THese Words are a merciful warning from God to the People of Israel by the Prophet Jeremiah, the last Prophet that God sent to them be­fore their Captivity in Babylon.

The time of this Prophesie was of a long continuance, above the space of forty years, viz. from the thirteenth year of King Josiah, to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, the year in which Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnez­zar King of Babylon.

This I observe, to shew the great patience of God to a sinful Nation. And this is much the same space of time that God gave warning by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles to the same People of the Jews concerning their final De­struction. For it was about forty years after the Prediction of our Saviour concerning it, just before his Death, that the terrible Destru­ction [Page 2] of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation was executed upon them by the Romans, or rather chiefly by themselves; as I shall presently shew. Of which dreadful Desolation, the first taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and their Captivity into Babylon was a kind of Type and Forerunner. For, as Josephus observes, the taking of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian did hap­pen in the very same Month, and on the very same Day of the Month in which Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, viz. upon our tenth of August.

And it is not unworthy of our observation, that the time of God's warning is wont to hold some sort of proportion with the extent of his Judgments. Before the universal Deluge which destroyed the whole World, Noah and his Family onely excepted, God gave a much longer warning by the preaching of Noah, for the space of an hundred and twenty years. Before the destruction of a particular Nation, if we may judge by Gods dealing with the Jews, his time of warning is forty years. And before the destru­ction of a particular City, if we may conclude any thing from the single example of Niniveh, the time of Gods warning is yet much shorter, the space of forty days.

[Page 3]And now to what end doth God exercise so much patience and threaten so long before­hand, but that by the terrour of his threat­nings men may be brought to repentance, and by repentance may prevent the execution of them? For all the while that God by his Pro­phet threatens ruine and destruction to the People of Israel, he earnestly invites and urges them to repentance, that by this means they might escape the ruine that was denounced a­gainst them: This being a condition perpetu­ally implyed in the denunciation of publique judgments, that if a People repent of the evil of their doings God also will repent of the e­vil which he said he would do unto them, as he expresly declares chap. 18. vers. 7, 8. At what instant I speak concerning a Nation and con­cerning a Kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it, if that Nation against whom I have pronounc'd turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them. And here in the Text, after God had threaten'd destruction to Jerusalem, because of the over-flowing of all manner of wickedness and oppression in the midst of her, he gives her a merciful warning to prevent this ruine and desolation by repentance, vers. 6, 7. Thus hath [Page 4] the Lord of Hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem; this is a City to be visited, she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. As a fountain casteth out waters, so she casteth out her wickedness. Before me continual­ly is grief and wounds. And yet when he had pronounced this fearful Sentence upon her, he tells her that all this misery and desolation might yet be prevented, if they would but hearken to the counsel of God, and be instru­cted by him concerning the things of their peace: For so it follows in the next words, Be thou instructed O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land not in­habited. Be thou instructed O Jerusalem, that is, do but now at last take that counsel and warning which hath so often, and so long, been tender'd to thee by my servant the Prophet, who hath now for the space of forty years con­tinually, and that with great earnestness and importunity, been warning thee of this danger and calling thee to repentance and a better mind.

Lest my soul depart from thee. In the He­brew it is, Lest my soul be loosened and disjoynt­ed from thee, as it is in the margin of your Bibles; hereby signifying, in the most emphati­cal [Page 5] manner, the wonderful affection and kind­ness which God had for his People, and how strongly his soul was link'd to them, and how loth he was to withdraw his love from them; it was like the tearing off of a limb, or the plucking of a joint in sunder: so unwilling is God to come to extremity; so hardly is he brought to resolve upon the ruine even of a sinful Nation: How much rather would he, that they would be instructed and receive cor­rection, and hearken to the things of their peace? But if they will not be persuaded, if no warning will work upon them, his spirit will not always strive with them; but his soul will at last, though with great unwillingness and re­luctancie, depart from them.

And then, no intercession will prevail for them; as he threatens by the same Prophet, chap. 15. vers. 1. Then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Daniel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this People; cast them out of my sight and let them go forth; away with them into Captivity, for they have lost my heart, and no intercession of others for them, nothing but their own repentance can recover it.

[Page 6]And when his Soul is once departed from a People, and his heart turn'd against them, then all sorts of evils and calamities will be let loose upon them; as we may read in the next verse of that Chapter: Jer. 15.2. And it shall come to pass if they say unto thee, whither shall we go forth? Then shalt thou tell them, Thus saith the Lord, such as are for death to death, and such as are for the sword to the sword, and such as are for the fa­mine to the famine, and such as are for the cap­tivity to the captivity. For then God will be weary of repenting, as he tells them verse 6. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward; therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and deliver thee, I am weary of repenting. By our obstinate impenitency we harden the heart of God against us, and make him weary of repenting. And when his soul is thus departed from a People, Hos. 9.12. nothing remains but a fearful expectation of ruine. Wo unto them, saith God by the Prophet, when I depart from them. Therefore be thou instructed O Je­rusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabited.

Having given this account of the Words, I shall observe from them three things well worth our consideration.

[Page 7] First, The infinite goodness and patience of God towards a sinful People, and his great unwillingness to bring ruine and destruction upon them; lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabited ▪ How loth is He that things should come to this extremity? He is not without great difficulty, and some kind of violence, as it were, offered to himself, brought to this severe resolution; his soul is, as it were, rent and disjoynted from them.

Secondly, You see here what is the only pro­per and effectual means to prevent the misery and ruine of a sinful People. If they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God, and will become wiser and better, then his soul will not depart from them, he will not bring upon them the desolation which he hath threatned.

Thirdly, You have here intimated the mi­serable case and condition of a People, when God takes off his affection from them, and gives over all further care and concernment for them. Wo unto them, when his soul departs from them. For when God once leaves them, then all sorts of evils and calamities will break in upon them.

[Page 8]I shall speak as briefly as I can to these three Observations from the Text.

I First, I observe the infinite patience and goodness of God towards a sinful People, and his great unwillingness to bring ruine and de­struction upon them; lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabi­ted. How loth is God that things should come to this? He is very patient to particular per­sons, notwithstanding their great and innume­rable provocations. God is strong and patient, though men provoke him every day. And much greater is his patience to whole Nations and great Communities of men.

How great was it to the old World, when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, for the space of an hundred and twenty years? And did not expire, till he saw that the wickedness of man was grown great upon the earth, and that all flesh had corrupted its way; not till it was necessary to drown the World to cleanse it, and to destroy Mankind to reform it, by be­ginning a new World upon the only righteous Family that was left of all the last generation of the Old. For so God testifies concerning Noah, when he commanded him to enter into [Page 9] the Ark, saying, Gen. 7.1. Come thou and all thy house into the Ark; for thee, that is thee only, have I seen righteous before me in this Generation.

The patience of God was great likewise to Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them. For when the cry of their sins had reached hea­ven, and called loud for vengeance to be pour­ed down upon them, to express the wonderful patience of God towards such grievous Sinners, though nothing is hid from his sight and know­ledge, yet he is represented as coming down from Heaven to Earth on purpose to enquire into the truth of things, and whether they were altogether according to the cry that was come up to him. And when he found things as bad as was possible, yet then was he willing to have come almost to the lowest terms imaginable, that if there had been but ten righteous persons in those wicked Cities, he would not have de­stroy'd them for the ten's sake.

Nay he comes to lower termes yet, with the City of Jerusalem, Jer. 5.1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth, and I will par­don it.

[Page 10]What can be imagin'd more slow, and mild, and merciful, than the proceedings of the Di­vine justice against a sinful People? God is re­presented in Scripture as taking a long time to make ready his bow, and to whet his glittering sword, before his hand takes hold of vengeance; as if the instruments of his wrath lay by him blunt and rusty and unready for use. Many a time he threatens, and many a time lifts up his hand, before he gives the fatal blow. And how glad is he when any good man will step in and interpose to stay his hand? As we read Psal. 106.23. Therefore he said, speaking of the People of Israel, that he would destroy them, had not Moses his servant stood in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. And how kindly doth God take it of Phinehas, as a most acceptable piece of service done to him, and which he hardly knew how sufficiently to reward, that he was a means of putting a stop to his anger against the People of Israel: Insomuch that the Psalmist tells us that it was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations for evermore. I will recite the whole passage at large, because it is remarkable. When the Peo­ple of Israel were seduced into Idolatry and Whoredom by the Daughters of Moab, Phinehas [Page 11] in great zeal stood up and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi in the very act: By which means the Plague which was broken out upon the Congregation of Israel was presently stayed. Hear what God says to Moses con­cerning this act of Phineahs. The Lord spake unto Moses saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazer, the son of Aaron the Priest, hath turned away my wrath from the Children of Israel, whilst he was zealous for my sake that I consumed them not. Wherefore say, Behold I give unto him my Cove­nant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the Children of Israel: That which God takes so kindly at his hands, next to his zeal for Him, is, that he pacified God's wrath towards the Children of Israel.

And thus did God from time to time deal with the People of Israel, that great Example of the Old Testament of the merciful methods of the Divine Providence towards a sinful Na­tion. And an Example, as St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. 10.11. purposely recorded for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come.

Let us therefore consider a little the aston­ishing patience of God towards that perverse [Page 12] People. After all the signs and wonders which He had wrought in their deliverance out of E­gypt, and for their support in the Wilderness; and notwithstanding their gross and stupid in­fidelity and horrible ingratitude to God their Saviour, and all their rebellious murmurings and discontents, yet he suffer'd their manners for the space of forty years.

And when they were at last peaceably set­tled in the promised Land; notwithstanding their frequent relapses into Idolatry, with what patience did God expect their repentance, and the result of all the merciful messages and warn­ings given them from time to time by his Pro­phets, as one that earnestly desir'd it and even long'd for it? O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, Jer. 4.14. that thou mayest be saved; how long shall vaine thoughts lodge within thee? that is, how long wilt thou delude thy self with vaine hopes of escaping the judgments of God by any other way than by repentance? And again, O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? Jer. 13.27. And chap. 8. vers. 6. says God there, I hearkened and I heard, but they spake not aright; no man repented him of his wick­edness, saying, What have I done? Where God is represented, after the manner of men, wait­ing [Page 13] with great patience, as one that would have been glad to have heard any penitent word drop from them, to have seen any sign of their re­pentance and return to a better mind.

And when they made some shews of repen­tance, and had some fits of good resolution that did presently vanish and come to nothing, how passionately does God complain of their fickleness and inconstancy? O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

And at last, when nothing would do, with what difficulty and reluctancy does God deli­ver them up into the hands of their Enemies? How shall I give thee up Ephraim? Hos. 11.8, 9. How shall I deliver thee Judah? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled together; I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not destroy Ephraim. What a conflict is here? what tenderness and yern­ing of his bowels towards them? He cannot find in his heart to give them up, till he is for­c'd to it by the last necessity.

And when the Nation of the Jews, after their return from the Captivity of Babylon, had [Page 14] in the course of several Ages greatly corrupted themselves, and fill'd up the measure of their sins by crucifying the Lord of Life and Glory, yet how slow was the patience of God in bringing that fatal and final Destruction upon them? Not till after the most merciful warnings given to them, by the Apostles of our Lord and Sa­viour; not till after the most obstinate impe­nitency of forty years, under the most power­ful means of repentance that any People in the World ever enjoyed. I proceed to the

Second Observation from the Text, namely, II What is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the ruine of a sinful People? And that is, if they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God to become wiser and better, then his soul will not depart from them, and he will not bring upon them the desolation threatned. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, and I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabited; inti­mating, or rather plainly declaring to us, that if we will receive instruction and take warning the evil threatn'd shall not come. For what other reason can there be, why God should threaten so long before he strikes, and so ear­nestly [Page 15] press men to repentance, but that he might have the opportunity to spare them and shew mercy to them?

And indeed, as I observ'd before, all the de­nunciations and threatnings of God to a sinful Nation do carry this tacit condition in them, that if that Nation turn from their evil ways, God will repent of the evil which he thought to do unto them. For God never passeth so irrevocable a Sentence upon a Nation, as to ex­clude the case of repentance: Nay on the con­trary He gives all imaginable encouragement to it, and is always ready to meet it, with a par­don in his hand. How often would I have ga­thered thee, says our merciful Lord when he wept over Jerusalem, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; there­fore your House is left unto you desolate.

God is very merciful to particular persons upon their repentnace. When the Prodigal Son in the Parable, after all his riot and lewdness came to himself and resolv'd to return home, his Father seeing him yet afar of coming towards him, came out to meet him, and had compassion on him and kissed him. And can any of us be so obstinate and hard-hearted, as not presently to resolve to repent and return, and to meet [Page 16] the compassions of such a Father? Who, after we have offended him to the uttermost, is up­on the first discovery of our repentance ready to be as kind to us, as he could possibly have been if we had never offended him.

And much more is God ready to receive a Nation upon their sincere Repentance; when his Judgments must needs make great havock, and so many are like to suffer under them. This consideration God urgeth and pleads with his froward Prophet, in behalf of the great Ci­ty of Niniveh. John 4.11. And shall not I spare that great City of Niniveh, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, who cannot discern their right hand from their left? that is, so many innocent children, by which we may judge of the vast number of the rest of the Inhabitants. For this is a great consideration with God in his sending of publique Calamities, the multitude of the Sufferers; and that not only the guilty but the innocent also, without a special and mi­raculous Providence, must be involved in a com­mon Calamity.

Sometimes God respites his Judgments upon the meer external humiliation of a People, and some formal testimonies and expressions of their repentance. Psal. 78. When the People of Israel sought [Page 17] God and enquired early after him, though they did but flatter him with their mouth, and their heart was not right with him, yet the Psalmist tells us, that being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not; that is, he forgave them so far as to respite their ruine.

And much more will a sincere and effectual Repentance stay God's hand, and infallibly turn him from the fierceness of his anger: Insomuch that after he had fix'd and determin'd the very Day for the destruction of Niniveh, and had en­gaged the credit of his Prophet in it, yet as soon as he saw their works, and that they turned from their evil ways, and how glad was he to see it? he presently repented of the evil which he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not. In this case God does not stand upon the reputati­on of his Prophet, by whom he had sent so per­emptory a message to them; but his mercy breaks through all considerations, and rejoyceth against judgment: For he cannot find in his heart to ruine those who by the terrour of his judge­ments will be brought to repentance.

And this surely is a mighty motive and en­couragement to repentance, to be assur'd that we shall find mercy; and that when our ruine is even decreed, and all the instruments of God's [Page 18] wrath are fix'd and ready for execution, and his hand is just taking hold of vengeance, yet even then a sincere repentance will mitigate his hot­test displeasure and turn away his wrath. And if we will not come in upon these terms, we ex­tort the judgments of God from him and force him to depart from us, and with violent hands we pull down vengeance upon our own heads.

III Thirdly and lastly, the Text intimates to us the miserable case and condition of a People when God takes off his heart and affection from them, when he gives over all further care and concern­ment for them, and abandons them to their own wickedness and folly, and to the miserable ef­fects and consequences thereof: Wo unto them, when his soul departs from them: For then all sorts of evils and calamities will rush in, and wrath will come upon them to the uttermost; as was threatn'd to the Jews a little before their fi­nal destruction, and executed upon them in the most terrible and amazing manner that ever was from the foundation of the World. These, as our Blessed Saviour expresses it, were days of ven­geance indeed, that all things which were written, that is foretold by Moses and the Prophets con­cerning the fearful end of this perverse and stiff­neck'd People, might be fulfilled.

[Page 19]And because my Text speaks to Jerusalem, Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a Land not inhabited; though this was spoken to Jerusalem before her Ca­ptivity into Babylon, yet because this first Captivi­ty was but a faint Type of her last and final Deso­lation by the Romans, when God's Soul was indeed departed from Her, and Judea was left desolate, a Land not inhabited: I shall therefore briefly repre­sent to you the full effect of this Threatning in her last final Destruction, when God's Soul was, as it were, perfectly loosen'd and disjoynted from Her: That you may see what the fierceness and power of God's Anger is, when he departs from them, and wrath comes upon them to the uttermost, because they would not be instructed and know the time of their visitation.

Thus it was with the Jews, about forty years after the Passion of our Lord, whom with wicked hands they had crucified and slain: Then was God's soul departed from them: Then darkness and desola­tion came upon them; and they were in a far worse condition than a Country would be that is forsaken of the Sun and left condemn'd to a per­petual night, in which darkness and disorder, facti­on and fury do reign and rage; together with all the fatal consequences of zeal and strife, which, St. James tells us, are confusion and, every evil work. [Page 20] For when God is once gone, all the good and hap­piness of Mankind departs together with Him: Then men fall foul upon one another, divide into Parties and Factions, and execute the vengeance of God upon themselves with their own hands.

Thus it happen'd to the Jewish Nation, when the measure of their iniquity was full, and their fi­nal ruine was approaching. And that we might know their Fate, and be instructed by it, God pro­vided and preserv'd a faithful Historian on pur­pose, who was an Eye-witness of all that befel them: I mean Josephus, who was personally en­gaged, and was a considerable Commander in the Wars of the Jews with the Romans, before the Siege of Jerusalem: And during the Siege was pre­sent in the Roman Camp, and being a Jew himself hath transmitted these things to posterity in a most exact and admirable History: such a History, as no man that hath the heart and bowels of a man can read without the greatest pity and astonishment.

In the Preface of that lamentable History he tells us, that all the misfortunes and calamities which the World from the beginning of it had seen, compar'd with this last Calamity of the Jewish Nation, were but slight and inconsiderable. He tells us likewise, that their Civil dissentions were the next and im­mediate cause of their confusion and ruine.

And this more than once: For when Pompey, [Page 21] about sixty years before our Saviour's birth, sate down before Jerusalem, he tells us, Lib. 1. c. 5. that the Factions and divisions which they had among themselves were the cause of the taking the City and Temple at that time. And when they rebel­led afterwards, that the Heads of their Factions provok'd the Romans, and brought them unwil­lingly upon them, and at last forced the best na­tur'd Prince in the World Titus Vespasian to that severity which he most earnestly desired by all means to have prevented. Lib. 4. c. 5. And he further tells us, that even before the Siege of Jerusalem, the Cities of Judea had all of them civil discords a­mong themselves, and that in every City one part of the Jews fought against another.

And when Jerusalem began to be besieged, What a miserable condition was it in, by the cru­elty of the Zealots under the command of John the Son of Giorah? And presently after another Faction arose under Simon, who enter'd into the City with a fresh Force and assaulted the Zealots in the Temple; so that most miserable havock was made between them. And then a third Fa­ction started up under Eleazer, as bad as either of the other: Lib. 7. c. 1. So that infinite almost were the num­bers of the People within the City that were bar­barously slain by these Seditions.

And what an infatuation was this? when the [Page 22] Enemy was at the Gates and ready to break in up­on them, to employ their whole strength and force against one another: When the same courage and fury, which they spent so freely upon themselves, had it been turn'd with the like desperateness and obstinacy upon the Romans, might have endanger'd the whole force of the Roman Empire. Once or twice indeed they seem'd to lay aside their enmity for a little while, and to unite in the common de­fence; but as soon as the danger of a present as­sault was over, they relaps'd into their former state of intestine enmity and dissention, as if that had been their main business, and the preservati­on of their City against the Romans only a work by the by, and not much to be regarded.

And to add to all their other miseries, they were so blinded by their own rage and madness, that they wilfully brought upon themselves an extream Famine. For, as the Historian tells us, they themselves set on fire vast stores of corn and other necessaries, sufficient to have serv'd them for many years; and by this means the City was much sooner reduc'd, even by a Famine of their own making, and which could not have been brought upon them but by themselves.

This Famine, besides all the other miseries and cruelties which it occasion'd within the City, did force great numbers of them to steal out by night [Page 23] into the Roman Camp; where they met with as cruel but a speedier death. For Titus, in hope to reduce them the sooner by terrour, order'd all those that came out of the City to be crucified before the Walls. Which order was so severely executed, that for several days five hundred a day were crucifi'd, till there was neither room left to place Crosses in, nor wood whereof to make them: So that they who once cryed out so vehemently against our Saviour, Crucify him, Crucify him, had enough of it at last, and by the just and most re­markable judgment of God were paid home in their own kind.

Behold the sad Fate of a sinful People, when God is departed from them! Then all evils over­take them at once. For as their misery increased, so did their Impiety to that degree, that the Histo­rian tells us, Lib. 5. c. 2. they scorned and mocked at all divine and holy things, and derided the Oracles of the Pro­phets, esteeming them no better than Fables; and, in a word, were carried to that extremity of wick­edness, as not only to profane their Temple in the highest manner, and to break the Laws of their own Religion, but even to violate the Laws of Nature and Humanity in the grossest Instances: which made their Historian to give that dismal character of them, Lib. 6. c. 11. that as he thought no City ever suffer'd such things, so no Nation, from the begin­ning [Page 24] of the World, did ever so abound in all manner of wickedness and impiety: A certain sign that God's Soul was departed from them.

And the same Historian afterwards, upon con­sideration of the lamentable state into which their Seditions had brought them, breaks out into this doleful lamentation over them, Lib. 7. c. 1. O miserable City! what didst thou suffer from the Romans, though at last they set thee on fire to purge thee from thy sins, that is to be compar'd with those miseries which thou hast brought upon thy self?

To such a dismal state did things come at last, that, as the same Historian relates, many of the Jews prayed for the good success of their Enemies, to deliver them from their civil Dissentions, the Cala­mity whereof was so great that their final Destructi­on by the Romans did rather put an end to their mi­sery than increase it,

To conclude this sad Story. It was the Jews themselves that by their own folly and dissentions forc'd the Romans to this sorrowful Victory over them; for in truth all the remorse and pity was on the Enemies side. The Romans were little more than Spectators in this cruel Tragedy, the Jews acted it upon themselves: And they only [Page 25] who were arriv'd at that prodigious height of Im­piety and wickedness were fit to be the executi­oners of this vengeance of God upon one ano­ther: As if the Prophet had foretold this, when he says, Thine own wickedness shall correct thee. Jer. 2.19.

When Impiety and wickedness are at their highest pitch in a Nation, then they themselves are the only proper instruments to punish one a­nother. The Romans were by far too good and gentle to inflict a suffering upon the Jews that was equal to the evil of their doings: None but their own barbarous Selves, who were sunk down into the very lowest degeneracy of humane nature, were capable of so much cruelty and inhumanity as was requisite to execute the Judgment of God upon them to that degree which their sins had de­served.

You see my Brethren, by what hath been said upon this Argument, what were the Faults, and what the Fate of the Jewish Nation. Now these things, as the Apostle expresly tells us, were writ­ten for our admonition, and to the intent that we upon whom the ends of the World are come might be instructed by them: We, I say, who next to the Jewish Nation seem to be a People highly fa­voured by God above all the Nations of the Earth. We resemble them very much in their many and wonderful Deliverances, and a great deal too much in their Faults and Follies.

[Page 26]But as I intend it not, so God forbid that there should be any just ground for a full and exact Pa­rallel between us; Yet this I must say, that no­thing ever came nearer to them than We do in several respects. In our fickleness and inconstan­cy, in our murmurings and discontents; for we are never pleas'd with what God does, neither when he brings us into danger, nor when he deli­vers us out of it: We resemble them likewise, in our horrible profaneness and infidelity, and in our im­piety and wickedness of several kinds: in our monstrous ingratitude and most unworthy returns to the God of our Salvation: and lastly, in our Factions and Divisions, which were the fatal sign of God's being departed from the Jews, and the immediate cause and means of those dismal Cala­mities which wrought their final Ruine. And how can we chuse but dread lest their Fate should overtake us, the Example of whose Faults and Fol­lies we do in so many things so nearly resemble?

That this may not, nor any thing like it, be our Fate, let us apply our selves to the great Duties of this Day; a serious and deep Repentance, and humiliation of our selves before Almighty God for the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nati­on have been, and still are guilty of, against His Divine Majesty; by our profaneness and impie­ty, by our lewdness and luxury, by our oppression [Page 27] and injustice, by our implacable malice and hatred one towards another, and by our sensless divisi­ons and animosities one against another, without cause and without end: By our neglect of God's Worship, and profanation of his Holy Day, and by our dreadful abuse of God's great and glorious Name in those horrid Oaths and Curses and Im­precations which are heard almost day and night in the streets of this great City.

For these and all other our innumerable provo­cations of the patience and goodness and long-suf­fering of God towards us, let us sadly repent our selves this Day, and turn unto the Lord with all our hearts, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rent our hearts and not our gar­ments, and turn unto the Lord our God; For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil: And who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned: Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.

And let us earnestly begg of Him, that he would be pleased to prevent those terrible Judge­ments and Calamities which hang over us, and which our Sins have so justly deserved should fall upon us: And that He would perfect that won­derful Deliverance which he hath begun for us, [Page 28] and establish the thing which he hath wrought: That He would bless Them whom he hath set in Authority over us; and particularly, that He would preserve the Person of the King in his present Expedition, and crown him with victory and good success.

And to our Repentance and Prayers let us add our liberal Alms, and according to the counsel gi­ven by the Prophet to Nebuchadnezzar, let us break of our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor, if so be it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity.

We are yet, blessed be God, in the full en­joyment of peace and quiet at home, and of our Religion and Civil Liberties. God hath given us two excellent Princes sitting on the Throne toge­ther, and both of the same Religion with the main Body of the Nation; and as bright Ex­amples of piety and goodness as England ever saw: And who do by all ways and means study and seek the good of the People committed to their charge.

So that if we did but know our own happiness, and how to value it, we might be the happiest People this day under Heaven: And yet for all this, we are very far from being happy; because we are neither contented, nor united; and tho [...] we have all the materials of Happiness about u [...] [Page 29] and within our reach, yet have we not the skill and wisdom to put them together.

Miserable People! that may be happy and will not: whom neither so fresh a Deliverance from so great a Danger as was just ready to have swal­lowed us up, nor the fear and apprehension of fal­ling again into the like confusion, can be a warn­ing to us from returning again unto the same fol­ly: For those odious and unhappy Names of dif­ference which some years ago sprang up among us, the Devil knows how, did seem whilst a com­mon danger threatned us, to be quite dead and buried: But no sooner was the danger over, but by a kind of miraculous infatuation, behold a sud­den Resurrection of them, with greater heats and animosities, if possible, than before: Just as it was with the Jews in the Siege of Jerusalem, when the Romans had made a wide breach and the City was furiously assaulted, the Factions then gave Truce to one another and ran in to the common de­fence; but as soon as ever the danger was a lit­tle over, they fell on afresh and prosecuted their main design of destroying one another.

And now that the danger is a little over with us also, how like a Fate upon us does it look, that we are soon alter'd from our wiser and better tem­per? Did we well and wisely before our late hap­py Revolution, when we united for our common [Page 30] defence against a common danger, and did let those unlucky Names of distinction fall, so that they seem'd to be quite extinguish'd? And can it be now wise to revive them, and to take them up again? when the same danger in some degree, and from the same implacable Enemies, still ho­vers over us? No surely, it would not be wise, if the danger were quite past and over; but when it still remains and threatens us, what greater fol­ly and infatuation can there be then still to divide and quarrel among our selves? Will nothing but sad and bitter experience be an admonition to us? Will nothing but the last necessity and extremity of things bring us to our selves and teach us wis­dom?

Methinks we should all now be glad to be at rest, after the tedious troubles and distractions, the fruitless quarrels and divisions of fifty years. So long I remember; and in all that space how very few years pass'd over us without some great Calamity and dismal Event? So that by this time one would think we should all be sick of our own follies, and so tir'd with our unprofitable feuds and dissentions, as to make both sides look about them, to see if any body will take pity on us, and step in to part our quarrels.

And now I begin to be sensible, that I have en­gag'd in a tender Point indeed; and do feel my [Page 31] self standing upon a very slippery place. For who is fit to interpose in such hot and fierce differences? who can do it without danger, or with any hopes of success? And yet for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, for Jeru­salem's sake I will not keep silence: Of so great consequence is it to the peace and happiness of this Church and Nation, that these Names and Distinctions of Parties should be laid down and abolish'd for ever.

In order whereunto I take it for granted and lay it for a Principle, that he who hopes to persuade both sides must provoke neither: And therefore I will not so much as enquire where the fault lies. It is in these Civil diffe­rences as in Family quarrels between Man and Wife, if any man ask on which side lies the fault; one may almost safely answer at a ven­ture, on both sides. It must indeed begin on one, but if it be not presently heal'd and made up, the other Party is always so civil as to run in and take a share of the fault, that all the blame may not lie wholly on one side.

And now, my Brethren, let me for once per­suade and prevail with you for your good: Let me be so happy as to say something that may sink into your hearts, and incline your minds to [Page 32] peace and good agreement with one another. Have salt in your selves, says our Blessed Saviour the great Peace-maker, and peace one with another. By Salt is meant grace and spiritual wisdom, and if that do but rule and sway in our hearts, we shall then endeavour, if it be possible, and as much▪ as in us lies, to live peaceably with all men.

And if we were but once come to this heal­ing temper, in this divided and distracted Nati­on, we should not then need to fear all the pow­er of the Enemy. And this our Enemies know full well: and therefore their chief policy and wisdom is, and ever hath been, to divide us; and it will be our own great folly and weakness if we suffer our selves to be divided: But if we could agree and hold together, then our Jerusa­lem would be as a City that is compact together, strong and impregnable.

Let us then be instructed, and know, in this our day, things which belong to our Peace, before they be hid from our eyes. And let us all earnestly endeavour and pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love her, Psal. 122. says the Psalmist, and they do not love her, that do not seek her peace and endeavour by all means to procure it: That peace may be within her walls, and pro­sperity [Page 33] within her Palaces: The one cannot be without the other; without Peace there can be no Prosperity. And to go on with the words of the Psalmist, let every one of us say, yea let us all with one heart and voice say, for our Bre­thren and Companions sake, for the sake of our Protestant Brethren all the World over, let us say, Peace be within thee: For the House of the Lord our God, for the sake of our Holy Religi­on, and of that excellent Church whereof we all are, or ought to be Members, let every one of us say, I will seek thy good.

And what greater good can we do to the best Religion, how can we better serve the in­terest of it in all parts of the World, than by being at peace and unity among our selves, here in England? upon whom the eyes of all the Protestants abroad are fixed, as the Glory of the Reformation, and the great bulwark and support of it.

That so under the Providence of Almighty God, and the conduct of two such excellent Princes as He hath now bless'd us withal: The One so brave and valiant, and Both of them so wise, so good, so religious, we may at last ar­rive at a firm establishment, and become like Mount Zion that cannot be moved; the perfe­ction [Page 34] of Beauty and Strength, and the admirati­on and joy of the whole Earth: which God of his infinite goodness grant, for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ: To whom, with thee O Fa­ther, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, dominion and power, thanksgiving and praise both now and ever, Amen.