If

did deny. And he is the same yesterday and to-day. he save in six and in seven troubles, should not we pray in six and seven extremities? Certainly, in all the afflictions. of the church, when prayers are strongest, mercies are

nearest.

And therefore let me humbly recommend to the cares of this Honourable Assembly, amongst all your other pressing affairs, the providing that those solemn days, wherein the united prayers of this whole kingdom should, with strongest importunities, stop the breaches, and stand in the gaps of judgements which are ready to rush in upon us, may, with more obedience and solemnity, be observed, than indeed of late they are. It is true, here, and in other cities, and populous places, there is haply less cause to complain. But who can, without sorrow and shame, behold in our country towns, men so unapprehensive either of their brethren's sufferings, or of their own sins and dangers, as to give God quite over, to let him rest, that they themselves may work ;to come in truth to Jehoram's resolution, Why should they wait upon God any longer?' to grudge their brethren's and their own souls and safeties one day in thirty, and to tell all the world that indeed their day's work is of more value with them than their day's worship, multitudes drudging and moiling in the earth, while their brethren are mourning and besieging of Heaven. I do but name it, and proceed.

The second part of the institution, was the particular form suggested unto them, according unto which their addresses unto God are to be regulated, which consisteth of two parts, a prayer, and a promise. The prayer is for two benefits : the one, removal of sin; the other, conferring good.' In the promise or restipulation, we have first their covenant, wherein they promise two things: 1st. Thanksgiving' for the hearing and answering of their prayers. 2nd. A 'special care' for the amendment of their lives.-Secondly, The ground of their confidence so to pray, and of their resolutions so to promise, "Because, in thee, the fatherless findeth mercy." My meditations will be confined within the first of these, the prayer of the church in their fears and sufferings; wherein I shall begin, in the prophet's order, with their prayer against sin, Take away all iniquity.

The word signifies, 1. To expiate, and make atonement by a sacrifice. So the scape-goat (which was a sign of Christ our sacrifice as risen and living again) is said to carry the sins of the people into the wilderness', thereby signifying Christ's taking our sins from us. 2. To forgive, which, in the court of mercy, is the taking of sin away". 3. To remove or take away by destroying; so it is used, Hosea i. 6. Job xxxii. 22; and is sometimes used to express burning. So sin is said to be destroyed P, to be subdued, to be purged away with the spirit of judgement and burning'. The meaning then is, Take away all our sins from us; lay them upon Christ our sacrifice; for his merit, pardon them; by his grace, destroy and subdue them; that so the root of judgements being removed, they likewise may therewithal be removed too.'- From hence the observation which I shall insist upon, is this:

SECT. 7. When God threateneth judgements, we, in our conversion unto him, should pray against sins.'-Our eye of sorrow should be more upon that which dishonoureth him, than upon that which afflicts ourselves; more upon that which is contrary to his image, than upon that which is contrary to our own nature; more upon that which defileth, than upon that which paineth us. Pharaoh cares for nothing but the removal of death: Simon Magus for nothing but to have perdition and the gall of bitterness kept from him. But good men, like wise physicians, cure the disease at the root, as Elisha" did the waters, by putting salt into the spring-head. The angel was smiting the people with a plague; David betakes himself to the right remedy, "I have sinned, I have done wickedly:"-he goes not to the physicians, but to the altar, to make atonement for sin; and so the plague was stayed. Destruction was threatened against Israel for their calf, their murmurings, their rebellions; "Moses stands in the gap," to divert it'; but how doth he do it? surely by praying against their sins. "O this people have sinned a great sin, O that thou wouldest forgive them!" A sick man was brought to Christ to be

healed; Christ overlooks the disease, and begins at the sin: "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee:" and, this being forgiven, the malignity of the disease was removed, though the matter should have remained. This was the usual method of David in his troubles ", to throw over these Shebas that had wrought his woe, "Blot out, wash thoroughly, cleanse, create, renew;" he is far more importunate for pardon and purging, than for ease and comfort. Complaining in trouble, is the work of a man; but repenting, is the work of a Christian.

The reasons of this point are these three :

SECT. 8. I. If a judgement should be removed, while sin remains, it is not removed in mercy, but in anger: for, many times, God gives over punishing in displeasure, as a man throweth away the rod, when his scholar is incorrigible. "Why should ye be smitten any more? ye will revolt more and more d" If men be settled on their lees, and will not be reclaimed, there cannot a heavier punishment light upon them, than to be without punishment, to be left to themselves, and the fury of their own wills, speedily to work out their own perdition, that their own pleasures may become their plagues,-and the liberty of their own lusts, their sorest bondage. God may take away in wrath, that which he sent in anger; as, on the other side, he may punish sin then when he forgiveth it, and may visit iniquity with rods then when he will "not utterly take away his loving kindness from a people "."

II. If a judgement be removed, so long as sin remains, it is gone cum animo revertendi,' either the same or a worse is likely to succeed: for God will overcome whom he

a Matth. ix. 2. b Psalm xxv. 8. xxxii. 4, 5. xxxviii. 3, 4, 51.

c Lam. iii. 39, 40. d Isai. i. 5. e Hos. iv. 14. Psalm lxxxi. 11, 12. Ezek. xxiv. 13. Rom. i. 24, 28. Rev. xxii. 11. Exaudit propitius, non exaudit iratus : et rursus non exaudit propitius, exaudit iratus.-Non parcit propitius, parcit iratus. Aug. contra Jul. 1. 5. c. 4.-Parci sibi putat, cum excæcetur, et servetur ad ultimam opportunamque vindictam. Aug. in Psalm ix.--Ad utilitatem quosdam non exaudis ; ad damnationem quosdam exaudis. In Psalm xxi.-Iratus dat amanti, quod malè amat, in Psalm. xxvi.—Magna ira est, quando peccantibus non irascitur Deus. Hier. ep. 33. et in Psalm cxl.-Indignantis Dei major hæc plaga. Cypr. de Lapsis.—O servum illum beatum, cujus emendationi Deus instat, cui dignatur irasci, &c. Tertul. de pat. c. 11. f Hos. xiii. 11.

xcix. 8, 9, 32, 33.

g Psalm

judgeth". Pharaoh's stubbornness did not but increase his plagues. God will not endure, that the pride of man should outvie his justice. If we do not take Christ's warning to go and "sin no more," we have great cause to fear his inference, that "a worse thing will come upon us." If we do yet exalt ourselves, God will yet plead with us *. If we will walk contrary unto him, he threateneth to do the like unto us, and to punish us seven times more for our sins. If we do not turn unto him that smiteth us, then his anger in smiting shall "not be turned away, but his hand shall be stretched out still m" God can bring clouds after rain; distresses in Ireland, after distractions in Scotland; and distractions in England, after distresses in Ireland; mischief upon mischief, and counsel against counsel; Manasseh against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh,-to vex and weary out a sinful people, till they pine away in their calamities.

III. Sin being removed, though the afflictions should not be removed, yet it is sanctified, and turned into good. Repentance, like the philosopher's stone, can turn iron into gold, can make golden afflictions: so the trial of our faith, that is, our affliction, is said to be "more precious than gold "." Whereas sin, remaining, is like copperas, which will turn wine or milk into ink: it converts the blessing of God into the provisions of lusts; cankers learning with pride, and wit with profaneness, and wealth with luxury; like leaven, which turns a very passover into pollution. As the pearl, which is an ornament to the woman which wears it, is a disease to the fish which breeds it; as the same perfume which refresheth a dove, is mortal to a vulture; as the same pillar and cloud was light to Israel, but dark to Egypt; the same deep a path to Israel, but a grave to Egypt;—so the same blessings, which by grace are converted into comforts, by sin are abused into dishonourable services P. Sweet powders can make leather an ornament, when the sanies of a plague-sore will render a robe infectious. As it was said of Naaman, He was a great man, an honourable man, a mighty man of war; but " he was a leper :" so whatever other ornaments a man hath, sin stains them with the foulest but,

Rom. iii. 4. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28.

१

℗ Hag. ii. 13. q 2 Kings v. 1.

that can be brought to deprave the fairest endowments: a learned man, a wealthy man, a wise man, an honourable man, but a wicked man; this makes all those other good things tributary unto Satan.

And therefore as the gold and silver of the Canaanites ' was to pass through the fire, before it could be used by Israel; so all other blessings, bestowed on men, must pass through the Spirit of judgement and burning, through the purifying waters of repentance, before they can bring honour to the Author, or comfort to the enjoyer of them. When Christ overcometh Satan," he taketh from him all his armour, and divideth the spoils "." How doth he divide the spoils? surely he maketh use of that wit, wealth, power, learning, wisdom, interests, which Satan used against Christ's kingdom, as instruments and ornaments unto the gospel. As when a magazine in war is taken, the general makes use of those arms which were provided against him, for his own service'.

And as sin doth thus corrupt blessings, so, on the other side, repentance doth sweeten judgements, and can turn afflictions into matter of comfort. As scarlet pulls out the teeth of a serpent, so this takes away the sting of a judgement. As wine draweth a nourishing virtue from the flesh of vipers"; as hot birds can feed upon iron, and purge their bodies with swallowing of stones; so repentance, though it should not remove a judgement, yet can feed upon it; and fetch meat out of the eater, and, out of the strong, sweetness.

There are two evils in afflictions; their thorn in the flesh, as they are matter of pain; and their snare to the conscience, as they are matter of temptation: as there are two things in a chain or fetter, the heaviness whereby it loads, and the hardness whereby it galls. Now as a prisoner, though he cannot make his chain lighter than it is, yet by lining it with wool, or other soft things, he can prevent the galling; so repentance, though it take not away the pain of affliction from the flesh, yet by meekening and humbling the

Num. xxxi. 22. • Τεύχεα συλήσας φερέτω κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας. Ηom. Il. 11. Luke xi. 21. t Qui se dedebant, arma tradebant. Cæsar de Bello Gallico, 1. 3. u Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit. Sen. de Benef. 1. 2. c. 18. Mediei pedes et alas cantharidis, cum sit ipsa mortifera, prodesse dicunt. Plut. de Aud. Poctis. * Isa. viii. 21. 2 Chro. xxviii. 22. Rev. xvi. 10.