a thousand. How fhall I answer him, and chuse out my Words to reafon with him? Whom, tho' I were righteous, yet would I not answer;. but I would make Supplication to my Judge. a Wherefore let us humble our felves greatly before God; and give Glory to the Lord, and make Confeffion unto him. With Sorrow and Shame. Turn ye to me, faith the Lord, with all your Heart, and with Fafting, and with Weeping, and with Mourning and rent your Heart, and not your Garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. Be afflicted, ye Sinners, and mourn, and weep: Let your Laughter be turned to Mourning, and your Joy to Heaviness. 4 Woe unto us that we have finned: For this our Heart is faint. • When I remember my Sins, I am afraid; Trembling taketh hold of my Flesh; fo that L am a Burthen to my felf. When ye forrowed after a godly fort, what: Carefulness it wrought in you! yea, what clearing of your felves, yea, what Indignation, yea, what Fear, yea, what vehement Defire, yea,. what Zeal, yea, what Revenge! 8 Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation, not to be repented of: But the Sorrow of the World worketh Death. h The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: A broken and a contrite Heart, O God, thou wilt not defpife. Ye fhall remember your Ways, and all your Doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye fhall loth your felves in your own Sight, for all your Evils that ye have committed. b Be ashamed, and confounded, for your own Ways, faith the Lord God. c We lie down in our Shame, and our Confufion covereth us: For we have finned against the Lord our God, we, and our Fathers, from our Youth, even unto this Day, and have not obeyed the Voice of the Lord our God. To us, O Lord, belongeth Confufion of Face, because we have finned against thee. d We are ashamed, and blufh, to lift up our Faces to thee, our God: For our Iniquities are increased over our Head, and our Trespass is grown up unto the Heavens.. e After I was turned I repented; after I was inftructed, I fmote upon my Thigh: I was afhamed, even confounded, because I did bear the Reproach of my Youth. f I will arife, and go to my Father, and will fay unto him, Father, I have finned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son. & The unjust knoweth no Shame. RESOLUTION. h Surely it is meet to be faid unto God, If I have done Iniquity, I will do no more. Jer. 3.25. Jer. 31. 19. Zeph. 3. 5. I am purpofed, that my Mouth fhall not tranfgrefs. b I will fet no wicked thing before mine Eyes; A froward Heart fhall depart from me: I will not know a wicked Perfon. I will wash mine Hands in Innocency; fo will I compass thine Altar, O Lord. AMENDMENT. Thus faith the Lord; Return ye now, every one, from his evil Way, and make your Ways and your Doings good: For if ye throughly amend your Ways, and your Doings; I will give you an Heart to know nie, and I will fet mine Eyes upon you for good." e Caft away from you all your Tranfgreffions; and make you a new Heart, and a new Spirit : For why will ye die? I have no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth, faith the Lord God, wherefore turn your felves, and live ye. Frameyour Doings to turn unto your God. Ceafe to do evil; learn to do well. f Put off, concerning the former Conversation, the old Man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful Lufts and be renewed in the Spirit of: your Mind; and put on the new Man, which, after God, is created in Righteousness, and true Holiness. As ye have yielded your Members Servants to Uncleannefs, and to Iniquity, unto Iniquity; even fo now yield your Members Servants to Righteoufness, unto Holiness. For, what Fruit Pf. 26. 6. Ezek. 18." b Pf. 101. 3, 4 a Pf. 17. 3. d Jer. 18. 11. Jer. 7. 31. 32. Hof. s. 4. If, & Rom. 6. 19. had had ye in those things whereof ye are now afhamed? For the end of thofe things is Death. a Cleanse your Hands, ye Sinners; and purify your Hearts, ye Double-minded. Peradventure God will give you Repentance, that ye may recover your felves out of the Snare of the Devil. b Thou that haft left thy firft Love, remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent; and do the firft. Works. c Break off thy Sins by Righteousness; and thine Iniquities, by fhewing Mercy to the Poor. d If Iniquity be in thine Hand, put it far away, and let not Wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacles: For then shalt thou lift up thy Face without fpot; yea, thou shalt be ftedfaft, and fhalt not fear, because thou shalt forget thy Mifery, and remem→ ber it as Waters that pass away. e Let us ceafe from Sin, that we may no longer live the reft of our time to the Lufts of Men, but to the Will of God: For the time paft of our Life may fuffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles, when we ferved divers Lufts and Pleasures: f Knowing therefore the time, that now it is high time to awake out of Sleep; let us caft off the Works of Darkness, and let us put on the Armour of Light. g Turn ye now from your evil Ways, and from⭑ your evil Doings; before Sin hath gotten Domi nion over you, and ye find no place of Repen-2 tance. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin, or the Leopard his Spots? Then may they alfo do. Good, that are accustomed to do Evil. Rom. 6. 21. Jam. 4 8. 2 Tim_2. 25, 26. b Rev. 2. 4, 5. dJob 11. 14, 15, 16. Rom. 13. 11, 12, Heb, 12. 17. Jer. 13. 23. Surely a Surely it is meet to be faid unto God: if I have done Iniquity, I will do no more. For he looketh upon Men, and if any fay, I have finned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit, and his Life fhall fee the Light. Because he confidereth, and turneth away from all his Tranfgreffions that he hath committed, he fhall furely live, he fhall not die. b If the wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed, and keep all my Statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he fhall furely live, he shall not die, faith the Lord: All his Tranfgreffions that he hath committed, they fhall not be mention'd unto him, in his Righteousness that he hath done he fhall live. c If thou return to the Almighty, thou fhalt be built up; thou fhalt put away Iniquity far from thy Tabernacles. Will he plead against thee with his great Power? No; but he would put Strength in thee. d He will create in thee a clean Heart, and renew a right Spirit within thee: He will reftore unto thee the Joy of his Salvation, and uphold thee with his free Spirit. e After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds, feeing that thou, our God, haft punished us less than our Iniquities deferve, fhould we again break thy Commandments? And, whereas we have offended against the Lord already, fhould we add more to our Sins, and to our Trefpaffes? Job 34. 31, 32. Job 33. 27, 28. Ezek. 18.. 28. Ezek. 18. 21, 22. ¿PL. 5.1. 10, 12. Job 22. 23. Job 23. 6. EZI. 9. 13, 14. 2 Chr. 28. 13. - Hear |