Secondly, Why is this the most seasonable duty ?
1. Because the main party with whom we have to do is God. He is at the upper end of causes, and his hand and counsel is in all things ; and all the evil that befalleth us is the fruit of God's anger. Then, get his favour, and you stop danger at the fountain-head. If God be reconciled, and made a friend to us in Christ, you need not fear man's enmity. Either it shall be assuaged — (Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.'
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God hath the hearts of men in his own hand. When two states are at war, the husiness is not to seek the favour of common soldiers, but those that do employ them. The next way to get in with men is to get in with God) — or else, if it continue, it can do you no harm : you need not fear the sword when you do not fear him that weareth the sword.
2. It will either prevent the danger, or mitigate it, or get it sanctified. It may prevent the danger. When he is about to strike, he would fain be prevented. He often reverseth his sentence : Jer. xviii. 8, ' If that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.' Or mitigate the danger, especially to your own persons ; you may be hid. In tem- poral things, God leaveth us at an uncertainty, and keepeth us in sus- pense, that we may use the means more earnestly, referring the event to him. Mourners in Sion have a mark of preservation. Or else get it sanctified, which is a great comfort, either to better our hearts, or hasten our glory. He is at peace with God : Isa. iii. 10, ' Say to the righteous. It shall be well with them,' whatever falleth out in the world : Cant. iv. 16, 'Awake, 0 north-wind, and come, thou south, and blow upon my garden,' &c. Out of what corner soever the wind bloweth, the cold north or sultry south. If we could make a good company of mourners, the judgment maybe prevented: Zeph. ii. 1, 2, 'Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, 0 nation not desired, before the decree bring forth,' &c. God's decree is not taken for his secret counsel, but his public sentence : if the nation could be got to gather themselves together. Sincere humiliation in secret is not enough in God's account, but there must be a public profession of repentance, that all may concur to queuch that fire which their sins have kindled, every one bringing tlieir bucket. If only a few set about it, it will do no good. But if that cannot be, yet the judgment may be mitigated ; you may escape common judgment : Ezek. ix. 4, 'Set a mark on them that sigh.' God can make a distinction ; it is an art that he is versed in : 2 Peter ii. 9, ' The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.' If not so, yet the judgment may be sanctified to you, however things go, Isa. iii. 10, ' Say you to the righteous. It shall be well with him.' It is possible a green stick may burn for company when the dry are kindled ; but it is sanctified to better your hearts, and hasten glory. It is possible they may perish in the common burning, but their eternal happiness is out of danger : Eom. viii. 28, ' All things work together for good to them that love God.'
3. If our mercies be continued to us, they are continued with a curse while God is angry. We may have government in God's anger, and governors and establishment in God's anger, evSov to kukov. Though we should build walls up to heaven, sin in the bottom, that would undermine all ; sin within, as the voice told Phocas, in Cedrenus. Therefore, if we would not have our mercies cursed, let us first make peace with God: Job xxii. 21, • Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace, and good shall come unto thee ; ' then good cometh to thee. God's wrath is sometimes compared to a moth, and sometimes to a lion. The moth noteth the eating of an insensible curse ; the lion, open and
32 A FAST SERilON PREACHED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.
destroying judgments. It you would not have your mercies blasted and eaten out by a secret moth, begin with God. Until we flee to God by Christ for the pardon of sin, we cannot expect that the good and peace we have should be continued as a blessing. To have mercies in anger is one of the worst kind of judgments : Micah v. 5, ' Then this man shall be the peace, and when the Assyrian shall come into our land, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men.'
4. Hasting and preparing to make peace with God, and take up the differences between us and him, prevents many sins which are the bane of a nation ; as security and creature confidence.