To help you in the work of this day, I have chosen this Text. It is the skill of a workman, not only to make good work, but fit work. A garment is not well made, though never so good, if not fit made: This hath been my care to choose a fit text. It ⟨p. 2⟩cannot be denied but that God hath done much for England, and that England hath done much against God. Now my purpose is to lay the sins of England against God in one scale, and the mercies of God to England in the other scale, and to call upon you this day to be humbled, and ashamed, and broken in heart before the Lord, that ever you should sin against such a God. There are but two ways to break a stony heart: As there are two ways to cure a stone in the bladder: either by cutting out the stone, or by dissolving it with soft medicines; So there are but two ways to cure a stony heart: either by the heart-cutting threatenings of the Law, or by the heart-melting mercies of the Gospel; I have this day chosen the latter way. I will not carry you up to Mount Eball, or Mount Sinai: But to the Mount of Blessings. And I shall labour by the heart-dissolving mercies of the Gospel to break your stony hearts: It is the duty of a Minister to follow God in his providence. When God sends judgements upon a Nation, then must we preach judgements to that Nation; But when he sends mercies, then must we preach mercy: Now God hath brought England into the school of mercy, and hath placed it in the highest form, and hath made it Captain of the school. And it is my duty to teach you what lessons you are to learn in this school. This Text holds forth one lesson, which is the proper lesson for this day, and that is, to be confounded and ashamed, that ever we should sin against such a God. I read in the second of Judges, that there came an Angel of the Lord from Gilgall, to the people of Israel in Bochim, and preached a Sermon of mercy, in which he commemorates, First Gods kindness in bringing them out of Egypt, and into Canaan; and secondly, Their unkindness in disobeying of God: And all the people when they had heard this Sermon, lifted up their voices and wept, in so much as the very place was called Bochim, that is, Weepers. This Angel was not an Angel properly so called, but a Minister, as most think: And therefore he is said to come from Gilgall, not from beaven:
To help you in the work of this day, I have chosen this Text. It is the skill of a workeman, not only to make good work, but fit worke. A garment is not well made, though never so good, if not fit made: This hath been my care to choose a fit text. It ⟨p. 2⟩cannot be denyed but that God hath done much for England, and that England hath done much against God. Now my purpose is to lay the sins of England against God in one scale, and the mercies of God to England in the other scale, and to call upon you this day to be humbled, and ashamed, and broken in heart before the Lord, that ever you should sinne against such a God. There are but two wayes to breake a stony heart: As there are two wayes to cure a stone in the bladder: either by cutting out the stone, or by dissolving it with soft medicines; So there are but two wayes to cure a stony heart: either by the heartcutting threatnings of the Law, or by the heart-melting mercies of the Gospell; I have this day chosen the latter way. I will not carry you up to Mount Eball, or Mount Sinai: But to the Mount of Blessings. And I shall labour by the heart-dissolving mercies of the Gospell to breake your stony hearts: It is the duty of a Minister to follow God in his providence. When God sends judgements upon a Nation, then must we preach judgements to that Nation; But when he sends mercies, then must we preach mercy: Now God hath brought England into the schoole of mercy, and hath placed it in the highest forme, and hath made it Captaine of the schoole. And it is my duty to teach you what lessons you are to learne in this schoole. This Text holds forth one lesson, which is the proper lesson for this day, and that is, to be confounded and ashamed, that ever we should sinne against such a God. I read in the second of Judges, that there came an Angell of the Lord from Gilgall, to the people of Israel in Bochim, and preached a Sermon of mercy, in which he commemorates, First Gods kindnesse in bringing them out of Egypt, and into Canaan; and secondly, Their unkindnesse in disobeying of God: And all the people when they had heard this Sermon, lifted up their voyces and wept, in so much as the very place was called Bochim, that is, Weepers. This Angell was not an Angell properly so called, but a Minister, as most thinke: And therefore he is said to come from Gilgall, not from beaven:
