A SERMON PREACHED AT saint Margaret's in Westminster, On Sunday the sixt of February, last, before many of the worthy members of the honourable House of Commons in this present PARLIAMENT. By John Marston Master of Arts, and Rector of the Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalen in Canterbury. Printed upon the importunity of many Auditors. LONDON, Printed by F. L. for Io. Burroughes, and Io. Frank, and are to be sold at the sign of the Golden Drag●n near the Inner Temple Gate in Fleetstreet. 1642. To the Reader. READER, IF thou be'st Courteous, thou hast here a fit object of ●hy mercy; If critical? here's work enough to make thee thine own plague as well as mine: you must adventure to your own peril if you deny me pity. Accept then a lean discourse, shuffled over hastily into the pulpit, and thence spurred on (in a full speed) unto the press: The importunity of no mean hearers, hath extorted this, and they can testify, I was almost a rebel to persuasion; But, conquered at last with the kindness, not the Cause, I now stand upon the stall to hail the passengers; And if thou be'st ihtraped to a small expense, think not that dear, which will invite thee to repent (I hope of all thy sins) at least of this, that thou laydest out this money no better: 'Tis a scribbling age, and the unhappy comfort is, imperfections could never fly abroad with less inconvenience to their author: use me Charitably and I am. Thy Servant, John Marston. A SERMON PREACHED at saint Margret's in Westminster on Sunday the Sixt of February. 1642. Joell 2. 12. and part of the 13. VERSE. Therefore also now saith the Lord, turn unto me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; And rent your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God. THE gospels glad tidings are not now in season; Something to make us sad suits these times best: I find a woe pronounced against those that laugh: Now then, hang we up our harps, and sit we down by the waters of Babylon, where we shall not choose but weep, if we but remember this our Zion. And to complete our woe, let's measure griefs, lay our calamities of England against those calamities which God here threatens against I●dea: Calamities able to fright the reader, and make him (considering them) forget his own. Such Calamities as must live, when they (for whom they were provided) are dead, for the old men must leave the story of them, as a sad legacy to their children, so we read chap. 1. ver. 2. But the news of this judgement must come first, which invades them with such horror, as makes the judgements come before they come, in the apprehension of them: And so the news was to them like the presence of our Saviour to the devils, to torment them before the time. For God under an allegory of the Locust and Canker worm, threatens a future destruction by the Invasion of the Chaldeans: A lion like Nation shall destroy their vines, and the drunkards must weep for the loss of them, ver. 5. So that now their cups must be empty, or they must fill them with their tears. The trees must be undressed, and stand naked without their bark, that so they may wither and die, and for their death the whole land mourned at the 10. verse. Nay such scarcity did succeed, that the meat and drink offerings were cut off from the house of the Lord▪ and therefore do the Priests mourn, and lie all night in sackcloth, ver. 13. And now in the second chapter, all their judgements are proclaimed by the sound of a Trumpet, nay the day is so near at hand, that the very alarum sounds, and the dism●ll day may beseen (at the Second verse) though it be only seen in this, that it cannot be seen; for a day of darkness shall it be, and gloominess, saith the Prophet. And just it is, that they in their distress should want the light, who in their prosperity (whilst they had the light) were the children of dark n●sse. Now horror invades the people, who through fear and affrightment are so transformed, that their faces gather blackness, the blackness of a Po●s-out-side (for so the Hebrew word the●e signifies) and so were mask● in the livery of their own terror, and destructions▪ all things as black as their own thoughts. ●reade of one who 〈…〉 at onceboth with enemies and darkness, d●sired. God only so much light as might serve to see himself die valiantly; He loved light well, that was so loath to die without it. But here Zion hath it not; Heaven winks at their ealamity, and draws a curtain of darkness before all her eyes: the sun, and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining ver. 10. Nay the Lord himself shall be general of the forces that come against them, and shall utter his voice before his army to encourage it, the day of his ven●ance is terrible, and who can abide it? And in this horror and distress whether shall they got? whether shall they ●●ye? their darkness cannot cover them, for the darkness is no darkness with him; all their power summoned together cannot withstand his wrath, for who can stand wh●n he is angry? There is no way to turn from these dismal and approaching evils, but by turning unto him that brings them, and that by repentance. But Quid ad nos? what's all this to us? would God it were not: do not dangers threaten us also? and such dangers that if we parallel them with these, we shall soon see they do exceed. God threatened to destroy them by their enemies, but we have been in danger to be destroyed by our friends, for what could it be less than the judgement of God upon us, that thus one Nation should rise against another, both professing the same true religion, both the dutiful Subjects of the same King, both having the same ground of quarrel to maintain Religion? will not this make riddals in the Chronicles. And truly was not the day of the Lord, the day of 〈◊〉 judgement near at hand, when these loving enemies were ready to send the messages of death to one another, in the dreadful language of the Cannon? and their distress, picture out the horror of the last day, in blood, and Fire, and vapour of smoke? And what a day of black confusion had followed, had the war proceeded? when two valiant Nations, united hitherto both in love, and religion should have been united only in the mixture of their blood; but in this respect I confess the hand of the Lord is not still stretched out, for he hath removed far from us the Northern army, and our friendship (I hope) like a fracture of a bone in our bodies, is the stronger knit, for being broken. But though that danger's vanished, a worse now succeeds it, and under the fear of that we groan more than did Judea here, for fear of the Chaldeans: if a foreign foe did threaten us, I hope we should be all united in resistance. But it is not an open enemy that now doth us this dishonour, but the serpents lie in the bosom of the kingdom, and so much are we our own enemies, that there is great cause to fear we may destroy ourselves (we read not of Zion so) and doubtless it is desperate with that state, that is ready to stab itself. For now this fortunate Island, which heretofore was like the paradise of God, where God walked not but in the cool of the day, gently dropping down our peaceful happiness (which found the neighbouring Nations work enough to admire us) sees God now in the fire, punishing us with the scorching flames of hombred divisions, our foes being chiefly those of our own househould. And do not our hearts begin to fail us for fear? and do we not (as Zion here) gather blackness? every man betraying sensibly the fear of his own confusion? Nay more, may we not fear that the Sun and moon may be darkened, and the stars may which draw their shining? that is, that the glorious light of the gospel of truth may be totally ecclipest, when as the papist on one side, and the (I cannot tell what to call them) on the other, both strive to blow out our Candle? (But Lord let death strike me blind before I see that day) So that we may now say as the voice did to the Emperor of Constantinople, when he was raising fortifications against the foe with out, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The evil is within, and why is it within? but because it is within, within us in our sins, and therefore within us by divisions amongst ourselves, which is the Emphasis of judgement and shows the world our sins in our sufferings. True it is the state hath long lain sick of a fever, and we have had more than a college of physicians in this blessed Parliament; And to assuage the heat of this distemper, they have let it blood, but discreetly in one vain only, lest it bleed to death. But oh! we are still sick at heart, and our favour increaseth whilst we are under cure, and now we find that the policy of state cannot reach our Malady, and that 'tis ou● very physician, our heavenly physician that makes us sick. Our sins, our sins have so far kindled his wrath, that unless now in his wrath he remember mercy, we may well fear our fever may end in a Consumption, (for our God is a consuming fire) and we be cons●med and brought to nothing. How long have we wished (for what we have) a Parliament? as thinking that then we should be disburdened of all our pressures: But I fear we have put to much confidence in man, and so neglected God. For, all their great care and study for the good of Zion, hath as yet brought us no perfect ease (so much hath opposition multiplied) for in what are we better (for the present) then that we Cannot well be worse; and this doubtless is the hand of heaven, to show that a decree of judgement is gone out against us; and that where God resolves to punish, in vain is the help of man. 'tis reported of the Athenians that they never demanded peace but in their mourning garments, when war lay heavy upon them, and they able to hold out no longer; And I wish we we●e not to much interessed in their unhappy property. We have stood it out with our God to the last, and have not sued for peace by repentance; let's now all put on mourning garments, and ●loath our ●erie souls in black. Let's all join in a sad Consort of lamentation, to suppress the loud clamour of our sins: And fit it is, we should not be divided in our repentance, that have been joined, and so (ill, well) agreeing in a fatal confederacy of sinning, being no way divided (in respect of sin) but in the sin of our division: 'tis my sin, and 'tis your sin, the sins of this city, and the sins of all this kingdom, the sins of the priests, and the sins of all the people, for the sins of every man are these things come upon us. And therefore as every man hath been to readily officious in the cursed projects of impiety, so let every man contribute the best of his devotion to the work of these times; summon all the force of his soul into his prayers, and so conquer danger by repenta●ce. And because my soul must ever take up Saint Paul's quorum ego primus, ever confessing that of sinners I am chief, give me leave o●t of an humble and penitent ambition, to smite my own breast first and say, God be merciful to me a Sinner. And then as a priest and Minister of the Lord, to weep here between the Porch and the Alrar and say Spare thy people o Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over us, for wherefore should they say among the people, where is now their God. Oh what a joyful sight 'twill be to all the angels of heaven, nay to God himself, to see us now rep●nting all together; to hear a whole Congregation knock at heaven gates with their tears; how will the Angels rejoice to hear us mourne● nay how forcible is the Nature of true repentance that will make God himself repent to? For if we now turn unto him, he will turn unto us and repent, and chase away all our distractions, making fair weather in the state (Now threatened with so many storms) that so we may serve him again without fear, and chronicle the heartiness of our humiliation, in that prosperity with which he will reward it. But with out this conversion, we must expect nothing but woe, and horror, and confusion, and that for want of religious fasting now, we may ere while starve for hunger: And for want of tears now, we may ere while cry to our oppressors, and not be regarded: When happily we may see o●r Children made a sacrifice to the fury of the Sword and we ourselves unhappier than they, that we died not before we saw it. The hills cannot hide us, nor can the mountains show us so much mercy as to fall upon us; or if they did, the power of him that gave so much power unto faith, as to remove mountains, shall turn up our massy Coverlids, and lay us naked to our judgement: No, no, we have no way to fly from him, but by turning to him, no way to quench his wrath, but with our tears, no way to be united among ourselves, but by renting ou● hearts asunder. The Prophet bespeaks it in the text, a●d God himself expects it, and both bespeak it Now, Now therefore faith the Lord turn unto me with all your heart. Etc In the Text are two general parts. 1 Preface: Therefore also now saith the Lord. 2 Precept: turn unto me with all your heart etc In the Preface 2 things, 1 Author, The Lord saith, 2 opportunity, Now saith th' the Lord. In the Precept 2. things, 1. Duty, actiuè, turn, Objectivè adme to me. 2. Direction, with all your heart with fasting &c. The Direction is double. 1. Extrinsical. 2. Intrinsical. The extrinsical part is considered. 1. Positively, with fasting and with weeping. 2. Privatively, not with rending your garments. Secondly intrinsical with the heart, with all the heart, with mourning, and a rent heart. Then for conclusion follows an Anacephalaiosis or summary recapitulation of the whole Text, by a pathetical ingemmination, which makes the Text a turning Text, for it goes round in a Circle and ends where it began, And turn to the Lord your God. Where we note the earnestness of the Prophet in that iteration, and have, two arguments to persuade us to turn. 1. Of justice and pour the Lord 2. Of mercy and love our God. These are the parts, and I shall prosecute them plainly, speaking to the soul no less than to the ear; And I beseech thee O God of power so to assist me with thy Spirit, that thy words in my mouth may forcibly enter the stoniest heart here, and make it yield and turn to thee: And so I begin with the first part &c. The Proclamations we receive from the King, are usually prefaced, thus, a Proclamation by the King, &c. And why so? but only to beget in all a more awful attention for the present, and a strict performance after. But a greater than the king is here. 'tis nunc dici● Dominus, now saith the Lord, and give me leave to say what the Lord himself said elsewhere, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Lord saith. Hear with his heart as well as with his ears, for the word in the Hebrew Haazjnu, and the word in the Greek {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} both signify percipite from per & Capio to take it in thoroughly, to our very hearts, for with the heart we properly perceive. And if we but remember the Author, and that 'tis a message from the King of Kings, I hope we will call up our hearts into our ears, and hear just as we must turn, with a●l our heart. Ipse dixit among the Pythagoreans begot a Catholic observance, to tell them that Pythagoras had said this or that, made it no less than Oracle: And certainly from such an au●hor as the Lord, nothing can proceed, but matter of extraordinary concernment. The phrase promiseth no less, now saith the Lord, not now the Lord spoke: For the critics put a difference between loqui and dicere: Speaking is general, and belongs to the whole community of men, that have the Organs of speech rightly disposed, but saying is more special and foretells some weighty matter to ensue. Tully in his rhetorics gives the difference, Solius est oratoris dicere, loqui autem communis vulgi: Nor hath this scaped the Graetians, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. And truly should we forget the Author of this message, the very gravity of the phrase will draw our thoughts to the subject of it. 'Tis a Proclamation of peace and pardon to all that will perform it, so that this Prophet prophesies good to us, and not evil: For now God having mustered up his judgements against Judea to take veniance for their sins, and the day of wrath near at hand, yet he will not take them in their disadvantage, but blows his Tr●mpet in Zion, excitare dormientes, to rouse up them that sleep in their sins (as saith the praef●ce to this prophecy in Saint Jerome's Bible) that so they sleep not in death. God indeed prepared the Instruments of Death, but as yet he withheld the execution; he had one thing more to do when every thing was ready, and that was to send to them to sue to him, that so he might do nothing. Strange mercy in an offended God to threaten a people with destruction, that so he may not destroy them? 'tis reported of Tamberlayne that in all his enterprises of war before the fury of the sword began, that he hung out first a white flag, to intimate that if now they would sue for mercy with submission, they might be secure from cruelty & all the sad effects of Conquest: but if upon this they yielded not, than he hung out a red flag in token of displeasure, and that he would now write the story of their disobedience in their blood; And if they yield not at that, than he hung out a black flag of defiance, to show that now nothing was to be expected but utter ruin & devastation; which truly was a merciful discretion, well worth so brave a spirit. But Juda here had the white flag last, and that displayed the greater mercy; for first God displayed his black flag, by threatening a dark and gloomy day of desolation, yet only in terrorem, to awe them to conversion: Then a red flag, to show the means of this destruction, by fatal and bloody war: and when all things were thus ready to their confusion, when hope languished, and despair grew bold; then he hung out a white flag in the offer of his grace and mercy, that if yet they would turn unto him and repent, he would cease to be angry, and that very wrath itself should consume, that was kindled to consume them. Thus God dealt with, Hezekiah, he sent him word that he should die, only that he might live; for Hezekiah repenting wept, and prayed; and than the message of his death, was the very death of that message; for Hezekia had not lived so long, if he had not been told he should die so soon. Thus God dealt with Niniveh; Jonah must prophesy that within forty days Ninive shall be destroyed, but upon their repentance the prophecy was destroyed, and not the City: and 'tis singularly observable, that 'twas the consideration and forecast of God's mercy, that begot Jonah's disobedience in flying to Tarshish, as you may see Jonah 4. verse 2. For he knew that God being merciful and slow to anger, would soon repent him of the evil, and then the message of truth from the God of truth should seem a lie, and put Jonah in hazard to the loss his of reputation, if not his life: And therefore we read, that upon God's sparing the City, Jonah was very angry, God's mercy to them, stirred up his wrath, to see how kindly God had deceived them: and in that mercy he thought the credit of a Prophet lost. Nor is God by this alteration inconstant to himself, for his resolutions of punishment, are ever ushered with condition; if not exp●est, yet understood. The rule of sinners is, that they shall perish, but this rule (as general as it is) hath an exception, for 'tis except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish; but if they repent, they are as far from perishing, as God is from Injustice. For aliud est mutare voluntatem, aliud velle mutationem, 'tis one thing to alter the will, and another thing to will an alteration, that God never doth, but this often; Mutat sententiam, non matat consilium, say the schools: So that this alteration argues no change in God, since in every thing he doth what he will, and so is constant to his will, and that will is himself. But they that repent not at the gracious messages of mercy, find a double punishment; one, for offending, another, for despising favour; and think then (I beseech you) what madness 'tis (after we have sinned) to withstand our own pardon, by Impenitence; and how fearful a thing it will then to fall into the hands of the living Lord. For if we repent not, we treasure up wrath against the day of wrath making ourselves more miserable in this that our impenitency procures our completer veniance: For God though he be merciful and long suffering and waits the leisure of our repentance by many expectations of ●onuersion yet if a man will not turn he will whet● his sword, and wound the hairy scalp of s●ch a one as goeth on still in his wickedness. And why think you is it there said that God will whet his sword where 'tis said if men will not turn, but only to show that those that refuse the offers of Grace, shall have sharper veniance, deep wounding judgements, be quite cut off, in utter ruin and confusion. B●loved, God hath dealt every way graciously with us and he hath not dealt so with every Nation, But now I confess our sins have provoked him to whet his sword, nay more his hand hath been stretched out, nor is his arm now shortened, but his hand is stretched out still, Nay more {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as the Septuagint render that place, not only extenta, but exce●sa, not only stretched out, for so it is in the least stroke of correction, (and those have not reformed us) but his hand is high, lifted up, to strike us with full force and fury. But as yet we hope there is mercy, and that we may turn away all these evils with our tears, for sprinkled with thes●, the destroying angel will pass by us: And let us consider with wonder and thankfulness, that as h●louingly invited Judeas' conversion by his Prophet; so he 〈◊〉 ours now, for Joell being dead yet speaketh, and tells you that God would fain have you turn unto him. T●e proclamations of princes, usualy threaten penalty to all that either neglect or contemn them, what then will become or those that slight the messages of heaven? 'tis as much as your souls are worth, if now knowing who it is that Commands you to turn, you should not obey him And where fore is it that God thus earnestly longs for our repentance? that he mercifully desires not our merited destrnction, that he should so thirst to show us mercy, that h●s very bowels should yearn within him; For the word in the Hebrew for mercy is Racham, an signifies and inward Commotion, and yearning of the bowels, God is in pain for want of our repentance. And why all this? doth our conversion advantage him? cannot he glorify himself as well in our Confusion? truly yes? but here appears his love to us, that all he aims at is our good, that so his mercy might make us happy, and not his justice mise●able. How ready are we to perform the devil's command, though we see damnation at the end of it? whither it be with Adam to eat forbidden fruit, & mounting the tree fall presently: whether it be with Cain to murder our Brother, and so live, for Cains life was his punishment, and a wounded Conscience is worse than death: Though▪ it be to plot mischief in a State with Achitophel, and prove cunning at last only in our own confusion; though it be with Judas to betray our Master and with Pilate to condemn him, and then presently (through despair) bid the world farewell in a halter, Though it be to deny the Holy one, to mu●ther the Lord of life, and desire the life of a murderer, though by putting out that light, we bring darkness upon our souls and contrive a curse through a general blessing, bringing his blood upon us and all our Children. We do this & more at the devil's command, & have we no obedience for the Lord of heaven? what other wages can the devil 〈…〉, than the multiplication of our torments? But God for our obedience, gives us such p●ace of conscience in this life, as no storm can d●sturb us: Prepares our souls for Glory by such daily augmentations of his Grace, as will make us love to serve him being never so well Contented, as when he Commands us; gives us such a faith, as brings heaven down into our souls, to give us earnest, that he will one day call up our souls to heaven, where, to reward our obedience he will have us live eternally with him who commands us, and in the mean time such a love and desire to him, that in Comparison of heaven, we esteem paradise but a hell, and life itself, but Martyrdom. The Angels are more excellent than we, yet are they nothing else but obedience in the very nature of their being; messengers, to go upon the employment he sends them, for are they not all ministering spirits? See then, to be obedient to God, is to live the life of angels, But oh God stooping our contemplations lower, how are we ashamed and confounded, at the obedience of Abraham, who was ready at the command of god, to slay his son, his only son, the son whom he loved, and so take a way his life, that was the joy of his own, to sacrifice Isaac to his God, and so become a religious murderer. But God lays no such harsh Commands upon us: not to sacrifice a son, but to Kill a sin, not to shed blood, but to abstain from shedding it; No horror in our services, no Cruelty in his Commands; Not to do any thing against the nature of a Compassionate heart, but to turn unto him withal our heart, Not to give him o●r children's blood, but our own tears, and those not to advantage him, but cleanse us. And as a motive to all this, I beseech you consider who 'tis that commands you, 'tis the Lord, the Lord that made you, and can confound you, the Lord that made you of clay, and can break you in pieces like a potter's vessel. The Lord who to plague you can create a Hell in your consciences in this life, and when you die (if you live but to resist his commands) will cast your soul into Hell where the worm never dies. The Angels do his will both Cito; & Celeriter: without delay when they go about it, and with the speediest dispatch when they are in the employment of it: consider then that now the Lord calls upon you to turn, and he calls upon you to turn to him, Now, and that's the next point. The second point. And next to the author, the opportunity speaks the importance of the message, he expects it Now, not any time this year, for we may die this month, and bring our years to an end now in the beginning of this; not any time this month, for we may be, benighted in our graves before the next moon gives us light; Nay, not any time this week, for this night our souls may be req●ired of us, and so we change our bed for a grave. But Now, this minute, this very moment, for we cannot promise to ourselves the enjoyment of another, and this lost, can never be recalled. Time is a thing that's lost, before we have it; and if learned men have found such difficulty to discover what time is, for Saint Augustine (a rare wit) struggleth in this question as a bird in a string, Quid est tempus? si nemo ex me quaerat, Scio, si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio. (11. Book of his confession. Chap. 14.) He knows enough to hold his peace, but not enough to speak. And if he could not give a certain definition of it, by reason of the uncertain and vicissitudinarie Nature of it, how shall we think to possess it? This Nun● of so little lasting, that 'tis lost while we speak it, how then can we be Masters of that, whose very being is not to be? Like a swift river it comes not, but to pass away. And yet so necessary is this time that measures allour actions, that Pythagoras calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the very soul of all things, but the neglect of this soul to often ensnares our soul, and so two souls perish both together. How many are overwhelmed for want of the true employment of time) with anguish, with remorsse, and sadness, when as time well employed makes a man (without arrogancy) reio●ce in the works of his own hands. This is one of the great confusions, which at this day sways the lives and actions of great men; who are so overwhelmed with the multiplicity of affairs (from morning until night) that they have leisure to think of every thing, but themselves. Others roll themselves in vain occupations, & never understand the principal business of their time which is to turn, to our angry God. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we labour in the main point, as if it were but an accessory, and take the accessories, as if they were the choicest principals. All the petty trifles which concern the ease, & accommodation of our bodies have their regularti●e, and seldom are forgotten; as to eat when we are hungry; to drink when we are thirsty; to sleep when we are weary, to sport when the jocund fi●t comes on us; we give to all th●se their time; but for the great affair of Salvation, we set apart no time; as if that were not worth the wearing out a day. God hath reserved to himself the Government of the world's great dial, Time, he alone determines the hours, and will give this commission to no man. If the sun were stayed, in the time● of Io●ua●, it was done saith Saint Chrisostome in honour to Jesus of whom this great captain was a figure: And if it reco●led ba●k● 10. Degrees in the time of Hezekiah, it was to ●ignifie the 〈◊〉 of the Incarnation, when the eternal. Word abased ●imself below the 9 Quires of Angels, and united himself with human Nature, the Tenth and last of reasonable Creatures; Time indeed went backward, when Et●rnity came into the world: but the course of Time was never stopped, unless for some special mystery of our faith. To dream then that such a change should be produced for us, to repair our Precious los●es, were such a mad folly, that whosoever thinks it, shall find his error to soon, that is, when it is to late. If a I●well be lost, i● may be found; if a house be bu●nt down, it may be re-edified, and perhaps flourish most after ruin; But (O God) why should we lose that which we can never find? Let's catch the time while the sun striketh upon our line, or we are lost for ever. Antigonus spoke wisely when he said, his was the warfare of time as well as of arms, for truly all our Christian warfare Consists but in well managing our time; then to have the breastplate of righteousness when the devil thrusts at us; then to have the Sword of the spirit when we need to resist; then to have the helmet of saluation●hen our heads are quite under water, that so we sink but to Death, not do despair, this is to suit the time well, and punctually to employ it. Gregory Nazianzen tells us ●agely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. &c. that life is an open fair for all the world to trade in, where we may barter a Vale of te●res for a paradise of joy, earth for heaven, a moment for eternity, but reason rerequires that we should come while the fair● lasts, before the shops are shut, before the tents of our bodies be pul●d down, before the Night of Death approacheth, or we lose our market: But O wretched men that we are! sin robs us of our time to prevent our repentance, & 〈◊〉 cheats us at last of heaven: One man spends his time in plotting mis●heife against another, w●●n as that time 〈◊〉 employed might have saved his ●oule: Another bestow●●●im self wholly on his pleasure, as if he would fly at heaven with his hawk, to which he seldom looks but in his sport: Do we not see Ladies, who in the morning when they should offer to God the first fruits of the day, will Consult an hour or two with their looking glass, and scarce a minute with their prayer book? as if they lou●d the shadow of their own face (which always is not the best) better then the vision of God himself: These are houses still at reparations; the face (which is the forefront of the house and next the street) must be new painted, this, or that wr●nkle in the wall new pla●stred over, to which they add so much of the tyrewoman, till at last, they are quite lost in lime and hair, and the whole fabric strewed with sweets, shows that the powder quite forgets the dust. Is this to spend the time well? Can this trifling (to call it no worse) fit us for eternity? Will not the Saints of the primitive times (who as if the day were to little, destined the nights to devotion in their vigils) will not these rise up in judgement against us, who make our whole life a trade of sin, or doing nothing. Think (I beseech you, and tremble while you think) how many damned souls are now broiling in hell fire (which the whole Ocean cannot extinguish) for the contempt and misuse of time; who, because they have ill, and vainly spent their time, are now swallowed up of the worst Eternity. And think again, what time can there be imagined for repentance (the most needful work of all) when all our life is swallowed up of impiety: And therefore, 'tis good council that one gives us! Omnia ista contemnito, quibus corpore solutus, non indigebis: Timely despise those things, in the body, of which thou hast no need out of the body: despise, and defer all other things, as unworthy the expense of a moment; but thy repentance put not off from day to day; do that Now, lest perhaps you do it never. And sure I am, that the devil hath no greater policy to circumvent us, then by benumbing of our zeal, by this hanging weights upon our souls, by the delay of our repentance: and I dare be peremptory to conclude, that more perish this way, than any other. For the devil can work on few so far, as to persuade them that they never need turn to God at all, but alas who doth he not endanger, by delaying it? Saint Augustine found this in himself, as he tells us in the Eight book of his confessions Chap. 12. For there finding the devil flattering his soul with persuasions to delay his repentance (at that time when he was most resolved to perform it) he had much strife in himself, but knowing that now the devil had no other Engine to batter his soul withal; (so much was his resolution for the main, strengthened by assisting grace) and knowing the Divill's plot by this procrastination, was only to bind him faster in the custom of his sin; Now at last, he violently breaks the snare and complaines, and cries bitterly to his God: usque quo domine, quam diu? quam diu cras, & cras? quare non modo? quare non hac hor a est finis t●rpitudinis meae? Oh my God (saith he) how long wilt thou suffer me thus? How long shall I say to morrow, to morrow? why should I not do it now? and this minute end that filthiness of life, which otherwise will betray me to a life of woe for ever. But beside the example of this godly saint, give me leave to present you with the reasons why we should Now without any delay turn to our God. First because by delaying our repentance; sin is so fortified by custom and continuance, that every day drives the nail in further, till 'tis hard to be removed, and so our conversion becomes a task of greater difficulty. again the longer we continue in our sins, the more God calls back his grace and assistance from us, so that the bank breaking which did defend us, the full streams of temptation break in, and overflow us. Thirdly, By continuance sin takes deeper rooting, and so the weed which had but little fastening before, requires more strength and violence to pluck it up: Lastly, all the good motions and inclinations of our wills, by the strength and growth of sin, are more enfeebled: That plant pines, where elder & stronger we●ds attract all the moisture: Passions grow bold, where reason dares not stir against a custom: When sin shall be fast rooted in the habit of it, when the devil shall be near to assault, and God far from assisting, O how diffi●ult will our conversion be! He that but stand● in the way of sinners, is in a posture of to unhappy constancy; he that goes on, thrives to fast in that trade which will undo him, and is never no true a proficient as when he goes backward: but if once it come to sitting in the seat of the scornful (quasi ad hoc vacans) (as Saint Augustine glosseth that place) having nothing else to do, but to sin: To sit at ease upon the stool of wickedness, and imagine mischief as a law, this is to give sin a cushion, which is loath enough to rise, from the uneasiest constancy. Saint Augustine Commenting on that miracle of Jesus, in raising Lazirus from the grave when he had been dead four days, searcheth the reason why Jesus begun that work with a Prologue of tears, why he groaned and troubled himself so much, when as he raised others with facility, without those sadd●r Prefaces; and from the Consideration of this, extracts this mortal Divinity; That there are four degrees of a sinner, corresponding to the four days of Lazarus his interment: The First is a voluntary Delectation, the second is Consent, the third is Accomplishment, the fourth is the custom and Continuance of sin; and he that hath lain out these four days in the grave of sin, buried thus, is hardly raised to life again; saith that Father. No less than a miracle can call back such a man, he must have tears, and sights, and groans; inward trouble and consternation, and when these are grown to perfection, the dead man is raised indeed. And though I will not conclude (as some have done) that Lazarus thus raised died no more; yet sure I am, that from this spiritual resurrection, no death of sin shall relapse us; and therefore Lazarus must leave off his grave clothes, and be unbound, forsaking all relations to the grave, to show that those very sins being dead that killed him, he lives by their mortality. Saint Augustine (Lib. 6. de Civit●t Dei cap. 10.) makes mention of an old Comedian (a constant actor in those comedies which the blind Idolaters of those times instituted to the honour of their false Gods) that he was so innamored of the applauses the people gave him, that playing for the Gods, he acted all as for men: but being old, and forsaken of his usual troop of auditors; he would crawl to the Capitol and feebly act his comedies before the Statues of his false Gods, doing all (as he said) then for the Gods, & nothing for men. And do we not act our parts thus, when we dedicate the first fruits of our time to our own sensuality; & give God (in whom we live) but the gleanings of our lives? Beginning then to serve God, when feeble age hath made ●s unapt for the service of sin; Never trembling in the sense of God's wrath, nor shaking in any thing but our palsy? Are we then fit to run the path of God's commandments, when we cannot go without a staff? And truly we do not unfitly to take the help of more legs to carry us out of the world, than we had to bring us into it, who by a long life have contracted a greater burden of sin upon us. Then only to cease from beholding vanity, when we have not faculty enough left to see, to frequent the house of God with deaf ears; Then only to come to hear, when with David's idols we have ears only not to hear? Not to sin because of the innab●lity of age, is impotency, not innocency; for the taint & habit of our youthful sins, remain though the act be wanting. O miserable condition of sin! never to grow old? not in Age it sel●? Never to die, whilst we live? when we can do nothing else, to be able to do that? Strange power of impotency to be able to do nothing but sin; and stranger life of sin, that lives in us only to kill us alive, and lives when we are dead in the guilt, and obligation to eternal punishment, and lives with us in Hell, to keep us everlastingly living, or dying; (for I cannot tell whether it be life or death, to live in nothing but torment, and dead to nothing else but happiness.) I beseech you think Now what will be Then, and let the thought of that Th●n, teach you how to prize the Prophets Now; for Ex hoc m●mento pendet aeternitas, the eternal Condition of your souls depends upon it. O now for the Tongue of angels to persuade you, but miserable man that I am, I check that holy ambition, knowing that to be so excellent that I cannot attain unto it; but such as I have I give unto you; and beseech you, as you value the joys of Heaven, as you dread the pains of Hell, by those souls of yours to redeem which cost Christ himself his blood, and by that precious blood, the pri●e of your soul's redemption, by the love of that God who was before all 〈◊〉 & lasting beyond all time (being the Eternity itself) to make a true use of this time Now. O let not this day pass with out some reformation; let not this day's Sun set, and the wrath of God still upon us; but draw near unto him now, so near that you may kiss the son, for if his wrath be kindled (yea but a little) Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Let me expostulate with the prophet, doth not the Su●llow and the Crane, know their time, yet poor man (for whom these were made) knows it not. Happily sometimes we feel Agrip●as ague, some motions, and groovings of repentance, but we are still at a stand for a convenient season, and so the fit goes off: (for the soul's ague (Contrary to that of the body) begins with a hot fit, and ends in a Cold:) truly though no time be amiss in respect of God, for at what time soever a sinner doth repe●t. that is the acceptable time, that is the day of salvation: yet Esaw's tears when the time was past, the Virg●ns knocking when the doors were shut, these show (what Solomon said) that there is a time for every thing, & if we lose that time, we shall weep, and knock, as foolishly as they. Opportunity is itself a favour, and 'tis a second favour to discern it, but the greatest is to lay hold fit, and from the want of these, spring the causes of our Procrastination, which is the common error of repentance, (I beseech you mark it) either our Ignorance in not discerning the time, or our Negligence, that when we do discern it, do not yet embrace it. This Christ laments with bitter tears, and of that, God himself complains, Ier 8. verse. 7. Even the stork in the air, the Turtle & the Crane, & the S●allow, observe the time of their coming, but my people knoweth not the judgement of the Lord. God useth not thus to complain but in ●reat cases, to slight his so graciously offered opportunity, he accounts no trivial matter: 'tis a point of the greatest consideration in all Christianity, else God would not have complained, nor Christ so passonatly have bemoaned Jerusalem for the loss of it, O saith he If thou hadst known that this day had been the day of thy visitation, and what then? there he breaks off the tears coming so fast, that he was forced to weep out the rest of his meaning: O those tears silently tell us what the loss of time is, for therefore did he weep then, because they wept no sooner. But methinks I hear flesh and blood begin to pleado May I not lay by the consideration of my repentance a little? I am young and healthy, and gladly would I befriend my youth with the pleasures of the world a little longer, and then I will turn to God with all my heart▪ O be not deceived; a sudden death may snatch us hence, and send the soul into the other world with all our sins upon it; and what the condition of that soul is, I dread to tell you. But suppose the best, that Death send his harbinger, & by some languishing sickness, kindly gives us warning of our departure, yet let me tell you, that infinite are the perplexities which disturb the repentance of the death bed: Our own pains will disquiet us, and make us roar for very anguish, and so to cry to God, is rather passion, than repentance: Can we be fit to turn unto God, when we can scarce turn ourselves in our beds? the thought of the poor widow we shall leave behind us, will make the soul forget her spouse and sweetest bridegroom Christ the fear of death will horribly affright us, and a trembling dread so over whelm us, that fearing to die, we think not how to die, and so loose the life of the blessed: the enemy will then raise devils in our consciences, and present our thoughts with a sad Idea of hell, and show us all the torments we have deserved; torments so intolerable, so immarcessible, that the damned soul would be glad to be but a devil, and think it a high preferment to be nothing: And to show f●ll malice in the conclusion, at our very departure, he will show us all our sins in such a shape that (despairing) we may grow mad, and die. Tell me than is this a fit time for repentance? Is the death bed a convenient Altar to offer up our bodies a living sa●rifice, and then to when we lie a-dying? O God gi●e us grace to think of this betimes; and let me add, that the conversion of our last time is seldom free, but enforced, by the fear of hell; but in that fear there is no love, and with out love, there is no hope of heaven: To fear him only for his judgements, and not as sons, is to find him a judge, and not a Father. Besides the actions of virtue performed then, are not of that value with God, as those which come to him winged with cheerfulness in our health and prospe●ity: What great mercy is it to pardon an enemy when we have no power to hurt him? or what great charity to distribute ou● goods, when we cannot keep them? Alas in this estate, Peccat●te dimiserunt, non tu illa, thy sins forsake thee, Thou dost not forsake thy sins; And let me argue the unsoundness of late repentance by the usual experience of sick men, who make prot●tations of great contrition, but restored to health, return to sin, as the dog t● his vomit, and so as they mend, grow worse. But sin I know is full of flattery; and now I call to mind the Th●ife on the cross, was not he saved the very last hour of his life, though he scarcely ever thought on God before, was not he preferred from the cross to paradise, without the trouble of more r●pentance? Vnhapily argued; but show me such another example, and sin on, till you lie a-dying; and truly that souls hardly put to it, that hath no better shift then to make that a ground of presumption, which only is a help in despair: This was a particular act of Christ as Saint Augustine notes, and so can make no general rule; if a Prince pardon one malefactor at the place of execution, a thousand others die without it: This was to display the power of Christ on the cross, then, in his greatest infirmity, that when he would not save himself from a temporal death, yet he would save him from an eternal death; 'Twas a rare thing, that a thief should confess Christ, when his nearest friends forsook him; and the reward of this, was as rare as his goodness. Truly the point is of such consequence, I know not how to leave it, and therefor● let me infer further, that this late repentance must needs be very dangerous, when as repentance at the best, withal advantages of life, is a work of the greatest difficulty; why then should we post off that to the last minute, for which all our life is to little? Converse with a soul newly loosed from ●infull slave●ie, and it will tell you, that She sailed in a calm, while she went the devil's voyage; but when once she begun to think of returning home, and leave that Sea so full of Sy●ens, than the storm arose, temptations multiplied like the Waves, every billow striving which should first devour her. And truly I have spent many thoughts upon that story of him (in the 9 of mark) possessed with a dumb, and deaf spirit; and I think it wonderfully remarkable, that the devil would neither hear, nor speak, whilst he had a quiet possession of that body, but when Christ went about to turn him out of doors (charging him to go out of him) than the mercy of Christ to the man, wrought an unpleasing miracle on the D●vills, for the deaf heard presently, and the dumb spoke, and now forced to depart, he tore and rent him, and tormented him into such a trance, tha● 〈◊〉 spectators thought him dead. 〈◊〉 hear the Wise man in this: My son, when thou 〈◊〉 come to the service of God, prepare thy soul for temptations, though perhaps we feel not the devil in us before, yet when holy resolutions come upon us, than he begins to strive and struggle presently. And would it not make one afraid to pray with David, Creat● in m●e O Lord a clean heart, (humanum dico) (I speak now after the manner of men) when as the ●ouse i● the gospel was no sooner swept, but ●ight D●●vills rushed in at once: but the Text there gives the reason, they found it empty; but if God be in thy heart; if the Trinity keep house there; we need fear no devilish intrusions. But to prosecute the point in hand, See it figured out in Pharaoh, who when he found in the Children of Israel a disposition to depart, than his boiling rage ran over in the multiplication of afflictions. If Saint Paul have a motion of the law of the spirit, presently the devil urgeth his statute law in the law of his members, to resist the law of the spirit: you see then repentance is not without strife and conflict, it stirs up war in the soul, and blessed is he who in this strife can get the victory, and I hope we shall think it a hard work ere we have done, it will be a sign we are the nearer to it. Much more might be added to this purpose; The Fathers are full of it, but I'll shut up the point with some brief collections out of the conversion of Saint Augustine in the eight book of whose confessions, 1. and 2. Chap: we find his flesh and spirit, in a dreadful conflict; God drawing on one side, the world, the flesh, and the devil pulling him back on the other: In this agony of temptation, he repairs to Simplicianus, a learned and a devout man, then to Saint Ambrose, these were his council of war in these assaults of his soul; But after consultation with these, he was more furiously encountered then before, (The devil it seems was loath to lose this great wit,) Then he retired himself to privacy, and then (Saith he) what did I not say against myself, how did I beat and whip my soul forward, to make her follow thee (O God) but like a ●ullen jade she hung back, loath to leave her old path of sin. Here ensued a grievous conflict, and then, (some truce made for a time) he goes into an Orchard, (I'll not dispute the conveniency of that place, but if Saint Augustine come off here, he will do more than Adam did.) But here all his carnal pleasure● past, begun to Court him Dimittesne nos? & a moment● issto non erimus tecum ultra in aeternum? wilt thou forsake us; and must we part with thee now for ever? And then (as the same Father tells us) the devil baited his hook with all his sinful pleasures past, (and truly 'twas doubtful but he might then have swallowed some of them) but contrary, at the thought of these, a sudden tempest of tears shrow'rd from his eyes, and whilst he was thus weeping and talking to God in deep contrition of spirit, he heard a voice from heaven, Tolle lege; Tolle lege; Take up and read. Then opening his book, the first Scripture that presented itself was that of Saint Paul Not in chambering and wantonness &c. Which hit Saint Augustine's disease right, and then denying all worldly lusts, he accomplished his final Conversion; and in exultancy of Spirit, sends forth his soul in thanksgiving: O Lord I am thy Servant, thou hast broken my bonds in sunder, let my heart and my tongue praise thee O Lord, and let my bones cry unto thee and say who is like unto thee O Lord, and say thou to me I am thy salvation. And now to sum up this: Repentance is a work of war, many assaults, st●ong resistance, It wants first council, than grace to follow it, it requires private an often conference with God by prayer, an over-ma●●ering force of zeal to spur the sluggish soul forward, a contempt of former pleasures, which will now again flatter us for entertainment. It requires ●●ouds of tears, and the voice of God to call us, (though not thus miraculously) yet by the still voice of his spirit; (and all this considered,) now tell me, whether it be so easy a thing to repent, that it should be left to the last? Whether we can retreat back to God in an hour, that have strayed fro● him all our lives? whether a few drops at the end of our days are sufficient to cleanse that soul, to whom, sin hath contributed the stains of many years? No, no; And therefore for this, shall every man that is godly make his prayer unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found, but in the great water floods they shall not come nigh t●ee. Now then (Doubtless) is our time to seek (and I pray God we be not near our time, not to find): The waters of affl●ction are risen indeed, & the fl●●ds have lift up their voice, in the sad menacings and report of war; but as yet we are not in the great water floods, the waters are not gone over us, the blood runs not down the streets, so that if yet, we cry è profundis as Jonas did, and learn of the Waves to lift up our voice in hearty devotion; the waters, (though they rise high,) shall be to us, but as the waters, of the flood to N●ahs ark, only to lift our souls nearer unto Heaven. And thus you see, I have discoursed out the First part of the Text, and have considered the author of this great matter in charge, Dicit Dominus, the Lord says it: we have observed his loving kindness, in that he invites our Conversion, and so turns to us fi●st, and that for God to spare us, upon our repentance, after a resolution of destruction, shows his mercy to us, and betrays no inconstancy in himself: and therefore we to be very ready to obey him, in a matter that so nearly concerns our souls. The second point was the opportunity of time: Now, where we considered time in't he flitting, and Vicissitudinarie Nature of it, and that we must expect no stop of time to attend the leisure of our conversion; since God never stopped the son, but to declare some great mystery▪ And therefore time being so transient, we not prodigally● to misspend, but penitently to employ it: where we noted that the greatest policy the devil hath to circumvent us, is to persuade us to delay our repentance, and in that discourse we saw how Saint Augustine discovered this stratagem in his own particular, and with what resolutions he avoided it. We have had reasons to against this delay, and seen how unsuitable it is to the Majesty of God, to offer him a lame, and a blind, and a decrepit sacrifice, in a late conversion; and here I showed, that to observe our time, was the chiefest point in all Christianity, and that the neglect of this made God compl●ine, and Jesus weep. Then we saw the disturbances that disadvantage late repentance, and answered the objection concerning the thei●e on the cross; and lastly, we saw the danger of late repentance in this, that repentance at the best, with all the advantages of life, is a work of greatest difficulty: thus much I have done, and yet we are but at the door of the text, give me leave to enter it; I'll not dwell i● it; only 〈…〉 survey of every room, and briefly paraphrase on the particulars of my second p●rt, which will prove little more than an application of my first part, and then I have done. The second general Part. Saint Origen held an opinion (upon what grounds I dispute not) that as all things flowed from God in the beginning, so all things should one day slide back again into the bosom of God, (the devil's themselves not excepted) that as at first, there was no other being but God, so at last, all things should be God again: Of this error of his I might say enough in saying nothing yet this I will; 'twere not so great a happiness for us to turn unto God, if the devils could return from damnation; neither need God, nor we, take so much care for our turning: True it is that repentance is nothing else but redire ad principia; a Circ'ling about to the point we begun at, to come as near to God as we can, to return to him by repentance, from whom we turned away by impiety. Now this term of turning, properly belongs to one that hath lost his way; Pilgrims we are all, and a false light of sin hath mislead us, 'twere madness to persist now● we know our error; it is high time to return, or we are lost for ever: The Prophet that went the way he should not met a lion in the way which soon devoured him: there is a Lion in the way indeed, and to walk that way, is but to dare our own confusion: Balaam was mad upon this way, when he beat his ass for being to slow in his Master's Destruction: an angel must come from heaven to beat him back, (so resolute we are in a wrong way) when as the very ass (as if it had more Grace than the Rider) chose rather to fall down an object of his Master's fury, then traitorously to Convey him to his danger: The ass preached to Balaam, and may to us; and teach us an unwillingness to paths of danger; and if by chance our frailties lead us thither, let us rather fall down in an humble acknowledgement, then post on to meet our misery. Our life then in the Metaphor is a way, and the end of our way is to bring us to our end; that summum bonum, which we call happiness; Adam went out of the way so son as he was in it, and we are all to like our Father, as soon as ever we are borne, we go astray saith the Prophet: The best way than will be, to have the end of our journey still in consideration, with Enoch to walk with God in the Contemplation of the place we tend to, And truly if we could do so, the Prophet might be stow his counsel where he pleased, we were well enough with out it. But wretched men that we are are! this is not our case we are in a way that leads to destruction, yet cofidently we travail on, till some twitch of conscience begin to startle us, some close and thundering passage of a Sermon pull in the reins, and we stand to consider whether we are going; some threatened woe in a Prophet shows us the pit, and we, upon the brink of it; and then, what have we to do, but that, which Lott's wife might not do? look back first, and then return. And indeed the very nature of Conversion will have it so; for it implies both a turning from, and a turning to; a turning from sin, and a turning unto God. And truly if we would but seriously consider the ugly shape of sin, how horrid it is in the apparition of it; (with devout Saint Anselm,) we should rather choose to runn● headlong into hell, then make use of sin to carry us thither: Nay that Devout soul goes further, Malim enim a peccato purus, infernum intr●re, &c. I had rather (saith he,) make hell my habitation if there no sin might approach, then enjoy Heav●n itself, if sin were there. And now fancy (with me) a soul drenched in woe, wallowing in the blood of his own murders, with volleys of oaths, and blasphemies, hanging at his lips; with un●avorie discourses, (liek jewels) at his ears, with atraducing tongue set on fire of hell; With eyes full of vanity, (or worse) with rapine at his hands, with gluttony and disgorgings about his belly, and his feet mired with all sensuality● (to show the path he treads in;) and then to make him look worse, all this veiled over with dissimulation: Would not this be a strange spectacle, would it not affright us? would we not turn away from such a sight, if there were but any way to turn? And if so, (God knows) we must run away from ourselves: and unless we run away from ourselves, we shall run from all that is God's, except his judgements, and those we cannot scape: unless we turn from ourselves by repentance, we shall turn from God by despair, and that's the worst turning. O whether then shall they be turned, that will not turn to the Lord? Truly I am loath to tell you: David will do it for me, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forg●t God. But Quo me vertam ut convertar ad te Domine? (is Saint Bernard's question) Lord, which way shall turn, that I may turn to thee? for thou art everywhere; Supra, ●n infra? ad dextram, an ad sinistram? shall I turn upward or downward? to the right hand, or to the left? All these ways we have gone from God, and therefore all these ways let us return: First let us return upward, by raising our souls from earth to heaven, esteeming all things but dross and ●ung, to those treasures which are above. Then let's tu●●e dow●ewards, by descending low into our souls, in horror and humili●tion for our sins; acknowledging it were just with God to cast us into the bottomless pit; and in expression of this humility, to 〈◊〉 with Jobe on the Dunghill; to lie with David on the earth; nay with the Primitive Christians to lie under the earth, by strowing ashes on our heads: God himself was humbled, disdain not then to walk the path that he hath trodden; we cannot turn to God better, then in his own way: Humiliare, & apprehendisti (saith Saint Bernard,) be but humbled, and thou hast him. Turn next upon the right hand, in the true use of prosperity, employ the blessings of God the right way, and if with the pr●digall we have spent our portion, let's return to our father. Specially if we have wasted our stock of Grace, nothing left, but the miserable inheritance of wanting it, and a snatch now and then with the swine (the proper punishment of our sensuality.) O then 'tis high time to return, he hath Shoes, he hath a Robe, he hath a Ring: Shoes to stay at home in, and wander this way no more; a Robe of righteousness that shall cover all our sins; a Ring, which shows our wandering hath been circular, and that we are now come in, where we went out; And by this Ring to testify that our souls are married to our Saviour for ever, never to part again. Lastly, we must turn ad sinistram, to the left hand, by a willing patience to endure afflictions: Christ was railed on, despised, spited on, and beaten, and wounded, and all for our transgressions, and shall we repine at our just punishment? Hear but Bonaventure's passion in this point; Nolo vivere sine Vulnerecumte videam vulneratum: O my god, my wounded God, as long as I see thee wounded, I ●will never live with out a wound; Crist's cross is the Christians inheritance; and therefore it is observable, that he bare it not all the way himself, but part of the way Simon carried it for him: we have, and shall keep an interest in this, to the world's end. O disturb not the joy of the Martyrs by shunning Christian sufferings; Make not the Confessors blush in heaven to behold our tergiversations. But let us march barefoot through the path that leads to Heaven, though the way be strewed with thorns; go through fire, & water; go upon the point of swords, Nay pass through hell itself, if that were the way to heaven, any thing, any thing, for Christ: and if any of us have been apt to recoil from our faith, for any fear of danger, let us now turn to him, in a willingness to endure the worst, this will be a brave Conversion, and a true testimony that we do not turn only Complementally, but Cordially without heart: And indeed the Prophet makes that the condition of our Conversion, we must turn In c●rde, with ou●heart: a corporal Conversion, will not advantage us God regards not much the outside of the platter: I doubt not Herodias charger was fair and clean without; but there was blood, & murder within it: If revenge, and malice; thirst of ruin more than reformation, lurk within our hearts, for all our cunning complying in the outside of Religion, we do but offer to God John Baptists head in a platter. In the choice of friends we desire heartinesses, let's then measure our duty to God, by our own desire, If we should unbowel ourselves, and pull out our own hearts, and give them to God a sacrifice for our sins; it were to little. But God requires a cheaper sacrifice, that we would turn to him with the affections of our heart, and shall we not do that? O yes, I know you'll say you will; and I●le put you to your trial presently: Can you first but take off your heart from the things of this world, and make your treasure in Heaven? Could you be content now (if God should require it) to sell all you have and give to the poor? would you not begin to shrug, and with the young man in the gospel g●e away sorrowful? Could you be content now to sit down and wash all your servants feet? yet Christ did it. Could you be content to kill your only son, and make a burnt offering of him, yet Abram did it; did it, in his willingness to do it, did it though he did it, not. Nay more; could you give your only son to your enemies, to your enemies to kill him, and yet that death (rightly applied) to save the murderers? yet God himself did it: Once more, could you be Crucified, and reviled, and mocked, and wounded, have your hands and your feet pierced, so that the Iron should enter into your soul, and in the midst of all this, pray heartily to your Father to forgive your tormentors? Yet Christ did it. Are you not startled now? O Lord who is sufficient for these things? I see I must descend lower. Can you pray fervently, and send your heart up to Heaven in desire of mercy? Are you sorry when you think upon your sins? and do you think upon them? Nay more, and that's less; when you find a defect of these, can you heartily wish you could perform them? If you find that you do not grieve sufficiently for your sins, can you grieve (Heartily) that you cannot grieve? Well; if but so, this is a hearty turning, and God accepts it. But here's one Condition more it must be in toto cord with all the heart, that is with all the four affections of the heart: First that we love him so, that we love nothing else but for him, Secondly that we fear him and no other, no not those that kill the body; Thirdly that we make him the joy of our hearts, and Lastly to sorrow for nothing so much, as that by sin we have displeased him. Agripp● said nothing when he said something; persuaded to be a Christian in modico (for so the Latin renders it) but Saint Paul spoke it home, in modico and in toto some what, and all together, to be as he was: To give God apart, and apart to the world, is to rent our hearts the wrong way, and so make that a fault now, which will be a virtue by and by: No no, we must avoid the very occasions of sin, like Saint John, who fled out of the bath, when he saw Corinthus in it, as if he might have been defiled in that very element that clen●'d him, this is in toto corde with all thy hart. And to testify this, the Prophet directs us further cum ieiunio to turn to him with fasting; Before, I called repentance a war, and Saint Ambrose makes this the very skirmish, Certamen nostrum ieiunium est, the hottest of our strife is our fasting: thus our Saviour fought, and was victorious: thus Elias went to heaven, nay to fast, is the very life of angels, for their meat is to do the will of their Father. Well doth the scripture call John Baptist more than a▪ Prophet, (and that's more than a man;) and why? but because he lived the life of angels by abstinence: nay he is flatly called an angel, Ecce mitto Angelum, behold I send my angel, (that is my messenger) to prepare my way before me; and what way did he prepare him? amongst others, A way in the wilderness, for there he fasted, and there Christ fasted after him: Eating came in with the creation of beasts, and so sensual a thing, it seems God thought it, that the first law did conduce to fasting; and the first sin was the breach of that Law; and we suffer for it to this hour. Adam when he had eaten was clothed with the skins of beasts (as the livery of a beastly appetite,) but John Baptist that was a man of abstinence, had only a girdle of skins about him, to show no more appetite, than what conduced to the necessity of his being: But above all; we must abstain from sin; for what will it profit us to abstain from wine, and to be drunk with rage? what will it advantage us not to eat flesh, and yet perform the lusts of the flesh? what will it profit us to forbear those things, which are sometimes lawful, if we do those things which are never lawful? The father's conclusion is good counsel, Sic ieiunemus a Cibis, ut multo magis ieiunemus a vit iis, Aug:) let us so fast from food, that we much more fast from sin. Joels' phrase is more than ordinary, sanctify a fast; no true fast then with out some sanctification, and therefore God by his Prophet Esay derides their formality, who dressed themselves in dissembled looks that so they might appear to fast. Is this your fast (saith God) to hang down your head like bulrush? to put on sackcloth and ashes? To hang down your head like a bulrush and yet still remain a stiff necked people? to clothe the body in sackcloth when as the soul is naked, not one rag of righteousness upon it? To sprinkle ourselves with ashes, when as our lust burns in a full fire? so far are we by such a fast from vanquishing the devil, that it makes us like him: To abstain from meat and not from Iniquity, is but to imitate the devil (Saith Isidore) Cui ●sea non est, sed semper adest nequitia, He eats nothing and yet is full of wickedness; Better to be stuffed with meat than sin, but the true fast will have neither. But yet there is bread which we may eat when we fast, & fast the better for eating it: David calls it panem lachrima rum Psal. 80. The bread of tears, and truly we shall turn to God the better, when in the strength of penitence, we shall do a miracle, which the devil ne'er thought to tempt Christ with, turn our very tears into bread. And why doth David call his tears his meat? They were more likely to be his drink; but only to tell us, that with these, the soul is no less nourished, than the body is with bread, our spiritual life is not better maintained, then by Lamentation. And this is it our Prophet cales for next, our return must be in Fletu with weeping: The Ancients were prodigal of their tears, Job's eyes poured them forth, David's eyes gushed out with water: And 'tis remarkable, that in the Sacred fountain tongue, the same word signifies both the eye and a well, to show that our eyes must be over●lowing spring, whose inundation (like that of Nilus,) makes the whole soil fruitful a long time after: our earth is barren without these showers, we live best, when we are drowned every day. But the Day was not sufficient for David's sorrow, the night begets sins as well as the day; and therefore David laid to rest, opens his eyes to weep, so wakeful in his penitence, that every night he washed his bed; and well he did to wash that: David had a sin of the bed, & therefore now (as with that rare emplaster, which applied to the weapon, cures the wound) he washed his bed, to cleanse himself. And we may well be prodigal of our tears, when God himself is so thrifty to treasure them in his bott●e; where (in Heaven) they shall lie desposited, as the earnest of our coming thither; and when we do arrive that place of bliss, every drop shall be as a pearl to adorn our souls. In David, we read of the waters above the heavens, and one of the Fathers (I remember) interprets those waters to be the tears of penitents; (how literal I dispute not) but by application, 'tis very proper to the point: for repentance (like that wondered Engine of Archimedes) makes water rise high, by descending: It makes a miracle (otherwise never done) it makes it rain upward: Mary Magdalen perfumed our saviour's feet more than his head: some devotion she poured out of her box, but more dropped from her eyes, and washing him, in that bath she cleansed herself. I have read of a Student in Paris, who coming to Confession, was so nothing else but sorrow at the consideration of his sins; that grief locking up his tongue, his sorrow found no passage but through his eyes; where every evil was plainly seen in watery perspectives; and this was all the language grief had left him: His Confessor seeing him stand thus speechl●sse, bid him write his Confession, which he did and presented it to his Ghostly Father; who could read in it nothing else but Miracle, for the black characters all vanished, and left the paper unstained, to Emblemise that penitence is a second innocence. Be this true, or false; sure I am, the melting soul, which hath a flood of tears for every transgression, washeth off all her stains, and appears before God (to whom alone she is bound to confess) pure and spotless. And truly 'tis a good degree of our turning unto God, that when we rise out of the mire of sin, we begin to see our own foulness, and then wash ourselves with our tears, And if Christ (who never laughed,) wept thrice, and yet had no sin of his own, how many tears need we, who often laugh, and yet do nothing else but sin? If one we love die, passion presently leaps out at our eyes, and we weep much: Alas, our souls by sin die daily, and do we not take it so heavily as to weep? Can we lose a nearer friend? To have sins past number, and so few tears, as perhaps, will not make a number? this is a strange disproportion. weep then a Sea of tears, that so the ship of your soul may sail to heaven in her own sorrow; and for our speedier arrival, let's raise ourselves a prosperous gale, and with deep and hart-breaking sighs, fill her ●ayles: But the ship of our souls is of great burden; sin hath loaded us, we draw much water, and every complexion is not fit for tears; if therefore we stick aground for want of water, we must return by flying: hence David calls for wings, and what wings are they? but the wings of a Dove, because that is the most mournful creature, and this is another quality of our conversion, it must be in planctu with mourning: strong sobs, deep groans, such inward Compunction as if our hearts were stuck with needles: All cannot weep, but all must mourn, or one day gnash their teeth: But the morning grows old, and I must hasten: If we return rightly, the heart must be rent; and not the garments; that's but Jewish madness, The sorrow of the outside, is but the outside of sorrow, the very heart of sorrow, is the sorrow of the heart; without which, we make a stage play of religion, every man seeming something else, not that which he is; and than God will not behold us; or if he do, 'twill be oculo reprobationis, not ocul● approbationis; with an eye of dislike, not of love; behold us a far off, and what is further from heaven, than hell? No, no, when God looks upon us, we must be miserable objects; our hearts are only beautiful in his sight, when they are broken: Paenitentia est quaedam dolentis vindicta: Repentance is a kind of revenge, and we do no less than stab the soul in hearty sorrow; there must be first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, indignation, wrath and anger against ourselves: then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, very revenge: think then what a holy excess necessarily concurs to true repentance, that no one word will express the Nature of it, but we are forced to make it up with many): Do de me paenas, ut ille parcat, saith Saint Aug: I punish myself, that so thou O God mayst spare me: Broken hearts are not sufficient, we must have contrite hearts, heart's ground to powder, for remorse of sin: And then here's the happiness, that turning to God th●s broken, thus bruised, he will bind us up. See Saint Orig●n lying on the floor, in the Church Porch crying out Calcate me, trample upon me all ye people, as unsavoury salt, made by sin fit for nothing but the dunghill: and truly so pitiful was the state of the primitive penitents in this kind, that (Transformed with grief) they became such aruefull spectacle, that men had not the hearts to behold them, but turned away their eyes from those, who were thus turning to the Lord: But here's the comfort, that God, will never turn away his eyes from those, that thus turn unto him; and that we may do so, we are put in mind of it now again, by the turning of the text, for the beginning of the text, is wheeled about to the end of it; And turn to the Lord your God. And that we may do so, here's two enforcing arguments, one of terror, the other of love; of terror, he is the Lord, powerful in punishing: such a stone as when he falls upon thee in the execution of his judgements, he will grind thee to powder: & make thee so miserable, and so near nothing, that thou shalt be nothing, but in misery. Then an argument of love (for he assays all means to 〈◊〉 us) he is your God: your God who created you, your God, who redeemed you, yours by all promises of favour; to refresh you, when you come laden unto him: not to despise you when you are broken hearted, not to judge you, if you judge yourselves, not to laugh at your Calamity if you timely weep for it, not to send you away empty, when you hunger and thirst after righteousness▪ if we perform our parts, he will do his: This, this is the way, to appease his wrath, for though the Prophet's phrase seem to question it, Quis scit? as it follows the text, who knoweth, if he will return and leave a blessing behind him? Yet we know that interogations of this Nature, are equivalent to affirmations, and so here's the sense, we know that he will return and have mercy upon us, and for our turning unto him with fasting, ●he will return unto us with a meat and drink offering, as it follows in our Prophet: that if we turne●nto him with weeping, he will f●●l us with fullness of joy; Not that our souls shall, or can, comprehend the joys of heaven, that were to narrow our happiness, but our souls (which is more) shall be possessed of joy; Totum gaudium non intrabit in ga●dentes, sed toti gaudentes intrabunt in g●udiu●, saith Peter Lombard out of Saint Aug: O think then what the joys of heaven are, into which the soul shall be plunged as into an Ocean, and so be devoured of happiness: here's fair invitation; he will be ours, by making us his, and we may give the state of Grace a glimp's of the state of Glory, by turning to him as he is our God, for than he will turn to us as his people, (and his indignation ceasing● (to begin our heaven) joy (in a degree) shall here on earth, descend into our souls; and we (not charioted up to heaven (with Elias) nor rapt thithe● (with Saint Paul● shall by a cheaper and easier state, wear every day a taste of happiness in our hearts. Thus, thus shall peace be settled in the kingdom; our hearts all united in the true Religion; all our fears expelled; and the voice of joy return into our dwellings: and that it may be thus; Turn● thou us O good Lord, and so shall we be turned, turned from sin unto righteousness here, and one day translated from Earth to Heaven: Even so Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen. FINIS. Errata. PAge 4. line 29. read withdraw. p. 5. l. 21. r. for what we now have. p. 6. l. 4. r. put on our. p. 10. l. 11. for yield. r. yielded. p. 11. l. 8. r. of his l. 33. r. will be then. p. 13. l. 5. for an r. And. and for And an. p. 15. l. 18. r. we think we have it. p. 20. l. 8. for no r. so. l. 32. for mortal r. moral. p. 27. l. 31. for famously r. furiously.