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in the Field, the one fhall be taken, and the other left: Two Women fhall be grinding at the Mill, the one shall be taken and the other left: Yet, what Comfort is this for the Body of a wicked Nation and more wicked Metropolis? Who can by no Means lay Claim to fuch Comfort. I anfwer farther, in Bishop Sherlock's own Words, upon this Occafion, in his Letter, Pag. 12. • Let us not defpair, there is ftill one Remedy left; and whatever Reason we have to condemn ourfelves; yet this we may be fure, that God has not forgotten to be gracious. To him let us turn with hearty Repentance for our Sins, and with a Refolution 'to do, each of us in his proper Station, what lies

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in our Power to ftem the Torrent of Iniquity, ' which threatens our Ruin.' But to be more explicite, I fhall here add, what I twice propofed to my Auditors at my third Lecture, that I fee no other poffible Way of appeafing the hot Anger of a juft God (to fay nothing now of what I repeated a little above out of the Book of Joel) than the same that is propofed to us in the third Chapter of the Book of Jonah; which had its full and happy Effect at that Time, and saved the great City of Nineveh, after they had been folemnly doomed to Destruction by the Prophet in the Name of God himself; premifing only this standing Rule of God in fuch Cafes, by his Prophet Jeremiah, [xviii. 7-10.] At what Instant I shall Speak concerning a People, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that Nation against whom 1 have pronounced, turn from

their

their Evil, I will repent of the Evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what Inftant I shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do Evil in my Sight, that it obey not my Voice, then I will repent of the Good wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Jon. iii. 1.] And the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the fecond Time, saying:

2. Arife, Go unto Niniveh, that great City, and preach unto it the Preaching that I bid thee,

3. So Jonah arofe, and went unto Niniveh, according to the Word of the Lord: (Now Niniveh was an exceeding great City, of three Days Fourney.)

4. And Jonah began to enter into the City a Days Journey: And he cried, and faid, Yet three Days. [For fo was the true original Reading: See Sacred Hift. of the New Teft. Vol. v. Pag. 391.] and Niniveh fhall be overthrown.

5. So the People of Niniveh believed God, and proclaimed a Fast, and put on Sack-cloth, from the greatest of them, even to the leaft of them.

6. For Word came unto the King of Niniveh ; and be arofe from his Throne, and he laid his Robe from him, and cover'd him with Sack-cloth, and fat in Afbes.

7. And be caufed to be proclaimed and published thro' Niniveh, (by the Decree of the King, and of his Nobles) faying, Let neither Man nor Beaft, Herd, nor Flock taste any Thing; let them not feed, nor drink Water. 8. But let Man and Beast be cloth, and cry mightily unto God:

cover'd with Sack

Yea let them turn

every one from their evil Way, and from the Violence that is in their Hands.

9.

Who can tell if God will turn and repent ? And turn away from his fierce Anger; that we perish not.

10. And God faw their Works, that they turned from their evil Way, and God repented of the Evil that he had faid, he would do unto them, and he did it not.

N. B. This moft ferious Humiliation and Repentance of the King and People of Niniveh, with their most folemn Faft, and mighty Cries to God, which procured their Forgiveness and Deliverance, were, we see here, accompanied with their turning from their evil Ways, and from the Violence that was in their Hands. Which is accordingly become now our indifpenfible Duty, by Way of Preparation for any folemn Fafts, and folemn Supplications, if we be really in earneft, and in earnest hope to obtain the Divine Compaffion in our prefent Diftreffes. We know that God heareth not Sinners; but that if any Man be a Worshipper of God, and doth his Will, bim be heareth: [Joh. ix. 31.] Nor certainly can the prefent established Church and publick Government, difcharge their proper Duty, and have Reason to expect Deliverance at this Time upon any other Foundation. Such pretended Fafts as are proclaimed at the political Advice of Courtiers, and obferved as ufual, are rather a Provocation to God Almighty, and an additional Load of Guilt, than a Means of appeafing his Difplea

fure,

fure, fo fully manifefted against us at this Time. I well remember that there was once fuch a Faft appointed; when the Lord Sunderland, call'd then King Sunderland, was firft Minifter. He was for advifing the King or Queen that then reigned, to go in State to St. Paul's, for its more pompous Celebration. And when forebody that was present said, that was a Jef indeed, to go in fuch a pompous Manner, upon a Day of Humiliation. The Lord Sunderland replica, the Fast itself is a Feft. This Account I had from a Friend of mine that heard him fpeak the Words; fo that till the Publick is really in earnett, an their Harlots, o. all

be their lawful Wives,

thecat Men will caft off

hole who are known to they leave off Gaming

on the Lord's Day, may indeed upon any Day; till they lay aside their Maiquerades, and Ridotto's, their Plays and merry Meetings at Ranelagh House, and the like Places of Riot and Revelling, with their other Court Fooleries, (which yet our News informs us, goe on at our Court at Hanover ftill) there is no Hope of their efcaping the Hand of God, which is now fo apparently stretch'd out against them. However, the trifling Conduct of these Men about Days of Fafting, ought to be no Difcouragement to the serious Fafting and Prayers and Hopes of other good Christians on fuch Occafions. Foras the Apostle fay in the Conftitutions, ii. 22. Did not God, by

Nathan, reproach David for his Offence? And ⚫ yet as foon as he faid he repented, he delivered him from Death, faying, be of good Chear, thou fhalt not die. [2 Sam. xii. 13.] So alfo when

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• God had caused Jonak to be fwallowed up by 'the Sea, and the Whale, upon his Refusal to ' preach to the Ninivites, when yet he prayed to ' him out of the Belly of the Whale; he retriev'd his Life from Corruption. [Jon. i. 17. and ii.} And when Hezekiah had been puffed up for a while, yet as foon as he prayed, with Lamenta tion, he remitted his Offence.' [2 Kings xx. 3.J And above all the Apoftles there recommend the Cafe of the wickedeft of all the Kings of Judah, Manaffeb, with God's Forgiveness of him notwithftanding, upon his fincere Repentance and earnest Prayer to him in Prison; which Prayer is one of the fittest Forms of Prayer in all the Bible, for the prefent Occafion, efpecially for wicked Kings and Nobles, by whofe Examples and Encouragement it frequently is, that Wickednefs fpreads over a whole Land. This Form, when thofe Conftitutions were written, was contain'd both in the Book of Kings and Chronicles; as it is still mentioned, [2 Cbr. xxxiii. 12, 13.] tho' it be now unwarrantably thrust down among the Books we call Apocrypha. It is alfo faid in the fame Book of Chronicles, and in the fame Place, [v. 18. 19.] that When this Manaffeh was in Affliction, he befought the Lord his God, and bumbled himfelf greatly before the Lord God of his Fathers, and prayed to him, and he was intreated of him, and heard his Supplication, and brought him again to Jerufalem into his Kingdom. Then Manaffeh knew that the Lord be was God. Or in the Words of the Conftitutions, That tho' the Lord God for a while pu

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