A SERMON OF REPENTANCE. 347 Why, then, was fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes, thebadge of such in ancient times? 5. Do they loathe themselves for all their sins, who loathe those that will not do as they, and speak reproachfullyof such as run not with them to the same excess of riot, (1 Peter iv. 4,) and count them precisians that dare not spit in the face of Christ, bywillful sinning as venturously and madly as themselves? 6. Or, do theyloathe themselves for all their sins, that love their sins evenbetter than their God, andwill not, by all theobtestations, and commands, and entreaties of the Lord, be persuaded to forsake them ? How far all these are from this self-loathing, and how far that nation is from happiness, where the rulers or inhabitants are such, is easy to conjecture. I should' have minded you what sins of the land must be re- membered,and loathed, if we would have peace and healing. But as the glass forbids me, so, alas! as the sins of Sodom, they declare themselves. Though, through the great mercy of the Lord, the body of this nation, and the sober part, have not been guilty of that covenant-breaking,perfidiousness, treason, sedition, disobedience, self-exalting, and turbulency, as some have been, andas ignorant foreigners, through the calumniesof malicious adversaries, may pos- sibly believe ; yet must it be for a lamentation through all genera- tions, that any of those who went out from us have contracted the guilt ofsuch abominations, and occasioned the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme; and that any, in the pride or simplicity, of their hearts, have followed the conduct of Jesuitical seducers, they knew not whither, or to what. That profaneness aboundeth on the other side, and drunkenness, swearing, fornication, lasciviousness, idleness, pride, and covetous- ness, doth still survive the ministers that have wasted themselves againstthem, and the labors offaithful magistrates, to this day ! And that the two extremes of heresy and profaneness do increase each other; and while they talk against each other, they harden one another, and both afflict thechurch of Christ. But especially woe to England for that crying sin, the scorningofa holy life, if a won- der of mercy do not save us. That people, professing the Christian religion, should scorn the diligent . practice of that religion which themselves profess ! That obedience to the God of heaven, that imitation of the example of our Savior, who came from heaven to teach us holiness, should not only be neglected, unreasonably and impiously neglected, but also by a transcendent impious madness should be made a matter of reproach ! That the Holy Ghost, into whose name, as the Sanctifier, these men were themselves baptiz- ed, should not only be resisted, but his sanctifying work be made a scorn I That it should be made a matter of derision for a man to prefer his soul before his body, and heaven before earth, and
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