Sermon I
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day
r>ass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord s anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all the meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it mat/ be ye shall be hid
in, the day of the Lord s anger. ZEPH. II. 1-3.
THE first chapter is throughout spent in a most fearful denunciation and description of a speedy and universal consumption decreed against the land of Judah, with the causes of it, which the prophet yet winds up in the words I have read unto you, with a gracious exhortation to repentance, to prevent the execution of that decree.
^ Wherein consider, first, the persons to whom this exhortation is made. First of all, he speaks collectively as to the whole nation : Gather together" &c., nation, calling them to a solemn and public repentance ; which, secondly, is also to be understood as spoken particularly and distributively to every person in the nation, especially the impenitent :
< Search your selves, you not to be desired. If, thirdly, he can prevail with none of them, he then more especially turns his speech to all the godly in the land, who had repented already, which have wrought his judgments however, seek ye the Lord, &c.
Secondly, Consider the duties he exhorts them all unto, whereof, though some are more particularly spoken to the bad, some to the good, yet all concern all alike, which as they are laid down in the text, express the parts and ingredients into repentance, and order of them.
1. All collectively are to^ather solemnly together; and, 2, being gathered, to search (for so as here anon the word is also to be understood) into the sins of the nation ; so also collectively taken, which bring the judgment threatened.
_ And 2. Every particular person is particularly exhorted : 1, to search himself: Search yourselves into your own sins and estate before God; 2, to judge of yourselves as men not to be desired, that is, out of the favour of God, and to whom his wrath was due, for so God judged of you, nation not to be desired, and he speaks it to that end that they might judge so of themselves ; 3, out of the sense of this to seek the Lord, to
544 ON REPENTANCE. [SEBM. I.
seek his favour, and to pacify his wrath ; and, 4, that they might be sure
to find him, to seek righteousness also, grace as well as mercy, else they seek him in hypocrisy ; and, 5, more especially, to seek him in humility and meekness of spirit, seek meekness above all graces else ; and, 6, do all
this speedily, before the decree come forth. And in the third and last place, to stir up all to this, both good and bad, he adds motives.
First, Such as might quicken the bad : as, 1, God s patience was big with a decree, and that decree of wrath ; 2, a set day was appointed for
the birth, when it would bring forth ; 3, the child would prove the fierce
anger of the Lord ; which, 4, would consume them as chaff, and they not able to resist it.
Secondly, He adds a particular motive to the godly, that in case the day of the Lord s anger come upon the impenitent, yet if they would seek God now they should be hid in it. In handling of which particulars I have rather chosen to give you the
juice and strength of them as strained and concocted into application, and an use of exhortation, as here the prophet doth, than to spend this precious time afforded us in doctrinal discourses.
In which, if I shall be coarse and plain, and not prophesy smooth things to you, consider sackcloth becomes this day, as to pray in, so to prophesy
in, as the two witnesses are said to do, Rev. xi. 3.
Speak first, you see here, the prophet doth of, and to the whole nation
in the general ; and so I have more especial commission to do this day, wherein every particular congregation assembled is to represent and per sonate the whole, and take upon them the sins of the whole nation, to
confess them as their own, as the saints of old, Ezra and Daniel, did in all
their fasts. But more especially we, who are a nation of ourselves (gens
tor/ataj, and as a colony select and culled out of all the corners of it ; and
so our sins are as the index of all the sins of the nation, and not only so, but as the original fountain of all the distempers through the whole.
The first thing he exhorts this nation to, is to gather together ; that
is (as I have it expounded, Joel ii. 15, 16), Sanctify a fast, call a solemn
assembly, gather the people, &c. God will have public penance ere he
grants out a general pardon. And gathered together we are this day to
this very purpose, so as that exhortation would be out of date, only let us
bless the zeal and wisdom of authority, that hath thus gathered us together before the decree bring forth ; for that is the right season of this great ordinance. Preventing physic is best, and so this is here prescribed, and
so hath been taken by the saints of old. In the 9th of Ezra, when the
people had married the daughters of the nations, and the princes had been
chief in this trespass, as soon as Ezra did but hear of this sin he rent his
garment, sat down astonied, and fasted and prayed, as foreseeing a storm when such gross vapours ascended : For though yet, says he,
* we remain escaped, yet wouldst thou not be angry till thou hadst consumed us ? &c. ver. 14, 15. But to gather together, and to call a general congregation, that is not
all the prophet exhorts here the nation unto ; he calls them to a scrutiny also : Search yourselves. The original word, say all interpreters, signifies
searching as well as gathering ; and, say some, these two being conjugate
duties, the Holy Ghost therefore concludes both in a word indifferently
signifying both ; so as the word being twice repeated, they translate the
first gather, the second search. Searching, which is the beginning of wisdom
. I.] ON REPENTANCE. 545
and repentance, being the end of fasting. And besides, that the plain and
proper signification of the word bears both, so by way of metaphor it bears
both also ; for repentance, whereof searching ourselves is the beginning, is
in Scripture phrase expressed by gathering a man s mind or wits together
(that all our life perhaps before have been gadding a preferment-gathering,
learning-gathering, credit-gathering, and the like things without us), but
then to recollect and call in our thoughts, to come to ourselves, as the
prodigal s repentance is expressed, Luke xv. 17. To bethink ourselves, or bring back to our hearts, as the margin varies it in 1 Kings viii. 47,
speaking there, as here, of true repentance. So as you see every way
they agree both re et nomine.
And besides, the motive the prophet useth before and after, makes for
this interpretation, which is the only motive I will use to quicken you to
this duty at this time, ver. 12 of this former, the first chapter, I will
search Jerusalem with candles ; and how is that ? I will punish, &c. ; for
judgments are God s bloodhounds, which in the end find sin and sinners
out; as in Ps. ex. 15, Break thou the arm of the wicked : seek for his
iniquity till thou find none ; that is, till there be none of sins left
unpunished; and therefore, says the prophet, to prevent God s search, Search yourselves ; as judge yourselves, &c.
First, Into national sins ; for he speaks to them as a nation :
nation not to be desired ; let us search, I say, for if we leave any of
Rachel s idols hid in the straw, any of Achan s garments in the stuff, which we would conceal, God will come and search with candles but he will find them out. David inquired of God what national sin brought the famine, and it was found Saul s oppressing the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. xxi. 1 ; and
desperate must the condition of that nation and people be, which, though
they themselves declare their sins as Sodom, and their plague-sores run
and fester and stink in the nostrils of God and good men, yet, as those
that have the plague, they cannot endure a scourge, no, not to have them
touched with the tenderest and discreetest hand. And he that would make
too diligent an inquisition may fear to be brought into one himself, much more must that nation be near destruction and drawing home whan the
fatal and deadly sins of it are skinned and healed slightly, as by the flatter
ing prophets of old, till there be no healing, as the Spirit elsewhere speaks.
For this of ours, to search into whose sores and confess them it is that we are gathered together this day ; though it be true of us as well in regard of sins as punishments, what Isaiah spake of his in the days of Hezekiah,
From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, it is full of wounds
and bruises, and putrefying sores ; the whole head is sick, and the heart is
faint.
Yet search I intend not into the distempers of the head and nerves, of
the rulers and magistrates that give motion to the whole body ; it is not
for this assembly.
And, secondly, indeed search I need not into the outward sores of
grosser sins which break out in the body of the people ; they are all visible
enough to every man s view and conscience.
But the inward corruptions of the blood and spirits ; that is, of religion and worship of God, which is the cause of all those other distempers ;
these I rather desire you to make inquiry of.
First, Because it more properly belongs to this auditory to search into it, who are as the liver and heart, the fountain and cistern of both (for the
priest s lips are to preserve knowledge, and the people to take the law at
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546 ON KEPENTANCE. [SERM. I.
their mouths, Mai. ii. 7) ; and from ns especially have all those veins and
arteries their original, which carry and disperse all the corrupt blood and
spirits through the whole body of the nation.
And secondly, also because it is the corruption therein which our prophet doth first and principally and in a manner point out in this chapter the
first, from the 4th verse to the 7th, and so warrants me to apply what is found like to it to this nation as the object of their search, as the cause why God did not desire them, and the cause of ruin threatened.
For indeed, thirdly, nothing makes Christ to loathe a church that once
received pure religion and undefiled from him (as Jesus speaks) as pure blood and spirits, than corruption herein, as you may see by those seven
epistles of his writ since he went to heaven, Rev. 2d and 3d chapters, for this is the corruption of the vitals ; for the life lies in the blood, and if
it be restored and then kept pure, outward blains will soon shale off. Let us then view the state of religion and God s worship which this our
prophet found in Judah, and take we this discovery or direction for us to
search ours.
First, Flat and plain idolaters, ex professo, we find unpurged out of that
state ; for which God will stretch his hand at the inhabitants, to cut off them who before were not cut short, ver. 4. Which idolatry is laid open in three things.
First, In having relics of Baal, idolatrous images, altars and rites for his
worship.
Secondly, In having priests also the instruments of it, both chemarim (so called from their heat, as kamar signifies), their zeal to seduce others, and
their activeness to propagate idolatry, as expositors note. And, 2, priests, that is, ordinary chaplains in their houses.
Thirdly, Their idolatry practised in worshipping the host of heaven, and
in the night, and so in secret (for the time of it) though on tops of houses.
I shall not need bid you go search for these corruptions ; your consciences,
I dare say, have had an eye upon popish altars, crucifixes, indulgences (called
by some, as here, relics too, but of Baal) ; upon the Jesuits also more hot than ere the chemarwis ; not seducers only, but incendiaries of the state, such spirits as infiame and make everywhere the blood so hot, as they cast
nations into burning fevers, civil dissensions, and the secular priests with them ; for the purging of both which, our state wisely hath prescribed
bleeding. And their worshipping the host of heaven, the army of glorious
martyrs, and saints, and angels, and a breaden host also, no man can be
ignorant of ; for it is practised not as in the night, as with them, but as in
the day.
The second sort he instanceth in are not idolaters ex professo, but they pretended the same reformed religion, established, they swore, by God ; that is, worshipped him (for so you all know swearing by God is put to
signify), and yet swore by Malchan also, retaining correspondency with
both, and happily endeavouring to reconcile both. Search if you find not
those that do so with us, that would jumble light and darkness, by little and little bring in a twilight in opinions first, which the midnight will
certainly follow ; who to that end revive things left out by our reformers as
superstitious, and which ushered in popery at first, and who do it perhaps to symbolise and comply with popery, to make the transmutation the more
easy.
The third sort are those that were turned back from the Lord, apostates either in opinion or practice, or truth professed once and acknowledged,
SEEM. I.] ON REPENTANCE. 547
and if in opinion, then in practice; for no man is better than his judgment, many are worse ; and opinions that overthrow the practice of religion are worse than the grossest actual sins, by how much an act of treason is less than a law permitting it, or an opinion that it might be lawful. And when men are reduced to prove the first principles laid by glorious martyrs and
apostles, it is a sign of great, and high, and irrecoverable fall in some, Heb.
vi. 1, 2, ver. 4 compared. However, if we retain the opinions, yet for the practice of godliness, and as to the approbation of it, Evil men wax worse and worse. Compare but these times with the infant times of our first Reformation ; Queen Mary s fires did heat England, and the examples of the blessed men then
sealing the truth with their bloods, left behind it a general approbation of their ways, and those duties of godliness which they did profess and
practise. Spiritual preaching was then prized ; men might go far to hear sermons, and repeat them to their families and be reverenced. Men might have professed the fear of God in the utmost strictness of it, and have made conscience of their ways and not have been nicknamed ; might have
pleaded for the Sabbath, and sanctified it in the utmost strictness, spent it
wholly in heavenly exercises (as our homilies words are), and not have been accused of Judaism. But the memory of those godly men and their ways is now worn out, and a generation is come on that know not those
Josephs ; and now their brethren that worship God after the same way that
they did are cried down.
If gross sins be to be spoken against, and sinners punished, men indeed seem to strike, but it is but with a dull and a faint blow with the back of the sword ; but if but a hair be to be pared off a godly man s hand, men turn the edge and strike with all their might. And whereas drunkenness and profaneness, contempt of God and good ness, may pass and travel through the world, having neither passport of law or conscience to secure or countenance it, godliness, under the sus
picion of being a factious spy, is everywhere stopped, examined (though it have a passport of conformity to shew for itself), yea, and is sometimes whipped out of town for a renegade.
Nay, is it not, like Samson, brought up upon stages, which are often the devil s pulpits, though under another visor, to make the Philistines
sport; yea, set up as a mark to be shot at out of God s place, the pulpit, and puritanism set up as the stalking-horse to stand behind, while they shoot through the loins of it ?
Men are not only turned from the Lord (as in the prophet here), but turned against him.
The fourth and last sort that Zephaniah speaks of are those who were never of any religion, that have not sought God, nor inquired for him, but
live in this world without God, as atheists and ignorant persons, that have no knowledge, nor inquire they after any ; and civil persons, that neglect calling upon God, and regard not the holy duties wherein he is to be
sought ; Gallios that care for none of these things ; and to search for such in the kingdom were to search out trees in the wood. The whole world is full of them. Nay, rather go and run through the streets, as God bade Jeremiah, Jer. v. 1, 2, and see if you can find a man that seeks
after God, in comparison of multitudes do not, or a man who is inquisitive after him in his ordinances, as the church was in the Canticles, chap. v.
ver. 6. Nay, run through the corners of the kingdom, you may see thou sands of villages where people sit still in darkness and the shadow of
548 ON REPENTANCE. [SEEM. I.
death, and if, happily, they should seek after God, it must be by groping, as Paul says of the heathen, Acts xvii. 27 ; and indeed how should they
for, as Paul says, Eom. x. 14, How shall they call on him of whom they have not believed or known ? And how should they know and believe in him unless they have heard ? And how shall they hear without a preacher? But have they not all heard ? Yes, the sound/ as the apostle says. But to ask one question more, How should they preach unless they be sent ? I mean to their livings, and reside upon them over the souls of men, in which not men, but God, hath made them overseers. No wonder if Israel be said to be without God, if without a teaching priest, 2 Chron. xv. 2, 3 ; not a reading priest only, but a teaching, who may explain the word of life; as a schoolmaster doth not teach a scholar that only reads his lesson to him, but that also opens it. Why, then, is there a want of such ministers to instruct the people ? Is it that Christ, who,
* when he ascended, gave
gifts unto men, for the work of the ministry, and not only to convert, and to set in at first, but to build up his saints, Eph. iv. 8-12, hath yet been strait-handed towards this church of ours in dealing out gifts toymen, or not to men enough, as labourers to be thrust forth into his vineyard ? Or
is it that the chiefest fruit of Christ s ascension and main legacies left be hind him was bare reading ? None of these things can be affirmed without
undervaluing both his goodness and the power and efficacy of his ascension.
Why, then, it lies on -us, that the lights God hath set up, and are full of
fuel, oil, and lightsome matter, as learning, gifts, &c., remain cccca lumina, or not dispersed, -as your lights in your streets are in a dark night fixed in their proper candlesticks. It was one of the first works good Jehoshaphat aid, 2 Chron. xvii., .first, as to plant forces in all the cities of Judah, and
set garrisons in the land of Judah and Ephraim, which Asa his father had
taken, ver. 2. So also in the third year he sent both Levites and princes to teach through all the cities, and they went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people, ver. 9. Well, and what was the issue of this ?
< Fear fell upon all the kingdoms about, and they made no war, ver. 10. His garrisons of prie&ts teaching, and princes backing it with
authority, were a greater strength and fence to his kingdom than all his
subjects ; and they will keep a kingdom secure from invasion, for they are the chariots and horsemen of Israel, which in those days were the chief munition, as horsemen and guns are now.
And had we had that care to have fortified every village (in this plenty of able men) which our forefathers took, and wean* from popery, the souls of millions had not been left exposed to the devouring lion the devil, and the Jesuits, who are his janisaries, as they have been ; nor should we have needed to fear invasions as now we do, but should have been a terror to all round about us, as they are now to us : and had there not been auxiliary and subsidiary preachers, who have borne the heat of the day, being gra ciously admitted by authority, who had been swallowed ere now, and yet inquire if some have not cried them down, as they use to do mercenary soldiers, as dangerous unto the church, and that will prove fatal unto the inhabitants.
Neither is this all the cause of our people s not seeking God; but if men
preach, yet winnow their sermons, and see how much chaff you shall find among a few corns (it is Jeremiah s comparison, Jer. xxiii. 28). And when men sow chaff, what seed can be expected ? or what blessing by dew from
* Qu. won ? ED.
SERM. I.J ON REPENTANCE. 549
heaven to come upon it ? Or if men preach more solidly, yet still passing by the great things of the gospel, the way and signs of faith towards Christ, and repentance towards God, whish yet the great doctor of the Gentiles, Paul, makes the sum of all his sermons expressly, Acts xx. 21 ; and the reason is, because often indeed in these things (even such as was Nicodemus, who was a teacher in Israel) are yet as blind hearers as they were. Who so blind as my messenger? says God by Isaiah, whose name is yet a seer, chap. xlii. ver. 19 ; so blind, as they judge not of colours; Color om nibus wins, as he said, in the dark. And, say they, all the people are
holy, Num. xvi. 2, which sends men quick and alive in their own conceits to hell, and with the flattery of universal grace betrays them hoodwinked to destruction ; whereas that prophet, that is, God s mouth, is to sepa rate between the precious and the vile, as God spake to Jeremiah, chap, xv. ver. 19 ; which opinion, where engendered, must needs make men
regardless of seeking God, seeing they are told they are good Christians
already.
Or, lastly, if they do preach those things, yet not living answerably ; My covenant, says God, Mai. ii. 6, was with Levi whilst both the law of truth was in his mouth, and he walked with me in equity, and he then turned many to righteousness ; but they being departed out of the way, and causing many to stumble, by ill and slanderous lives, therefore I have made you contemptible and base before all the people. The clergy of England complain much of contempt. See here the cause of it, and all the riches and honour you can clothe and load yourselves with cannot vindicate men from it; but that which makes our steps beautiful and persons honour
able, is to preach the gospel, and to live accordingly. And now, my brethren, to conclude this search, if the blood and spirits in which lies the life of this kingdom shall be found, upon search, thus
corrupted and weak, and not having their due motion throughout the
whole, we may either give it for dead, or at least fear that the death and destruction (which you see in the like case throughout the chapter he so
peremptorily threatens, ver. 7, cutting off all disputes to the contrary, Hold thy peace, &c., says he, against Judah, though as then all his meek ones he had in the earth, as the text shews, were found therein) is not
far off our nation. For besides his general rule given, Jer. v. 9, Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation? God hath, and can have when he will, a people that shall bring forth more fruit than we have done ; who are also, at the best, but branches of the wild olive grafted in, Rom.
xi. 17, in the stead of this nation, the example of which I lay afore you, who were the natural ; and if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee, ver. 20. But yet God s judgments are un
searchable, and his ways past finding out, ver. 83, past tracing ; for he
keeps not always in regard of time and manner the same track of punish ment, to shew the depth of his wisdom, as he there speaks.
I have done with the nation, collectively taken. Let me now turn my speech to every particular person that hears me
this day, in the fear of a decreed destruction, as it follows in the seventh verse of the first chapter of our prophet Zephaniah
: God having in all
likelihood bidden his guests (as he there speaks), who are making them
selves ready, and in hopes have devoured us already. Let us, I say, in
the fear of this, every particular man come home to himself: Search your
selves, nation ; that is, every man apart. For indeed this duty of searching is the foundation and corner-stone of
550 ON KEPENTANCE. [SEEM. I.
true repentance. Thus Lam. iii. 40, Let us search and try our ways, and turn unto the Lord. He that is in the wrong way turns never out of it
till by inquiry he finds he is in the wrong, and therefore travellers inquire often of the way, and so should we.
Only then, in the second place, it is and must be a searching of ourselves the prophet calls you to, not to search into the common faults of kingdoms and of the state, to the end to complain of them as many do, and overlook
their own. No ; it is the prophet s complaint, Jer. viii. 6, No man repented,
saying, What have I done ? but the prodigal, when he repented, came home to himself.
Yea, thirdly, and this is most seasonable and requisite in time of common
danger, and when public fastings are enjoined, and when men are called thus to gather together, then to search ; therefore both are joined here and
< If a famine be in the land, or enemy besiegeth, what
in 1 Kings viii. 38,
prayer shall be made by any man (that is, by any man singly and apart, for you are to pray privately as well as publicly on such an occasion), which shall know every man the plague of his own heart (mark it): Then, Lord, hear, God, and forgive, and do, &c.
For, first, God hears not the prayers made till then, for the priest prayed and offered sacrifice for his own sins as for the people, Heb. v. 3.
Secondly, God forgives not till then, for God in pardoning he must have the glory of his justice which hath been provoked, and the expense of the riches of his mercy that he lays out in pardoning known and acknowledged sins. He must have a particular reckoning with every man, first, that they may know what their debt is, and what is forgiven ; that although God lose the debt, he may not lose his kindness in forgiving it.
Thirdly, Because (as there) God gives and doth to every man according to his ways, whose heart he knows ; that is, God, he searcheth your hearts, and accordingly deals with particular men in time of common judg ments according to their particular ways ; for judgments which you call common yet light upon particular persons. And as in common for national
sins, so on this and that particular person according to his particular ways ; for a consumption decreed overflows with righteousness, Isa. x. 22 ; andtherefore as, to remove it in common, national sins are to be searched into, so because it lights with righteousness on particulars, every man is to search his own personal sins, and by sweeping every man his own door the street
is cleansed, and so the judgment removed. The Ninevites (of whom Christ
says they repented at the preaching of Jonah), upon occasion of that public fast proclaimed by their prince, did not only keep a general fast and cried
mightily unto God, but that edict it is specially urged, Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, Jonah iii. 8 ; and the event was, God saw that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil, ver. 10.
If now you ask what you are to search in yourselves, I answer, into your sins and estates before God ; Search, nation not to be desired. Now it is sin alone that takes God s heart off from us, and that causeth him to have no pleasure in us.
Let every man therefore go home and commune with his own heart, unlock it, and search into all the written evidences and records of his own
conscience, which happily have not been looked into since the first writing of them ; and to help you to order those confused reckonings, give out to
every particular commandment its several bills.
Thou that hast been a swearer, think what a fearful bill the third com-
SEBM. I.] ON REPENTANCE. 551
mandment will bring in against thee, of whom God hath said that he will
not hold guiltless for taking his name in vain.
Thou that hast been a Sabbath-breaker, think what a reckoning the
fourth will bring in, concerning which God hath given thee a particular
memento, Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, in thoughts, words,
actions, which it may be thy conscience puts thee in remembrance also of, and yet thou shuttest thine eyes, as they are said to do,
* from the
Sabbath, Ezek. xxii. 26. Take heed lest God swear against thee, thou
shalt never enter into his rest, Heb. iv. 3, which, Heb. iv. 9, is called
the sabbath of the people of God, eaGZaTiapov. Think what innumerable sins of others, pupils or people entrusted to
thee, souls murdered by thy ill example or negligence to instruct them, the
sixth commandment will bring in with this foot of the account : Their
blood (their souls blood) will I require at thy hands, Ezek. iii. 18-20.
Think how many stand on the file of the seventh, how many millions of
thoughts sacrificed to speculative adultery, if not the fact itself, or man s
sin committed, which latter the apostle Paul calls, Rom. i. 24, defiling
their bodies, sv eavroTg, in or by themselves ; and Oh think how often
with this sentence at the end : The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust
to the day of judgment to be punished, especially them that walk after the
lust of uncleanness, 2 Peter ii. 10. Turn over the vast heap of thy actions, sift them, see how few faithful
prayers thou canst find amongst them, how few gracious speeches among
as many sins as sands.
Yea, unravel all thy life and untwist each action, and see how many sins
in regard of many aggravations are woven but in one.
Go down into the treasury of thy thoughts (as the Scripture calls them,
Matt. xii. 35, for the abundance of them and worth in them) ; think with
thyself if they should be melted and tried, as one day God will do every work by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 13 ; that when all the dross of covetous, proud,
adulterous, envious, blasphemous, foolish, thoughts, as Christ musters them
and calls them, Mark vii. 21, are abstracted and taken out, how little gold
there remains or thoughts of any worth ; so Solomon says, a fool s heart
is little worth, Prov. x. 20. So feel the pulse of thy desires and affections,
of all thy desires, joys, &c., see how quickly and strongly it beats to what
is evil, how dully, faintly, yea, not at all to what is good.^
Bolt and sift out the meaning and end in every affection, thought, and
action, and see how self-love, pleasure, credit, ease, is the finis arcliitee-
tonicus that sets all a-work, takes all, and pays all.
Observe what the motives and bribes to gratify self within thee are,
which thy heart takes ere it stirs to anything is good. Trace and scent out all the windings, shifts, and turnings of thy thoughts and inward discoursing to colour over evil.
Lastly, Cast up what thy receipts have been, what wit, learning, good
example of other men, light of conscience, motions of the Spirit, tastings
of the heavenly gifts, blessed ordinances and opportunities thou hast been
made partaker of; and reckon thy expenses for God, and thy trading by
these, and what thou gainedst for him by them.
And after you have done this, let the next inquiry be, in what estate you
are before God ? whether in an estate of favour, which is the thing the
prophet puts to their consideration, and search whether to be desired 0r
no ; that is, in such an estate wherein God s desire or acceptance is towards
thee, and so he speaks of the impenitent in the nation as opposed to the
552 ON REPENTANCE. [SEEM. I.
meek, in three verses, -who are in estate of desire and gracious acceptance with God : Cant. vii. 10, I am my beloved s and he is mine, and his desire is towards me; and Eph. i. 6, He hath made us graciously accepted ; so as though they have sins that make them in themselves not to be desired, yet God s desire is to them ; now that of all other is great controversy, which yet is to (be feared, whether thou art in this state of favour with God ; few scholars beat their heads about fearing to live in that estate they are afraid to die in.
Now for the decision of the controversy, rest not only in searching the church book, and there finding you are baptized ; in Mark xvi. 16, He that believes and is baptized, says Christ, he shall be saved ; but he that believes not shall be damned. Suppose he be baptized, whether think you will Christ s words prove true or no ? As in Simon Magus they did, God
putting no more difference between a Turk and unregenerate man, though baptized, than of old he did between a Jew and a heathen, Jer. ix. 26 ; the one is uncircumcised in the flesh, the other, the Jew, in the heart ; for as not circumcision, so nor by the same reason Jbaptism, doth avail aught, but a new creature in Christ, Gal. vi. 15. But search you this sacred register of heaven, which is the great inquest of life and death, where all the evidences and indictments to acquit the
godly, or condemn the wicked, lie. And there you shall find that he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, 1 Pet. iv. 1 ; therefore he that lies injmy known sin can not be saved.
There you shall find if you make credit, or preferment, or anything but God s glory, your end, you cannot believe : John v. 44, How can you be lieve whilst you seek honour one of another, and not the dory which cornea of God only?
There you shall find that flatterers and time-servers are not the servants of Christ : Gal. i. 10, If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servan of Christ.
There you shall find that he who loves not the Lord Jesus, he is
accursed, 1 Cor. xvi. 22. And, Peter, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep ; you know who said so, he that must judge you also.
There you shall find that he that hates his brother, especially when he makes conscience of sin and duty, that he hates God whom he hath not seen, who gave that law he makes conscience of, 1 John iv. 20. There you shall find that he that slights and despiseth any of God s commandments and ways appointed him to walk, shall die, Prov. xix. 16.
That he who neglects calling upon God, is a worker of iniquity, Ps.
liii. 4, for sinning will either make him leave praying, or praying leave
sinning.
Yea, and to make conscience of this not publicly only, but privately, for when a spirit of supplication is poured out, it makes men and women pray apart, as Zech. xii. from 10th verse to end compared. Yea, and if men continue not to do so constantly, and delight not in God, they are no better than hypocrites, Job xxvii. 8, with 10th verse com
pared. If a man should take the keys of your heart, and ransack your cupboards, and see what sweet bits you delight in, he should find them full of uncleanness, ease, pleasures, &c., rather than God, and communion with him in his ordinances.
And if upon this search thy estate be found by thee to be unsound in deed, and not to be desired or rested in, be not shy or afraid to judge so of
SERM. I.] ON REPENTANCE. 553
it, and to pass sentence upon thyself accordingly. For he tells them, God who is greater than your hearts doth so judge of them ; that is, think of
yourselves as God doth, tune your judgments to his. Which is so far from
putting you off from God, as it is a necessary preparation to coming into
favour with him ; for as he that is a fool must think himself one ere he can be wise, 1 Cor. iii. 18, so he that will be justified must first apprehend himself condemned : Rom. iv. 5, He that believes in him that justifies the
ungodly, his faith is imputed to him for righteousness. A man in law can
not have a sentence of pardon until he be first judged, and cast, and sen
tence passed upon him as guilty.
And therefore it is the greatest kindness can be done you by others, and
the greatest wrong you can do yourselves, for others to tell you your estate is good and blessed when it is not, or you not to be apprehensive of
the truth herein. For, Ps. vii. 11, it is said, God is angry with the wicked
every day ; if we turn not, [he] hath prepared his instruments of death. The next thing in the text is, to seek the Lord, for there is no continu
ing in that estate thou yet standest in. And thou hast no way to escape but by seeking of him and turning to him.
As that wise king in the parable, Luke xiv. 82, when by consultation he had found that the king coming against him would be too strong, he sends out an embassage and desires conditions of peace ; and so must thou from God. Send up prayers day and night as messengers for peace to the court of
heaven, and to obtain of Christ, that those great preparations made against thee be stopped; and know that God will be sought too of all those shall have peace at his hands, for he doth net cast pardons away, which cost him the blood of his Son to purchase them, he will have them prized to the
utmost. Now that we esteem little worth which is not worth the seeking
for, when it is to be had for seeking. Yea, and so unalterably God stands* upon it and looks for this, as that
though he hath engaged himself by never so faithful a promise to shew
mercy unto his church, yet as Ezek. xxxvi. 36, 37, he says, I will ; never
theless, I will be inquired for by the house of Israel for this, &c. And he looks not for this only from us, when yet his word is first passed to do it, but he looks for it from his Son Christ on our behalf, to be sought by him, who according to his Godhead is equal to his Father ; yea, and of
him, who for the performance of those things also purchased all God means to do for us ; yet he must ask, yea, in the 17th of John he asks
for his own glory he had before the world was. In Ps. ii. 8, Ask of me
the heathen, &c., which yet were his own by purchase. Much more there
fore he requires this of one that is at that distance from him, who is to him but as the chaff, and wax before the fire, and dust of the balance ; as we are creatures, and who besides are enemies to him, until he be recon
ciled to us, and we to him.
Yea, and he resolves to be sought in earnest unto, not with a faint and
* Strive to enter in, for many shall seek and
a lazy seeking. Luke xiii. 24,
not be able. If you get peace of him, you must wrestle for it ; fyrtTv, to
seek, is too low an expression ; wrestle as Jacob did all night, and with all
your might too, put to all your strength, yea, use violence, Mat. xi. 12,
* They shall seek and find me, when they seek with all their hearts.
besiege heaven with volleys of prayers and tears. Jer, xxix. 13,
And faith on his graciousness and readiness to pardon, as a foundation
of the seeking of him, is absolutely necessary ; and such a God thou, upon such seeking of him, shalt find him to be. Do not, therefore, now conceive
554 ON REPENTANCE. [SERM. I.
him to be of so harsli and furious a disposition, as that there is no dealing with him, no coming near him ; for though he be thus great a God, yet he
professeth, Isa. xxvii. 5, Fury is not in me towards one who desires to be at peace with me. And though he be thus strong, yet take hold of his strength, as there, by faith ; and then out of faith pray to him, by prayer seek to him and wrestle with him, and thou shalt have power over him, as Jacob had. Then he is gracious ; and he shall pray to him, and God will be favourable, and he shall see his face with joy, Job xxxiii. 24, 26.
If you ask, What disposition of heart, together with believing, will con duce most to overcome him ? I answer, in the third place, Seek to him in meekness, that is, lowliness and submission. As, first, acknowledging thy deservedness to be destroyed, as they, Ezek. xxxvi. 31, and thy contentedness to be so, if it may more glorify him, which, Lev. xxvi. 41, is called accepting of a man s due punishment, putting a man s self into his hands, and referring himself to him : as David, 2 Sam. xv. 26, If he says of me, says he, I have no delight in thee : behold, here am I ; let him do with me as seemeth good to him. And to be content to wait and attend
patiently, if at any time, as saith the apostle, God will be gracious to thee ; and put thy mouth in the dust. And thus God will be sought to humbly, and as a traitor guilty afore God, and obnoxious to him, Rom.
iii. 19, that so his absolute free grace may appear and be acknowledged. Ezek. xxxvi. 31, they loathe themselves, or as others read it, judge them selves worthy to be destroyed. And why ? For be it known to you, that not for your sakes I do this, that is, to pardon you ; but for his name s sake, as ver. 22 of the same chapter. And this is the greatest violence you can use ; it is a laying hold of his
strength. Indeed, it overcomes an ingenuous man ; much more God, the God of all grace and mercy. It overcame David, and it was Shimei s
policy, as the only way to deal with him, 2 Sam. xix. 20, who, when he saw David would be too hard for him, he cunningly comes and puts himself into
his hand. And so Benhadad s servants, knowing the kings of Israel to be merciful kings, advised him their master, when they saw he and they must fall into his hand, to go with ropes about their necks, testifying thereby their acknowledgment that if he would hang them up he might, 1 Kings xx. 31 ; and they came by his chariot side beseeching, and observ
ing his words that fell from him, and waited diligently to see if he would
incline to mercy ; and this overcame hard-hearted Ahab. And thus now go thou to God. Fall down upon thy knees afore him, and with a heart broken to water, acknowledge, as Shimei, thy treason and rebellions against him who never did thee hurt ; and acknowledge, with a
rope ready fitted to thy neck by thy own hands, as they Benhadad s ser vants wore ; that is, confessing that if he will hang thee up, he may. He
shall need no other judge to condemn thee than thyself, no other indictment but thine own confession ; and to shew that he needed not to send for thee and hale thee to execution, thou presentest thyself to him. Tell him that he may shew his justice on thee, if he will ; and present thy naked
breast, thy hateful soul, as a butt and mark for him, if he please, to shoot his arrows into, and sheathe his sword in. Only desire him to remember that he sheathed his sword first in the bowels of his Son, Zech. xiii. 7, when he made his soul an offering for sin.
Take words unto thyself, as Hosea bids, chap. xiv. 2 (he loves to be
entreated). That if his end be, that his justice should be satisfied on thee, say, that his Son hath done it, and that more fully than thou ever shalt, ij-
SERM. L] ON REPENTANCE." 555
thou go presently to hell. He may cast thee into prison ; but say, thou
art not able ever to pay the debt : so as he may, if he please, lose nothing
by thee if he saves thee. Nay, he shall advance the gloryt of his grace in
one that will be ever thankful, and is already sorry for offending him.
Plead for thyself, it is for thy life, that what shall he do in damning of
: Job xiii. 25,
thee, but break a leaf that is broken already, as Job pleads
Pursue dry stubble, as there ; chaff, as here in the text. Say, thou
art not a fit match for him to shew his power in.
Urge him, that there are few in the world that do seek him, and if he
turn away those that do, he shall have fewer. Who would fear him, if
there were not mercy with him. Soft words pacify wrath, Prov. xv. 1, and
soft tongues break the bones ; and so a meekened spirit, a heart of rocks ; much more his who hath bowels of compassion in him.
says remember him still, my bowels are troubled for him. Every groan went
to the heart of him ; if he should have damned him, it would have troubled
him all his days.
But withal, you must be sure (which is the fourth) to seek righteous
ness : both of justification, God s righteousness, as David often calls it ;
Christ s righteousness, the Lord our righteousness, as the prophet. A
righteousness out of thyself, and laid hold upon by faith, as Rom. 3d,
4th, and 5th chapters, you have urged as being witnessed unto both by the
law and the prophets. And truly, that is God s strength, whereby his
heart is strengthened to forgive and receive sinners. So in Isa. liii. 1, To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? that is, Christ, of whom ho
speaks throughout that chapter. This righteousness, when revealed by an
interpreter, Job xxxiii. 23, to a poor soul, and sought by him, and pleaded
by him, then God is gracious to him, and says, Deliver him, for I have
found a ransom, which this soul seeks me in ; for he will render ^unto man his righteousness which belongs to him, and was wrought for him to
justify him.
Secondly, Of sanctification : For, I say, the work of righteousness is
peace. For, so long as thy sins remain, how can there be peace ? And
< forsake his
Isa. Iv. 6, Seek ye the Lord, &c., but let the wicked man
way ; that is, change his outward converse and course ; and the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, that is, get his heart changed also to have new
desires, purposes, ends, and affections, and he will have mercy upon him.
And get a righteousness contrary unto thy former ways and thoughts; which if you ask, what that true righteousness is ? I answer, 1, that true
and new righteousness in thy heart thou must seek, is a new bent, bias, and
temper of heart, rightly disposing, swaying all the faculties and powers of
it, to hate whatsoever is known or suspected to be a sin ; and, on the con
trary, inclining them to love and delight in those contrary ways of holiness
and righteousness God hath chalked out in his word, and all this for God s
cause; hating the sin, because he hates it; loving the righteousness,
because he loves it. This is that which in your hearts is required ; and
therefore to seek it. Secondly, in life, is to endeavour to the utmost of a
man s strength to yield a constant obedience to all God s commands, and
avoid the contrary. To seek after and delight in nothing more than when
thou canst avoid sin, and do what is acceptable and pleasing m God s
sight ; and to approve thy heart to him, and grieving for nothing more
556 ON REPENTANCE. [SERM. I.
than failing and falling short in what thou aimest at, and purposest, still having it in thy eye, resting in no pitch or measure of obedience.
And without this, with what face canst thou seek pardon at his hand ? For what honesty or equity is there that thou shouldst seek the pardon of thy sin, and yet live in it, or not part with it in thy full resolutions ? And then how canst thou open thy mouth to ask at God s hands ; or, how to desire the benefit of that all-sufficient righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover thee, and not conform to thy utmost endeavour to be righteous, as he is righteous, as John speaks, 1 John iii. 7, purging thyself, as he is
pure, ver. 7, that is, with all thy might and endeavours after it. In Luke
viii. 15, the good ground is said to have and to bring forth fruit out of
1 an honest heart; and so must thou have.
Or, secondly, if thou hadst the face to seek him, neglecting this, dost think that God would ever pardon thee ? Would a king pardon a traitor, though he sued never so humbly, if he saw he would be a traitor still ? Thou wouldst not pardon no man in like case thyself.
If you plead, God hath more mercy in him than is in a man, for his thoughts are not our thoughts, &c., Isa. Iv. 8. I answer, Yet still where he expresseth himself most merciful, as in Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, he adds at
last, yet by no means clearing^ guilty -hearted person, that hath a false and disloyal heart towards him, and will not be subject to him in all things, and be content to have every thought brought to obedience.
And the reason is, because, first, there is mercy only with him that he may be feared, Ps. cxxx. 4. Now if he should suffer pardon to go out of his hand, and no change in men s hearts to fear and obey him, there were mercy with him to be contemned.
And, secondly, you must know that God s mercy is joined with wisdom also ; for one attribute destroys not another ; but to pity a rogue that con tinues so, it is foolish pity. God forbids it in us, and therefore will not
practise it himself.
Now, till thou turnest from sin, and choosest the things that please him, he will not delight in thee : Isa. Ivi. 5, For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant : even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters, &c. He instanceth in Sabbath, because that day, if sanctified as it ought, in thought, speeches, and actions, is the darling and delight of the Lord, Isa. Iviii. 14. Now if thou makest it thy darling day too, and such a day as this of fasting and prayer, or of those ordinances which in his word he manifests his heart is for, if thine be for them also, prayer, holy con
ference, &c., then he comes to delight in thee, as there, and otherwise not ; for can two walk together as friends (says the prophet), and not agree ?
hating what he discovers he hates, &c.
Therefore, resolve either to leave every known sin, and submit to every known duty ; or else never look to find favour and mercy from God. Now the last clause and condition the prophet puts in, is to do before the decree come forth. There is a space, as Solomon observes, Eccles.
viii. 11, between sentence or decree, and the execution of it; and that time is space to repent: Rev. ii. 21, I gave her space to repent. Now what and when God will decree against thee, and serve an execution upon thee, thou knowest not ; and thou dost not know what decree is bringing forth, as they know not what is in the womb till it be born : Prov. xxvii. 1, Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, so as thou neither know-
SERM. I.j ON EEPENTANCE. 557
est what nor when an execution may be served upon thee ; he may serve an execution of death ere to-morrow ; as upon him, thou fool, this night; death s Serjeants may arrest thee, and bring thee before
(the judge ; and therefore take our Saviour s counsel, given in the like case : Mat. v. 25, Agree with thine adversary whilst thou are in the way, lest at any timo he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and he cast thee into prison. And how near this Serjeant from God is thou knowest not. James tells thee, James v. 9, Behold the judge is at the door, and then his officer death is not far off.
But if God should spare thee yet, and let thee live, yet in the mean time an execution of hardness of heart and blindness of mind may be served on thee, as on the Pharisees : John xii. 40,
< He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted. If not so, yet, which 13 all one, a decree [may] pass against thee, that thou shalt never have a pardon granted, though thou shouldst sue for it ; as against Esau, who, Heb. xii., neglecting his birthright, though he sought to revoke it with
tears, he could not ; and against the Israelites in the wilderness, against whom God swore they should never enter into his rest, though they lived many years after.
But the most fearful execution of all the rest, which all these tend to, is yet behind ; you have it in the text,
< the anger and wrath of the almighty God ; that is, the child which in his decree is conceiving, and is already quickened. Ps. vii. 11, God is angry with the wicked every day. This child strives in his heart every moment, so as he is ready every day to fall in travail, only because this child must have a time fully to be come to its growth, ^therefore he forbears ; yet so as in the mean while he is a-preparing his instruments of death (as there) /or the execution of his anger, when his anger shall be brought forth.
And to that end there is a day appointed,
< the day of the Lord s anger, in^the text, which though thou knowest not, yet Ps. xxxvii. 13, God sees this day a-coming. A birth when God s decrees bring forth anger, and thy sin brings
^ forth death, James i. 15, and that then when thou least dreamest of it, For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape, 1 Thes. v. 3. Yea, and it shall be the fierce anger of the Lord also, the longer the child goes in the womb, the bigger. Fierce, because without mercy, James ii. ] 3. Judgment without mercy, called also
< pure wrath without mixture, because not a drop of mercy to moderate the fierceness of it.
And what art thou this fierce wrath shall cease on ? Thou art but chaff, Nahum i. 3. His anger is a whirlwind ; a small ordinary blast scatters chaff away,^ much more a whirlwind. There is no resistance, and if thou couldst resist the whirlwind, yet there it is said to be
< poured out as fire, which therefore must needs consume thee ; and if it rend the rocks, melt the hills, burn the earth, ver. 5, 6, how much more chaff? Who can can stand before his indignation, who can abide the fierceness of his wrath ?
I should now, in the last place, speak to those that are already truly turned to God, the meek of the earth. And herein the prophet seems to act as one out of hope to prevail with the.impenitent; yet seek you, says he, as when that great sin was committed, Ezra ix., though others were regard less of the danger would follow, yet every one that feared the Lord assembled to him, to pray and seek God, ver. 4.
558 ON REPENTANCE. [&ERM. I.
Thus here doth the prophet speak to the godly amongst them, seek
you; as if he had said, Though others do (according to their kind) go on
in hardness of heart, to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath (for merly spoken of by him), yet you, who are, and profess yourselves, the meek of the earth (which is the general title given the saints in the Old Testament style, and imports all the whole of religion), upon whose hearts
the word useth to take impression, do you according to your kind, take and receive this word of exhortation with meekness. Which is,
First, To seek your God, for so in dangerous times he expects you should, and wonders if you do not; so Isa. lix. 16, he wondered there was no
intercessor (it was in evil times, as appears by the former verses). God
wonders not that wicked men should be so bad, but that his people should
be so negligent. What ! (says he) have I no children on the earth, that
upon such occasions, and such threatenings, use to intercede with me for
the nation they live in ! Where are my Noahs and Daniels ? We wonder
at things their not doing according to their kind, as when we see the sun
stand still, or fire not to burn, &c.
And, secondly, you are to seek righteousness and meekness, as thereby to condemn and be witnesses against the wicked for God, when judgments come and condemn the rest (as Noah did by fearing God aforehand, Heb.
xi. 7), as also to save your own souls ; for as nothing but an ark saved
Noah, so nothing but righteousness can save you, Ezek. xiv. 14; if Noah,
&c., be saved, it is by their own righteousness. If you say you have done it already, that answer will not be taken, for
God, though he acknowledged they had wrought his judgment, yet exhorts them the more unto it against such a time as this, when to be saved when
the judgment should come would be so great a mercy, to have their lives
for a prey in such dear years of life ; though God forgat not what they had
done, ye that have, &c., says he, forget what was past, and seek after
righteousness afresh, as if you had never yet sought any.
And to quicken them to it, he tells them, ye shall be filled, * that is, when God comes to burn up the chaff; yet then he will save his wheat, for
he will preserve seed-corn to sow the world withal after harvest.
And if it should be asked how it is possible that they should be hid
whilst the judgment is in general, consider he hath many chambers of his
providence, as Isa. xxvi. 20, Come, my people, enter into thy chambers, and hide yourselves till my wrath overflows the earth ; then, when others
shall have nowhere to hide their heads, but shall wish the rocks to cover
them, ye shall be hid.
Yea, but you will say, this is but half a promise here, and it may be. But now, I had rather have God s it may be, than that and it shall be, from
all the kings of the earth. God loves to speak with the least, and do with
the most, to be better than his word, who is abundant in kindness and
truth. Now it is not put to shew any uncertainty (see Junius on this
place), it is put in a case of a certain promise, and yet withal to shew some
difficulty in the performance of it, as when Peter says, the righteous shall
scarcely be saved.
And last of all, lest any of his saints should through discouragement or
otherwise be slack, as either to think that for their weakness their prayers would do no good, nor prevail with God to remember them in the evil day,
or that many particular persons should deem that there are enough besides
* Qu. hid ? ED.
SEEM. II.] ON REPENTANCE. 559
them to seek God, and they need do the less, he therefore bids them all : Seek the Lord all ye meek.
And God hath chambers enough to hide you all in, and it must be your own righteousness must prevail for you, Ezra xiv. 14; and besides, he hath need of all your voices ; as in elections or great canvasses a voice casts a matter this way or that, so in the great business of the church ; therefore, Isa. xxxvii., when the children are come to the birth, and there was no strength to bring forth, Hezekiah goes a visiting for another voice, sends to Isaiah the prophet, as to a man-midwife, to come and help. But you will say he was^a prophet, a great saint; know that God often stands upon a number, ten in Sodom, reckoning and counting small and great. The number would have cast it, if of persons righteous. How many ten thousand in England by proportion to this number for Sodom are there we know not ; now Europe is a-bringing forth, and so the parliament, and yet they have no strength, therefore come all to help ; it was never known that when all the lower house on earth did all petition to God, but they prevailed. If two agree on earth, says Christ, then much more when all. I will conclude all with that in the 3d chapter of this prophecy, vcr. 9. God being determined to pour his anger on all the earth, as now it may be he hath begun to do, yet he meaning to spare his own in those general cala mities, he says, that he will turn to them in peace, and they shall all call on him and serve him with one shoulder ; so say I, lift up prayers with pure hands and lips, and do it all of you, and all with one consent, and God will visit you in mercies when he is in
tthe way of his judgments. And so let us do again this day.