It is time, therefore, to mourn, when we are pressed by sufferings; whether from the immediate hand of God, or mediately by the hands of men; whether by private or public calamities.

Are we smitten in our Bodies, by some painful and incurable diseases? Doth the pestilence rage in our streets? Hath God forbidden us the influence of heaven, and cursed the earth with barrenness? Hath he broken the staff of bread, and sent leanness into our souls? Hath he humbled us with the fearful casualties of fire or water? by wrecks at sea; by lightnings and tempests by land? Hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle, and destroying vermin into our barns and fields? now God tells us, it is a time

to mourn.

Are we disquieted in our Minds, by some overmastering passions of grief; for the miscarriages of children, for the secret discontents of domestical jars, for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name? Are we molested in our minds and spirits with impetuous, and no less importune than hateful temptation? now it is a time to

mourn.

Do we find in our Souls a decay and languishment of grace; a prevalence of those corruptions, which we thought abated in us? Do we find ourselves deeply soul-sick with our sinful indispositions? Shortly, do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us? now, now it is a time to mourn.

If we turn our eyes to those evils, which are cast upon us by the hands of men: Do men find themselves despoiled of their estates, restrained of their liberties, tortured in their bodies? Do they find the woeful miseries of an intestine war; killings, burnings, depopulations? Do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of our land? Now it is a time to mourn. Were these evils confined to some few persons, to some special families, they were worthy of the tears of our compassion; for it is our duty to weep with them that weep: but, where they are universal, and spread over the whole face of any nation, there cannot be found tears enough to lament them.

2. Punishments then are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning: but, to a good heart, SIN is so much greater cause of mourning, by how much a moral evil is more than a natural; and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God, is worthy of more regard than our own smart. Doth thy heart then tell thee, that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin? now is thy time to weep and mourn; as thou wouldest for thy only son; Zech. xii. 10: now it is time for thee to be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Thy soul is foul, wash and rinse it with the tears of thy repentance: go forth with Peter, and weep bitterly. Dost thou find in the place where thou livest, that sin, like some furious torrent, bears down all before it? now it is time for thee to mourn for the sins of thy people; and to say, as the holy Psalmist did, Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law; Psalm cxix. 136.

3. Lastly, as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for

our mourning, so do our DANGERS also; for fear isno less afflictive than pain: yea, I know not whether there can be a greater pain, than the expectation of imminent mischiefs. Do we therefore see extremities of judgments hovering over our heads, ready to fall down, like Sodom's fire and brimstone, from heaven upon us? now is it high time to mourn, for the anteverting of a threatened vengeance. Shortly, therefore, to sum up all that we have spoken, whether we feel evils of punishment or fear them, or be conscious of the evils of sin that have deserved them, we cannot but find it a just time to weep and mourn.

And now, to coine home close to ourselves; can any man be so wilfully blind, as not to see that all these are met together, to wring tears from us; and to call us to a solemn and universal mourning?

1. What single men SUFFER, themselves best feel; and our old word is, The wronged man writes in marble. I meddle not with particulars. Our pains of body, our losses in our estate, our domestic crosses, our wounds of spirit, as they are kept up in our own breasts, so they justly call us to private humiliations.

If we cast abroad our eyes to more public afflictions; have we not seen, that God hath let his sea loose upon us in divers parts of our land? as if, for a new judgment upon us, he would retract the old word of his decreed limitation; Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed; Job xxxviii. 11. Hath not God given us, in divers parts of our nation, a feeling touch of some of the Egyptian plagues; in the mortality of our cattle; in the unusual frequency of noisome and devouring vermin? But woe is me! all these are but flea-bites, in comparison of that destructive sword, that hath gone through the land; and sheathed itself in the bowels of hundred thousands of brethren. Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people; Jer. ix. ì. Was there ever a more fearful example of divine vengeance against any nation, than to be armed against each other to their mutual destruction? that Christian compatriots, brethren, should pour out each others' blood like water in our streets, and leave their mangled carcasses for compost in our fields? that none but the sharper sword should be left to be the arbiter of our deadly differences? that fathers and sons should so put off all natural affection, as to think it no violation of piety to cut the throats of each other? Oh, that we have lived to see the woeful havoc, that the hellish fury of war hath made, every where, in this flourishing and populous island; the flames of hostile fury rising up in our towns and cities; the devastation of our fruitful and pleasant villages; the demolition of our magnificent structures;. the spoils and ruins of those fabrics that should be sacred; in a word, this goodly land, for a great part of it, turned to a very Golgotha and Aceldama! These, these, my Brethren, if our eyes be not made of pumices, must needs fetch tears from us; and put us into a constant habit of mourning.

2. And, if our Punishments deserves thus to take up our hearts, where shall we find room enough for sufficient sorrow, for those horrible SINS, that have drawn down these heavy judgments upon

us ?

Truly, Beloved Brethren, if we were wholly resolved into tears, and if every drop were a stream, we could not weep enough for our own sins, and the sins of our people. Let every man ransack his own breast, and find out the plague of his own heart; 1 Kings viii. 38: but, for the present, let me have leave a little to lay before you, though it is no pleasing object, that common leprosy of Sin, wherewith the face of this miserable nation is overspread; whe ther in matter of Practice, or of Opinion.

(1.) For the Former; should I gather up all the complaints of the prophets, which they have taken up of old against their Israel and Judah, and apply them to this Church and Nation, you would verily think them calculated to this our meridian: as if our sins were theirs, and their reproofs ours.

What one sin can be named, in all that black bead-roll of wickedness, reckoned up by those holily querulous censors, which we must not own for ours?

Of whom do you think the prophet Isaiah speaks, when he says, Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and yur sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear; for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniqui y, your lips have spoken lies; your tongue hath muttered perverseness? Isaiah lix. 2, 3.

Of whom do ye think the prophet Micah speaks, when he says, The rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouths? Micah

vi. 12.

Do we think of epicurism and self-indulgence? Whom do we think the prophet Amos speaks of, when he says, Woe be to them, that are at ease in Zion; that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches; that drink wine in bowels, and anoint themselves with the chief ointment; but they are not grieved for the afflic tion of Joseph? Amos vi. 1, 3, 4, 6. Tell me, Brethren, was there ever more riot and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer and back-timber, than we see at this day?

Do we think of drunkenness and surfeits? Of whom do we think Isaiah speaks, when he saith, They have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way: the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink: (Indian smoke was not then known:) they are swallowed up of wine; they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision; they stumble in judgment, for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness? Isaiah xxviii. 7, 8.

Of whom doth the prophet Hosea speak, when he says, Whore dom and wine and new wine take away the heart? well may these two be put together, for they seldom go asunder. But tell me, Brethren, was there ever such abominable beastliness in this kind,

as reigns at this day, since the hedge of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was thrown open?

And, if we think good to put these and some other of their damnable society together; of whom do we think the prophet Hosea speaks, when he says, The Lord hath a controversy with the land; because there is no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood? Hos.

iv. 1, 2.

Do ye think of perjury? Of whom do ye think the same Hosea speaks, when he says, They have spoken words swearing falsely in making a covenant? Hos. x. 4.

Do we think of the violation of holy things and places? Of whom do we think the prophet Jeremiah speaks, when he says, Is this house, which is called by my Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes: behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord? Jer.

vii. 11.

I could easily tire you, if I have not done so already, with the odious parallels of our sins with Israel's. Yet, one more: do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred cailing, without any commission from God? Of whom do we think the prophet Jeremiah speaks: The prophets prophesy lies in my Name: I sent them not neither have I commanded them, nor spake unto them: They prophesy unto you a false vision, and the deceit of their own heart? Jer. xiv. 14: and again, I have not sent these prophets; yet they run: I have not spoken to them; yet they prophesied; Jer. xxiii. 21.

To what purpose should I instance in more; as I easily might: as practical atheism, falsehood, cruelty, hypocrisy, ingratitude, and, in a word, universal corruption?

O England, England, too like to thy sister Israel, in all her spiritual deformities; if not rather, to thy sister Sodom. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her; neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy; Ezek. xvi. 49. Lo, thou art as haughty as she; and hast committed all her abominations.

But that, which yet aggravates thy sin, is thy stubborn incorrigibleness, and impudence in offending. Is it not of thee, that the prophet Jeremiah speaks, This is a nation, that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction? Jer. vii. 28. For, O our God, hast thou not whipped us soundly, and drawn blood of us in abundance; yet, woe is me! what amendment hast thou found in us? what one excess have we abated? what one sin have we reformed? what one vice have we quitted? Look forth, Brethren, into the world: see if the lives of men be not more loose and lawless, their tongues more profane, their hands more heavily oppressive, their conversation more faithless, their contracts more fraudulent, their contempt of God's messengers more high, their neglect of God's ordinances more palpable, than ever it was: yea, have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an

impudence in sinning? Is it not of these, that the Prophet speaketh; Were they ashamed, when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not ashamed at all, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord? Jer. viii. 12.

By this time I suppose you see, how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practice, which have fetched down judg ments upon us.

(2.) Turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses, which we call sins of Opinion.

"Opinion," think some of you now, “alas! what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit; and in those results of our ratiocination, which we pitched upon in the cases of rel gion?” Let me tell you, Dear Christians, what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errors of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls, there is more deadly mischief and higher offence to God in them, than in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhor. These, as they are the immediate sins of our spiritual part; so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits, in his truth and holiness: and, as religion is the highest concernment of the soul; so the depravation of religion must needs be most dangerous and damnable.

It is no marvel therefore, if a truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out, to see and hear those hellish heresies and atheous paradoxes, which have poisoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented.

One beats the keys into the sword; or hangs them at the magistrate's girdle: so as he suspends religion upon the mere will and pleasure of sovereignty. One allows plurality or community of wives: another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath, upon slight occasions, and to take another. One is a Ranter: another is a Seeker: a third is a Shaker. One dares question, yea disparage the Sacred Scriptures of God: another denies the soul's immortality; a third, the body's resurrection. One spits his poison upon the Blessed Trinity: another blasphemes the Lord Jesus, and opposes the Eternity of his Godhead. One is altogether for inspirations, professing himself above the sphere of all ordinances, yea, above the blood of Christ himself. Another teaches, that the more villainy he can commit, the more holy he is; that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity; that there is no hell but remorse. To put an end to this list of blasphemies, the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears; one miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty; another, for the Holy Ghost; another, for the Lord Christ; another (a vile adulterous strumpet) for the Virgin Mary.

O God, were there ever such frenzies possessed the brains of men, as these sad times have yielded? Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men?

Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts, but have boldly vented them