore be our earnest endeavour to finde this blessing by the Word, by the Sacraments, by publike by private Prayer, by Reading, by Conference, by Meditation. At this time I will point at some Scripturall helps towards it.

First, The first cure of hardnesse is, The embra­cing of the word by faith. believe the Word of the Lord. Gods Word is the means that softneth the heart, like the Sun that melteth the wax, likethe Hammer that breaketh the stone, the Fire that softneth the Iron, the watry cloud that moistneth the dry and parched ground. With all care and conscience, set thy heart under the beams of that Sun, the stroke of that Hammer, before the heat of that fire, under the droppings of that cloud. The contempt, the neglect, the misbelief of this ho­ly instrument of the Spirit, is a great cause of all the hardnesse of heart we speak of. Heb. 3. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Take heed there be not in any of you an evil heart of misbelief. Who will not hear the voice, or doth hear, but with an evil heart of misbelief, they harden their heart. The Word, which should melt them as the Sun doth Wax, [Page 33]hardneth them, as the Sun doth Clay: that Word which to the believer is the loud voice of the Trumpet of God, to wa­ken them when sleeping, to quicken them when dead; be­comes, to the unbeliever and carelesse hearer, the song of a pleasant voice to sing them asleep, and to keep them sleeping. To such, the most powerfull Ministery of a Prophet, of an Apostle, of Christ himself, serveth to make the heart more hard, and fat, and dead then it was before; as from the sixth of Isai. and twelfth of John it is manifest. That which to the faithfull is a quickning Spirit, to the misbeliever is a kil­ling letter: What to the one is the power of God to salvati­on, to the other is but as sounding Brasse and a tinkling Cym­bal. Let it therefore be your earnest endeavour, in all holy exercises about the Word, private or publike, be it preaching, or reading, or conference, to embrace it with an honest heart, with all attention, reverence and faith.

Particularly, Especially the promise of a soft heart. embrace and lay up in thy heart the promise of a soft heart, as it is set down, Ezek. 36.26. there the peo­ple of God were in a worse condition then we yet: The fu­ry of the Lord was so far kindled against them for their sins, that they were cast out of their Land, they were swallowed up on every side, as it is in the third verse: They were taken up in the lips of talkers, they were an infamy of the people, and the reproach of the Nations, and for all that were not refor­med, but continued to profane the Name of God, and to en­crease their provocations, in the midst of all their Judge­ments: Yet, even then, the Lord doth promise, For my own Names sake, not for your sake, will I do this: A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. Let this Word, as a pickle of good seed, be laid up in the heart, it will in time break up to good fruit. This is a part of the new Covenant, as appeareth from Jer. 31 and 32. and Heb. 8. which belongs to us, as to any other, which we would embrace, humbly waiting till the Lord per­form it to us.

A second help to softnesse of heart, will be a Catalogue of [Page 34]sins for which we ought to mourn; The second Cure of hard­nesse is, A clear sight of sin. for softnesse of heart is either the same thing, or proceeds in a great part from grief and forrow for sin; as hardnesse of heart and impenitency are the same, or are always conjoyned. Thou from thy hardnesse or impenitent heart. The tendernesse and melting of Josiahs heart, was his mourning for the Lands sin: The soft­ning of the Jews heart from their long Plague of induration, is, when they are weeping and in bitternesse for their sins, as one for his first-born. The clear sight of sin being a help to grief, sorrow and repentance, must be so towards the soft­nesse of heart. The speciall end of these solemn Humiliati­ons is for registrating, in clear and legible letters, in the hearts of the godly, the sins both of the Land, and of their own per­sons. The Tables of our conscience have been so oft im­pressed with these Types, that I need no more but to remit every one to the books of their brests: There you may read in capitall letters the cause of our Woes, the matter of our Mourning.

While the Lords Candle did shine over our head, What are the sins of the Land.and we wa­shed our steps in butter; while to all the Neighbour-Nations for a great number of yeers we were a wonder of Prosperi­ty; and with abundance of all Temporall blessings, we had likewise plenty of the Gospel; How did we meet the Lord? Great numbers of all ranks and estates, were obstinate in Idolatry, and known Papists. Of them who professed the Truth, how many were altogether void of knowledge, void of fear, without any conscience of God? The most did pol­lute the Service and Church of God with manifold Super­stitions, and Prelaticall Tyranny, persecuting all who had the least zeal to oppose their Corruptions: True Piety was mocked. The Sabbath, by publike Authority, profaned. Co­vetousnesse, Pride, Oppression, Pampering of the flesh, Un­cleannesse, like a flood, did overflow the Land. In these ve­ry times, when the Lords patience is broken off, and he from heaven is revealing his wrath against our wickednesse; yet where is our Repentance? How many have an ear to hear more what the present Rods of God do speak, then what [Page 35]his former Favours? How many Popish and Prelaticall spirits have yet mourned for their old ways? How many upon conscience have left any of the named abominations? How great an addition have we made to our old heap of sin? How much have we put to our old treasure of wrath? Ra­ther then to be reclaimed from their ways, Hath not a great part run to the Sword, and covered the Land with more in­nocent blood, more Rapines and Ravishments then this Isle did see for many Ages together?

Many whom Gods mercy hath separate to the right hand, Episcopacy and Indepen­dency flow both from one fountain. How do they still provoke the Lord, continuing without grief for their old ways? And sundry of them who professemost Pi­ety, advancing the old unhappie way of this Land, an affectati­on of singularity and difference from all the Reformed: The bitter Potions of Gods Judgements, have not yet purged out this very evil humour of many stomacks. The vain spirits of this Land made that the peculiar glory of England, which was truely her peculiar infamy, and proper unhappinesse, and the speciall grief of the most godly in the Land: The gloria­tion of these light spirits was, That England did excell all other Reformed Churches in their Episcopacy and Service-book: also, That the moderation of their King and Prelats was such, that Romane Catholikes might enjoy a sober liber­ty among them, without all hazard of persecution. Is this humour diminished to this day? Or, with a little change, doth it not predomine yet in many? We must still excell all other Churches in our Government: In place of Episcopa­cie, we will have a new Popularity: Just the old Brow­nism of the rigid Separatists, covered with the new name of Independency: For after triall it will be found, that this new and Middle way (as it is called) is really the ex­tremity of the most rigid Separation: That it is not a semi, but a sesqui-Separation: Independency is not a se [...]i, but a sesqui-se­paration. That for the smaller crotchets of the Brownists which they lay aside, they adde more errors, of a worse stamp, which the old Separatists were wont much to detest.

But to swe [...]ten our new eminency above other Protestants, [Page 36]it must be mixed with a Liberty of Conscience; not that, for which the King, Court and Bishops were lately so much cryed out upon, The toleration onely of Papists, or any one false Religion; but a full and Catholike Liberty for all imagi­uable kindes of false Religion; much more then to this day was ever required, either in Amsterdam, or Pall, or Transilvania, or any where else where the licentiousnesse of erring, in the great wrath of God, hath been permitted to dwell. Upon these things the godly would look, not as upon a subject of talking, or an incentive of wrath and indignation against the persons of any; but to be matter of heart-grief, and mour­ning to the Lord in our secret places.

In the end of this Catalogue of publike sins, thou wouldst have annexed a Register of thy personall provocations: When thou hast brought the Candle of Gods Word and Spi­rit within thy own house, and within the Cabinet of thy own brest; doubtlesse thou wilt behold so many abominati­ons, both fleshly and spirituall, that will be just cause of wa­tering thy Couch with thy tears, and pouring out thy heart before the face of the Lord, if thou wer able, in tears of blood.

A third help to softnesse of heart, A third Cure of hardnesse is Motives to fear. is Motives to fear; for this hardnesse of heart proceedeth as from misbelief and im­penitency; so also from security: wherefore in our Text it is opposite to fear: Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy fear? And Josiah, so soon as tendernesse of heart came upon him, began to fear and tremble. So Motives to fear, are helps to softnesse, and cures for hardnesse of heart: Of these, I point shortly but at three: The Judgements of God on others: His Mercies to us: And, if these affect not, The Wrath yet to come on us.

For the first, Judgements on others. we would oft remember the examples given us by God: Who ever thou art, thou hast thy patern from God: Be thou a Church-man, a Citizen, a Knight, an Earl, a Duke, a Prince; how hath the Lord scourged divers of thy Coat lately before thy eyes? wounded, killed, impoveriffied, [Page 37]disgraced many, and put others to stand this day on the brink of ruine and worldly misery? Were they the greatest sinners on whom the Tower of Siloam fell? Or they whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifice? The Lords remark on these Judgements was, That except we repent, we shall all likewise perish. The late Judgements which God hath inflicted on many of thy quality, are loud words to thee, that thou mayest fear and tremble; that thy heart may melt within thee for thy sins, lest the Lord make thee a spectacle of Judgement to others, who by the miseries of others wouldst not be taught to repent.

Again, Remember the great mercies of the Lord: Mercies on us. For there is mercy with God, that he may be feared. The speciall means whereby Nathan softned the heart of David, after it had been long hardned in sin with Bathsheba, was a Cata­logue of Gods mercies towards him, 2 Sam. 2. I d [...]livered thee out of the hand of Saul; I made thee King over Israel; I gave thee thy masters house; and if that had been too little, I would have given thee more: Why hast thou despised my Com­mandment? The ointment of mercy is most softning of it gracious heart, when it groweth into hardnesse: Its good to have a Register of Gods favours both to the publike and thy person. Consider all that the Lord hath done lately for the Church and Kingdom. If the Malignant party had prevailed, (as once they were too like to have done) if their Tyranny in Church and State had been established by the overthrow of the gracious party in the whole Isle; what wofull days should have come upon us and the posterity? That the Lord hath heard our Prayers, and from the heaven hath done so many and so great things for us: That we are in so fair a way to have both Church and State setled according to Truth and Justice: That for our persons, we have been guided a­right in the common Cause; that when so many greater, wi­ser, better then we, have been given over to the counsels of their own hearts, to joyn with the enemy, for their own disgrace and wrack: That the Lord should have kept thy heart strait, and hold [...] thee on thee side wherein was Justice, [Page 38]Truth, and the blessing of God: That in that party the Lord hath taken any service at thy hand, when many, more able, and as willing, have been unserviceable: That thy life, thy limbs, thy estate, are preserved, when this service hath cost many their life, some their limbs, some their estates. These and the like favours would be remembred, for the softning of our heart.

In the third place, Greater Judgements yet coming. if neither Judgements on others, nor mercies on thy self, will move; consider what remedilesse evils may shortly be the reward of so great a contempt. When Nabals heart grew like a stone within him, the hand of God did in a little time cut him off by death. When nei­ther Judgements nor mercies bring a heart to fear, the Lord usually pours out the full Vials of his heaviest wrath. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hand of that consuming fire. We would do well to be lifting up our eyes to that invisible Spirit whom the world cannot see; To behold his hand gui­ding all the wheels of publike and private affairs. Were our State much better setled then yet for a long time it can be; if he be miskent, he can cast down in a moment more then men can build in many yeers. If he be not feared and sought to, he will so crosse and confound the guides of Church and State, that when they are at the end of the Wildernesse, on the very borders of Canaan, he can bring them back to toil in the Wildernesse till they die, without so much as a sight of that Canaan, though once they had come very neer unto it. Albeit the publike did prosper, yet the fearfull wrath of God, for thy hardnesse of heart, may light on thy person. Achan may be stoned to death in the valley of Achor, in the midst of Israels triumph. The misbelieving Prince in Sa­maria may see the Plenty, but be crushed, before he taste thereof. Thy hardnesse of heart, if it remain, will ruine thee: What the fury and curse of an angry God hath ever brought on a miserable sinner in this life, think upon it, for shortly it may be thy portion; and, which is infinitely worse, the whole treasures of the wrath to come, a greater then ordinary condemnation, for thy impenitency & hardnes [Page 39]of heart, if thou remain as thou art, cannot but fall upon thee.

The last help I propone, is Earnest Prayer. A fourth Cure of hardnesse is Prayer. Sometimes all the former helps will not do it; for the heart is despe­rately wicked, and incredibly hard, like that of Leviathan, Job. 41.24. His heart is firm as a stone, as hard as the nether milstone. When we finde it thus, shall we give over in d [...] ­spair? Not so: For there is yet mercy and power in God to make the rocks flow down, to melt the mountains, to dissolve the Adamant-stones. There is a Warrant, Neh. 9. once and again proponed, for the people of God to lay hold on Gods mercy and power, in the midst of their greatest Rebellion and Induration, verse 16. Our fathers dealt proud­ly, and hardned their necks, and heackned not to thy Command­ments: But thon art a God ready to pardon, gracious and mer­cifull; thou forsakest them not. Also in the 29 verse, They dealt proudly, and withdrew the shoulder, and hardned their necks, and would not hear. Yet in the 31 verse, Neverthelesse thou didst not forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merci­full God.

What heart can be more hard and blinde then Pauls, when he made havock of the Church? yet the Lord made the scales to fall from his eyes, and put in his brest, in place of the stone, a most gracious, soft and spirituall piece of flesh. The spectacle of the greatest induration, the Jews, when the Spirit comes on them, their most obdured hearts fall to the greatest mourning, Zech. 12. Let it therefore be our care, in our greatest hardnesse, to lie at the Throne of Grace, to cry on still for this mercy of a soft heart; who knoweth how soon the Lord may hear and answer? When nothing else can help us, if he himself come down, all will yeeld to his power. When the King of Glory comes to assault the most stiff and best closed heart, all doors are cast open to him, Psal. 24.9. He breaketh the gates of brasse, and smiteth the bars of iron in sunder, Psal. 107.16. When he puts his finger in the hole of the door, the bowels of the secure Spouse will shortly be moved for him, Cant. 5.4. It must be our [Page 40]continuall prayer, that the Lord would come to put away the hardnesse of our heart, to enlighten it with faith, to melt it with repentance, to break it with fear; that so it may be a fitted Sanctuary for his perpetuall inhabitation.

If time were not past, The last part of the verse exponed. there are in the second part of the Text, the Churches petition for the Lords return, sundry things usefull for the present occasion. Look in a little upon the meaning of the words.

The returning of the Lord, is a metaphor taken from finite creatures, that go and come: But properly the Lord cannot move from place to place; for his Essence is infinite; he is essentially omni-present; God is every where, in the heaven, in the earth, in the Sea. Psal. 139. If I ascend up unto heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, thou art there: neither so onely, but he fills the heaven and the earth, Jer. 23.24. Do not I fill the heaven and the earth, saith the Lord? But not so, as if when he filled all things, he could be within the circle of the highest heavens: 1 Kings 8.27. Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens, could not contain thee. We have the reason in Job 11.8. The perfection of God is such, that it is as high as heaven, deeper then hell, longer then the earth, and broader then the Sea.

But beware to conceive of this infinite and immense Es­sence of God, which is in all places, and without all places, as of a bodily substance; for God is a Spirit, and that of an in­finite simplicity: take heed of all grosse imaginations of him, left thou turn him to an idol of thine own making.

Not long ago, The zeal of the Court of England against Vorstius here­sies. Verstius and some of the Arminians in Hol­land, began first to brangle with their Problems, and there­after, to deny with their positive assertions, these ground­stones of Religion. At that time, the zeal of England brake out, to the joy of all the Churches: Then the care of the King, and the very Prelats, was great, not onely to keep He­resies, as hellish vapours, out of England; but to have them suppressed among their neighbours in Holland, with all speed. We hope it shall never be told to posterity, that the zeal of this Parliament was lesse against Errours at home, then the [Page 41]Courts wont to be against that evil abroad. And however for the present there be nothing so sacred in the Divine Na­ture and Persons, which the boldnesse of Heretikes among us, arising onely from impunity, dare not wickedly pro­fane; yet ere long we expect a remedy to this and many more evils.

The Returning whereof our Text speaketh, is not to be understood of the Divine Effence, Nature, Substance, nor of the Lords common Operations; but of his gracious Works, of his Mercy and Compassion, as we have it expresly, Zech. 1.16. I am returned to Jerusalem with mercy: And Jer. 12.55. I will return and have compassion on them. As a man in his anger turns his back, and goeth his way; but when recon­ciled, he cometh back: So the Lord, when grievously pro­voked with the sins of his people, for a time departeth to his place, hideth his face, withdraweth the signes of his favour: but thereafter, when appeased, he maketh his face to shine, and by his Spirit works graciously in the seduced and obdu­red heart: For this the Church here petitions, That the Lord would return, and make himself sensibly present to her, and by the gracious work of his Spirit, reclaim her from these errours, and that hardnesse of heart whereinto by his absence she had fallen.

The Ground whereupon the Petition is builded, is, Gods Relation to them, and their Interest in God: They were his servants, he their Lord and Master; as it is in the last verse: We are thine; thou never barest rule over them: they were never called by thy Name. Since the Lord had taken them to be his people to serve him, this was a ground to them, That he would not fully nor finally cast them off; but, for his interest in them, would return. This is cleared in the last words, his returning to them was not for any good was in them, but because they were The Tribes of his Inheritance: Among all the inhabitants of the earth, he had chosen for his portion the Tribes of Jacob, as the word signi­fies the Rods or Branches that sprang out of the Root of Jacob, for his peculiar possession: Deut. 32.8. When the [Page 42]Most high divided to the Nations their Inheritance, when he se­parated the sons of Adam; the Lords portion was his people, and Jacob the lot of his inheritance. Out of the whole world, he chose Israel for his peculiar portion; as it is in Amos 4. Thee on [...]ly have I known, of all the families of the earth. Not for any good in them, but alone for his own love and good will; as it is, Deut. 7.8.

Were not the time past, we would have enlarged these Observations:

First, Observ. 1 The proper, the sovereign, the onely Cure of an erring spirit and hardned heart, is the presence, the return, the gracious entrance of God in the heart.

Secondly, 2 When the Lord upon entreaty hath come into the heart, and begins to enlighten and soften it; he would be enter­tained with much love, humility, fear, care. All in the heart that may grieve his holy eye, would be swept out, lest, if again he depart in anger, the last estate be worse then the first.

Thirdly, 3 A Land wherein the spirit of Errour and Indura­tion doth predomine, cannot enjoy the gracious presence of the Spirit of Truth. 2 Cor. 6.15. What communion hath light with darknesse? What concord hath Christ with Belial?

Fourthly, 4 All who plead for a Liberty of habitation to erre­nious spirits in this Land, require, in plain English, a Liberty, so far as is in them, to banish God out of England.

Fifthly, 5 When by the Judgement of God the spirit of Errour hath entred a Land, there is no putting of him out, but by Gods own Arm; for he is a great deal stronger then men. Zech. 13.2. It is the Lord who takes it on him to cause the false Prophets, and the unclean spirit that leads them, to passe out of the Land.

Sixthly, 6 Though the Judgement of Erring and Induration cannot be cured but by the return of the Lord; though the sub­duing of the spirit of Errour and Obstinacie be the work of Gods hand: yet every good man, according to his place and calling; above all, the Nobles of a Land, and the Houses of Parliament, would employ their whole strength to help the Lord against that [Page 43]strong one. We tempt God, when we neglect to use the means for doing of that work wherein he hath the princi­pall hand. Because we live in God, Shall we not eat, and drink, and keep our selves from seen dangers? It is the Lord that subdues our enemies under us; therefore shall not our Souldiers fight? The Lords Spirit is the subduer of the spirit of Errour; therefore Assemblies and Parliaments need to have no care of this matter? When Satan reasoned thus with Christ, He hath given his Angels charge over thee; therefore cast thy self down headlong: he replieth wisely, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Seventhly, God will return for his servants sake, 7 in the most desperate times: When Calamities have wracked the State, when Errour and Obstinacy (and these Judiciall) lie on the spirits of a people; the faithfull expect, believe, pray for favour, upon the ground of their relation to God, still remaining in the mids both of sins and miseries; they are his servants, and he their Lord. The conscience of a desire to serve the Lord, is a Ground of hope in our hardest conditions.

Eighthly, 8 No hope of a deliverance by God in mercy from any Judgement, unlesse we be willing to serve him as an absolute Master. The greatest enemies of a State, are those, who would evert or enervate the Relation of master and servant, between God and a people; for this Relation is the ground­stone of all the Protection, of all the Deliverance we may expect or pray for from God. Popes, Kings, Bishops, have been striving to be lords over Gods Flock; that ambition hath cost all the three dear. Let Christ alone (by his own Laws, his own Officers, and his own Courts) have the full Spirituall and Ecclesiastick Government of his Churches: The taking of this from him, may spoil us of his protection. Those men that are most carefull to vindicate the right of Christ, are best servants to the State; for they lay a sure foundation of Christs favour and protection to that State wherein they settle Christ as the onely King, Lord and Master of the Church.

Ninthly, Consider the unexpressible benignity of God, 9 [Page 44] chusing out among the children of sinfull and miserable men, some to be his own inheritance: That the Infinite and All-sufficient God, who hath need of nothing, and to whom all creatures can adde no perfection; in all Agesshould delight to have a possession and inheritance among men, as his peculiar trea­sure, they to be his, and he to be theirs; its a wonderfull love to men.

Tenthly, 10 Gods Inheritance, his peculiar People, his dearest Children, if they will venture on sin, they shall be sure of Plagues both Spirituall and Temporall, rather then any other people of the world: For their sins are greatest, being against a most loving Father: It concerns him in honour and glory not to let them go with their scandalous trespasses: He would be blasphe­med, if they went unpunished. Thee onely have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish thee for all thy transgressions.

Eleventhly, 11 The Spirit of Adoption, under great sins, and grievous punishments therefore, moves the children of God to lay hold on their priviledges for the melting of their heart, and bring­ing them to Repentance.

Finally, 12 The sweetest exercise of a Christian, is the impro­ving of the priviledge in band, The making use daily of this mu­tuall Relation, We are Gods Inheritance, and God is our Portion. A soul truely religious, must give it self up fully to be possest and filled by God, to be replenished in minde, will, affecti­ons, memory, conscience, and every faculty, with the whole fulnesse of God, as an inhabitant, as a due, proper and onely heritor: On the other part, it will claim and lay hold by faith, on the power, the glory, the truth, the mercy, and all that is in God, as its own peculiar portion, as the onely he­ritage which either in earth or heaven it desireth to enjoy.

But being cut off by time from enlarging these things, I commend them and the rest to your meditation, and the bles­sing of God.