172 FOURTH SERMON is upon it, so as to return to that cold and formal complexion, that Laodicean temper that she was in . before, till she have so publicly and generally repented of all those civil disorders which removed the bounds and brought dissipation upon public justice : and of all those ecclesiastical disorders which let in corrup- tions in doctrine, superstitions in worship, abuses in government, discountenancing of the power of god- liness in the most zealous professors of it, as that our reformation may be as conspicuous as our disorders have been, and it may appear to all the world that God hath washed away the filth, and purged the blood of England from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. (2.) That God's love is the true ground of remov- ing judgments in mercy from a people. Let all human counsels be ever so deep, and armies ever so active, and cares ever so vigilant, and instruments ever so unanimous, if God's love come not in, nothing of all these can do a nation any good at all. Those that are most interested in God's love, shall certainly be most secured against his judgments. Hither our eyes, our prayers, our thoughts must be directed. Lord love us, delight in us, choose us for thyself ; and then, though counsels, and treasures, and armies, and men, and horses, and all second causes fail us, though Satan rage, and hell threaten, and the foun- dations of the earth be shaken ; though neither the vine, nor the olive, nor the fig -tree, nor the field, nor the pastures, nor the herds, nor the stall yield any supplies, yet we will rejoice in the Lord ; and glory in the God of our salvation ; sin shall be healed, anger shall be removed ; nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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