Thirdly, Another thing in the text is the preparation and dispo sition that are in a nation to ruin. But I shall not speak unto them ; they are visible and known unto all.
But you will say, * When God doth thus in his word declare that a nation is fallen and ruined by such causes, is there no hope but that it must be ruined, that destruction must overtake it?'
I answer, — 1. There is no hope at all while that place, that nation, continues in those ways and sins whereby God declares that they are ruined. A nation cannot be saved abiding in those ways which are the causes of its ruin, which God declares to be the causes of it And let men have what expectations they will, please themselves as they will, I neither can desire nor will look for deliverance for a
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nation while it continues in those sins against which God pronounces judgments.
2. I do acknowledge it is frequent with God to declare a nation ruined with respect of merit, and yet to prevent their ruin with re spect to the event. They may be delivered from that state and con- " dition, and so be saved. The case is stated, Jer. xviii. 7, 8, " At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 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/' God declares what they do deserve, but yet they may never feel it as to the event. Wherefore it is not in vain that we have designed to seek the Lord this day. There is room yet left to deal with God about London, about the nation, though plainly in the word they are declared to be under ruin.
But it will have no success without these three things: —
1. That there be a visible reformation, — I will not say a conversion, but a visible reformation, — vigorously attempted in and upon the body of the people.
2. Unless those who truly fear the Lord do mourn over the sins of the people continually. And, —
3. Unless they are fervent in their prayers for their deliverance.
It doth not stand with the honour of God, the glory of his right eousness, holiness, word, and truth, to save this nation without these things; — without an attempt at visible reformation of the body of the people; without his own people mourn over the sins of the nation, and abide in fervent prayer for that end. Without these, as Jeremiah the prophet told the Jews, chap, xxxvii. 10, " Though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire;" so say I of our Chaldeans at this day : If half of them were executed, and the other half wounded, they should rise up and smite this city, unless we turn thus unto God.
We are called to consider the sins of the nation, and to deplore its state and condition upon the account of those sins. That is our present work ; and these plain things God hath directed me unto from the reading of these words.
I will add a little more, for the further opening of the words. There is in them a summary declaration of the causes of this state and condition: " Because/' saith he, " their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory/' You may range all sins under these two heads, — men's tongues, and their doings; for their tongues and their doings have been against the Lord.
There is a particularly ruining provocation, when men set their
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tongues against the Lord. It is a great sign of the approaching ruin of a people and nation, when men set their tongues against the Lord. He puts a special mark upon that. I shall only name the things whereby men set their tongues against the Lord, keeping themselves to that one thing, by such ways as will certainly prove ruining.
There are these ways whereby men set their tongues against the Lord : —
1. By blasphemy. And thereof there are two branches : — (1.) Cursed oaths; (2.) Atheistical discourses. Whether they are found among us or no let every one judge as he hath experience.
Men set their tongues against the Lord especially by blaspheming the Spirit of Christ and the gospel. I do acknowledge that this is a sin which our Lord Jesus Christ as it were separates from all other sins, reserving it unto spiritual and eternal judgment; but it hath influence also on temporal judgments.
2. By mocking at all those judgments: " Where is the promise of his coming?" where is this talk that hath been among the prophets, among professors, for so many years, of judgment coming? "for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were." They scoff, at the word of God with reproachful terms.
When these are the things whereby men's tongues are set ? .mst God (I do not speak of the sins of the tongue in general, bi*' ^ those sins whereby the tongue is peculiarly set against God), ,ve shall do well to inquire whether any such things are found among us or no.