A25467:451
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.
London: printed by J.A. for John Dunton, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 5: Quest. How ought we to bewail the Sins of the Places where we live? SERMON V.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 8 4. We ought to bewail the Sins of others according to the Proportion of the Sins of the times and places where we live. When Sin grows impudent, and hath a brazen brow, when 'tis declared as Sodom, 1and not hidden; when men are ashamed of nothing but not being impudent in sinning; when Sinners cannot blush, Jer. 6. v. 8, 12. have lost the very colour of Modesty; then is a fit Season for Gods People with Ezra, 9.6. to say, We are ashamed and blush to lift up our faces to thee our God: to bewail and blush before God for those Sins of which Sinners are not ashamed, and for which they have not a tear to shed. Further, when the Sinners of the times are obstinate and inflexible in Impiety, as Nehem. 9.16. Harden their Necks: 17. refuse to obey: 20. are disobedient and rebel, cast the Law behind their back: 29: withdraw the shoulder, and will not hear, when they make their face as an Adamant Stone. When the Wicked say, as Jer. 44. As for the Word that thou hast spoken, we will not hearken to thee, we will do whatever goes forth out of our own mouth; then is the time for the Godly to have broken and melted Hearts, when the Wicked are so Obstinate and Obdurate. Next, when Sin becomes universal, when Governors and Governed, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head are all profane and impious, Isa. 1.6. When a man cannot be found in the streets of Jerusalem, Jer. 5.1. that will stand up for God ⟨p. 111⟩and his Interest; when (as in days of Noah) all flesh hath corrupted it self, then is the time for all Gods People to mourn before God, and to oppose an holy universality to a profane. Lastly, When not ordinary, but the most horrid and gross Impieties are committed, as Murder, Sodomy, Perjury, broad-faced Adultery, when these mountainous Wickednesses are acted, then is the time for the Godly to endeavour to overtop these high towering abominations with a Flood of tears.