Gods free mercy to England presented as a precious and powerful motive to humiliationGods free mercy to England presented as a pretious and powerfull motive to humiliation

WE are here met this day to keep a day of humiliation, to out-cry the cry of our sins by the cry of our Prayers, and tears, to wrestle with God, with our hearts, and with the devil: With God for a blessing upon England & Ireland; with our hearts, to get and keep them in a frame suitable to the work; with the devil, least he steal away the benefit of this day. Now as the ¹Wiseman saith, Who knows what a day may bring forth? Who knows what a mercy such a day as this may bring forth? Who knows what a rare success this day may have throughout all England? The Lord give a blessing unto it.

WE are here met this day to keep a day of humiliation, to out-cry the cry of our sinnes by the cry of our Prayers, and teares, to wrastle with God, with our hearts, and with the devill: With God for a blessing upon England & Ireland; with our hearts, to get and keep them in a frame sutable to the worke; with the devill, least he steale away the benefit of this day. Now as the ¹Wiseman saith, Who knowes what a day may bring forth? Who knows what a mercy such a day as this may bring forth? Who knows what a rare successe this day may have throughout all England? The Lord give a blessing unto it.

1. 1Prov. 27. 1

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: