ay, many of your old superstitious ceremonies to this day
remaining, which, though not so evil as the high places of idolatry in
which idols were worshipped, yet are parallel to the high places of
will-worship, of which we read that the people, thinking it too hard to be
tied to go up to Jerusalem with every sacrifice, "did sacrifice still in
the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only," 2 Chron. xxxiii, 17;
pleading for their so doing, antiquity, custom, and other defences of that
kind, which have been alleged for your ceremonies. But albeit these be
foul spots in the church's face, which offend the eyes of her glorious
Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, yet that which doth less appear is more
dangerous, and that is the cause of all this evil in the very bowels and
heart of the church; the people of the land, great and small, have not as
yet prepared their hearts unto the Lord their God; mercy is prepared for
the land, but the land is not prepared for mercy. I shall say no more of
the disease at this instant.

But I have now chosen a text which holds forth a remedy for this malady--a
cure for this case; that is, that if we will humble our uncircumcised
hearts, and accept of the punishment of our iniquity, Lev. xxvi. 41; if we
be "ashamed and confounded" (Ezek. xxxvi. 32), before the Lord this day
for our evil ways; if we judge ourselves as guilty, and put our mouth in
the dust, and clothe ourselves with shame as with a garment; if we repent
and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes, then the Lord will not abhor us,
but take pleasure in us, to dwell among us, to reveal himself unto us, to
set before us the right pattern of his own house, that the tabernacle of
God may be with men, Rev. xxi. 3; and pure ordinances, where before they
were defiled and mixed; Zech. xiii. 2, He "will cut off the names of the
idols out of the land," and cause the false prophet, "and the unclean
spirit to pass out of the land," and the glory of the Lord shall dwell in
the land, Psal. lxxxv. 9. But, withal, we must take heed that we "turn not
again to folly," Psal. lxxxv. 8; that our hearts start not aside, "like a
deceitful bow," Psal. lxxviii. 57; that we "keep the ways of the Lord,"
Psal. xviii. 21, and do not wickedly depart from our God. Thus you have
briefly the occasion and the sum of what I am to deliver from this text;
the particulars whereof I shall not touch till I have, in the first place,
resolved a difficult, yet profitable question.

Yo