(a) Fudai pú

Whatever be the Import of thefe Phrafes whe ther by the mighty and terrible Hoft here spoken of, we are only to understand that warm of (a) Locusts, and other Infects, that, we are (b) before told, were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land: Or. whether under the Character of thefe, we fhall (c) with moft Interpreters, comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, which at divers times brought fuch Defolations, as we read of, upon the Jews: This is plain, that we have here the denunciation of fome Judgment worthy of God, and great as the fins and incorrigiblenefs that occafion'd

it.

tant in diebus Joel tam inaumerabilem LoFudam veniffe custarum fuper multitudinem, ut cuncta complerent, & nom fed ne vineadicam fruges, rum quidem & arborum Cortices, ramofque dimitteres,ita

ut omni virore confumpto arentes arborum ra

ni, ficca vinearum flagella remanerent. Hieron. in Joel. i. v. 6. (b) Ch. i. 4.

(c) See among the Ancients, St. Hierom. loc, cit. Drufius in Joel. i. 1. Grotius in Joel. i. 5. Theodoret in Cap.1. 4 Tès j'ev TaŬμεν ταῦ τα τροπικῶς εἰς τε Ασσύριον καὶ Βαβυλώνιον εξειλήφασι ἢ ἀληθῆ μὲ ἡγᾶμαι καὶ ταῦτα ὑπολαμβάνω ἢ καὶ τὰ καὶ τὸ ῥητὸν νούμενα τὸ ὄντι γεγενῆς. v. pl:

And now, who would not here expect the final defolation of fuch a People as this? But behold, God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy; and tho’ they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invita tions of his holy Prophets to Repentance, yet He refolves once more to try, whether they would now, at leaft in their dangers, hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Foel at once both to fet before them his Judgments, if they continu'd ftill impenitent; and to encourage them by repenting, not only

to

4

nny D,

V. 12.

to prevent their Ruine, but to affure themselves of his Favour. That though they had fo long neglected him, yet if they would (c) now even now at the last, return with a true Zeal, and a fincere Affetion to their Duty, they fhould not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance from him:

Therefore alfo now faith the Lord, Turn ye even to me, with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rent your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

It is not my intention to feek a Parallel of all this, either in the fins, or in the danger of our own Country. I would willingly hope,that neither our Guilt, nor our Incorrigibleness have been fo heinous as theirs, nor fhall any fuch deplorable Judgment as this, ever, I trust, be made the punishment of what our Iniquities have indeed but too juftly deferved. No, bleffed be God, who by a wonderful Concurrence of great and fingular Mercies, feems rather to call upon us to celebrate his Good nefs, than to deprecate his Judgments; to praise his Name in Hymns of Triumph and Eucharift, than to weep between the Porch and the Altar, in melancholy Litanies to avert his Anger, and implore his Mercy. But yet fince the Goodness, as well as Judgments of the Lord, are defigned to bring us to repentance, and that whether we look back into our own particular Actions, or confider thofe Publick and National Tranfgreffions, whereby we have fo long and loudly call'd to Hea ven for Vengeance; we muft with fhame and Indignation confefs our felves fome of the greatest of Sinners; I cannot but think, both the Solemn Oc

cafion of this Day, and the Design of my Text, to be a moft proper and feasonable Admonition to us, to turn unto the Lord our God, and to implore his Bleffing upon our prefent Enterprises, that thofe vile Infects, the Locusts and Caterpillars, that have fo barbarously confumed our Neighbours round about us; our worfe than Affyrian or Babylonian Enemies, may not be able to prevail against us.

And indeed, however it has pleased God, as at this time, to give us fome Encouragement to trust in his Mercy; yet we cannot fo foon forget that we have alfo born the punishment of our Sins. For not to repass upon the things that are at a greater diftance from us; let the Inftances still fresh in all our Memories, speak to us: What juft Apprehenfions did we but very lately lie under of our Lives, and of what is yet dearer to us than our Lives, our Liberty, and our Religion? How did our Enemies not only project our Ruin, but as if it were already accomplished, begin to fay in their hearts, nay, they began freely to speak it out to us;

Aha! So would we have it: Perfecute Pfal. lxxi. 9. them, and take them; for there is none

to deliver them.

And if now we are no longer expofed to those dangers that fo lately threatned us if God has begun, upon our late more ferious concern for Religion, and more general return to him, to give us fome Teftimony of his gracious Defignations towards us; This certainly ought to be fo far from leffening our folemn Humiliation at this time, that it fhould rather engage us to be the more forward in perfecting our Repentance, the greater Encouragement we have to hope, that it fhall be accepted at our hands. And I must now beg leave, with fo much the more Earneftnefs to enforce the Duty of my Text;

P

There

1

Therefore also now, faith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rent your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.

By how much I hope I may with the greater affurance propose to you the Promise of it for your Encouragement:

For he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindnefs, and repenteth him of the evil.

I have already pointed out to you the two great parts of my Text; and which must therefore be the Subject of my Difcourfe upon it; viz.

I. The Address of the Holy Prophet to his Countrey, and in that the Exhortation, which I am earneftly in the Name of God to recommend unto you this day;

To turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

II. The great Encouragement which he offer'd to induce them, and which ought to be of no lefs a force to ftir up all of us to a ferious and diligent performance of it:

For he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

I begin with the former of these, the Exhortation of my Text.

I. To turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

And here I prefume I fhall not need to tell you, That all this is but a larger Paraphrafe of what I may in other Words call a General and National Repentance, of thofe Publick and National Sins which had provoked God Almighty to fend down fo many Judgments upon them, and to threaten them with yet greater, if they continued ftill in their Impenitence. And indeed, what could be more reafonable, than by fuch a Solemn and Univerfal Acknowledgment both of the Evils they had committed, and of the Judgments which they deferved, and of the forrow they were now touch'd with for their Offences; to appeafe God's Anger for that General Incorrigiblenefs, by which they had fo long expofed both his Goodness and his Juftice to Contempt, among the Heathen round about him?

For however it be very certain, that all the outward pomp and folemnity of Repentance, the fafting, and the weeping, and the mourning, are at best but a form of Godliness, empty and unprofitable, unless there be also added to these that true inward change of Mind, in which alone confifts the Power of it; yet there may be fuch Circumstances and Cafes put, wherein this Duty muft pafs beyond the Heart and the Closet: And the Humiliation will be imperfect, if it be not as publickly fet forth to the Eyes of Men, as it is fincerely perform'd in the fight of God.

And fuch especially must be the Repentance for National Sins. Where Mens Tranfgreffions have been open and notorious, there their Return alfo must be no lefs Solemn and Evident; that fo the Honour

as