132 FOURTH SERMON the God that made him, but to a god of his own making ; and when they have most need of their glory, they will " change it into that which cannot profit," Jer. ii. 11. So foolish was Jeroboam, as by two calves at Dan and Bethel to think his kingdom should be established, and by that means rooted out his own family, and at last ruined the kingdom, 1 Kings xii. 28, 29. xiv. 10. 15. 29. 2 Kings xvii. 21. 23. Hos. viii. 4, 5. x. 5. 8. 15. So foolish was Ahaz, as to seek help of those gods which were the ruin of him and all Israel, 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. Such a strong antipathy and averseness there is in the soul of natural men unto God, as that when they are in distress they go to him last of all ; they never think of him so long as their own strength and their foreign confederacies hold out ; and when at last they are driven to him, they know not how to hold communion with him in his own way, but frame carnal and super- stitious ways of worship to themselves, and so in their very seeking unto him do provoke him to forsake them ; and the very things whereon they lean go up into their hand to pierce it, Isa. xv. 2. xvi. 12.: 1 Kings xviii. 26. Now then the proper work of true repentance being to turn a man the right way unto God, it taketh a man off from all this carnal and superstitious confidence, and directeth the soul in the greatest difficulties to cast itself with comfort and confidence upon God alone. So it is prophesied of the remnant of God's people, that is, the penitent part of them, (for the remnant are those that came up " with weeping and supplication, . seeking the Lord their God, and asking the way to Sion with their faces thitherward," Jer. xxxi. 7. 9. I. 4, 5.) that they should " no more again stay themselves upon him that smote them, but should
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