how many Protestant Churches in Saxony Bohemia Hungaria Poland France and other places have been dissipated and unchurched and that because of their decayings either as to the profession or practice of Religion If the Professors thereof be generally grown Formal and Lifeless it is a sad prognostick that a terrible Persecution is near at hand Upon which account wise men do with some dread behold the present state of the Protestant Interest in the World the names of those that are indeed alive being so very few As for the Churches in this Wilderness I am perswaded Christ will not suffer them to be made a Desolation as yet Though Israel was deeply revolted from the holy wayes of God in the dayes of Jehoahaz it is said 2 King 13.23 And the Lord was gracious unto them and had compassion on them and had respect unto them because of his Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them nor cast he them from his presence as yet Nevertheless shaking Trials may come We have reason to expect them and God prepare us for them For great Sins are now common in New-England which were rarely if at all heard of but thirty years ago Prophaness groweth bold and is not easily suppressed There is much Hypocrisie and Formality amongst Professors nay and wise Virgins are asleep too It is beyond controversie that the late Judgements which New-England hath been bleeding under were an effect of Divine anger provoked by the sins of Men. But since God hath mercifully removed his hand those very sins the Lord hath been contending for are committed as much nay more than ever before It is a most awful and trembling consideration that the Holy Lord God almighty who though he may bear long will not suffer himself to be abused alwayes hath been mocked and dallied with more than once In the day of our late trouble several things were acknowledged to be Provoking Evils and Reformation in respect of them confessed to be necessary which since are made light of Austin did in his time wish that there might be a Synod called to consider of some effectual course for the suppression of that sin of Drunkenness amongst men in those dayes These Churches have in a very solemn manner met together by their Representatives to enquire into the causes of the Lords displeasure and the expedients for Reformation There was a gracious presence of Christ guiding his Servants in those Enquiries But what doth it all come to more than to leave the present Generation inexcusable before the World and before Posterity and before God in the day of his pleading with those that have known their Masters Will but have not done it The infinitely patient God hath waited for fruit three years since that endeavour and pretence to Reformation was published Our English Historians have Recorded that when the sins of the times brought heavy Judgements upon our fore-Fathers above nine hundred years ago a Synod did convene in order to the redressing of those evils There were thirty Ministers then found faithful who gave their Testimony but it would not be hearkened to so that God quickly sent the cruel Danes who for a long time brought the Land into miserable Bondage and Slavery What hours of Temptation may come upon us we know not Our case is the more dangerous and the Judgements impending like to be the more dreadful when if Repentance prevent not at last they shall fall down in that God hath stirred up the spirits of his Servants in the Ministry full many a time and with great earnestness to protest against the Sins and Apostasies of the times and to press for Reformation before the Decree bring forth but Alas hitherto with little success The words of that honourable Man of God Dr. Owen in his late Sermons in Luk. 13.1 2 3. Page 77. have a great deal of truth and weight in them Let us not saith he pretend that the Repentance and Reformation called for respects the publick enormous sins of the Nation in Atheism Prophaneness Sensuality Luxury Pride Oppression Hatred of the Truth Contempt of the Ministry of the Gospel and the like they do so indeed but not only they respect also the Decays in Faith Love Zeal with love of the World Conformity unto it Luke-warmness that are found amongst the most eminent Professors of Religion This is our present wound here lies our weakness namely in the want of a quick active zealous Ministry to call and stir up Magistrates and People to effectual Repentance and turning to God Unless this be given unto us I fear we cannot be saved If it be otherwise if we have a Ministry that really do attend unto their Duty in this matter then I shall think it the most pregnant sign of approaching Destruction Seeing it is apparent unto all that their Endeavours have neither Fruit nor Success Truly with us it hath been so They that have approved themselves faithful unto Christ and their own Consciences in this matter have indeed inward peace Yet they cannot but be sensible that they lose the good Word and good Will of some Men and are exposed to obloquy and reproaches For as the Excellent Person but now mentioned saith Page 90.91 The hardest and most difficult service that ever God called any of his Ministers unto excepting only Jesus Christ and his Apostles hath been in the endeavouring the Reformation of backsliding or spiritually decayed Churches These are the two Witnesses which in all ages have prophesied in Sack-cloth Such was the Ministry of Elijah which brought him unto that Conclusion and an earnest longing to be delivered by Death from his Work and Ministry 2 King 19.4 So was that of Jeremiah in the like season whereof he complains Chap. 15.10 John the Baptist in the same work lost first his liberty then his life And in after Ages Chrysostom for the same cause was hated by the Clergy persecuted by the Court and at length driven into Banishment where he died Most men care not how little a share they have in such a work as this whose reward will reach them according to the proportion of their engagement in it All Churches all Persons almost would willingly be let alone in the condition wherein they are They that would press them unto due Reformation ever were and ever will be looked on as their Troublers Nevertheless God hath given a spirit of Courage Zeal and Faithfulness unto several of his Ambassadors to discharge their Duty in bearing their Testimony and so to leave the success and their own Names also with that God whose they are and whom they serve And in special this Worthy Minister of Christ whose eminent Accomplishments are known unto all unto whom he himself is known hath a long time approved himself singularly Faithful unto God and the Souls of Men herein The strain of his Ministry in that Congregation where He that holds the Stars hath seen meet to place him hath been to urge Conversion
withdrawing our hearts from it or by an Heart-apostacy from God Religion always dyes by the People's Heart-apostacy They set not their Heart aright Their Heart was not right with Him Psal 78.8 37. Their Heart was removed far from Him Isa 29.13 Hence God complains so much every where of their evil Heart their hard impenitent unbelieving stubborn rebellious backsliding revolting whorish Heart whereby they had quite destroyed the life of their Religion Again that we do not desert Religion by slighting neglecting and exposing the visible external Interest and Concernments of it and so not only withdrawing our hearts but our heads and hands also I mean our labours and endeavours in whatsoever ought and is absolutely necessary to be done and performed for the support upholding and maintaining of the visible Interest of Religion Thus the People of old in their Apostacy forsook the Temple and the visible Worship of God and suffered all to fall into a ruine and desolation They deserted the whole Interest of Religion and so destroyed it How much the Spirit the Sins and the Temptations of the Times do incline unto such a deserting or forsaking of Religion we may consider and lay to heart with deep Humiliation For the more close Application of this Admonition let it be considered 1. That when Religion is once decaying and dying is near death even at the point or ready to dye as Rev. 3.2 It is then high time for Professors and a professing People to take heed to themselves that they be no further Accessory to the death of it When the Interest of the World riseth higher and higher all the Sins of the Times grow stronger and stronger and Religion is growing weaker and weaker is already grown so weak that it hath not life strength or power enough left to recover it self It is a fearful question to such a People whether Religion be not gone past hope of Recovery at least in the ordinary way of the improvement of Means Whether ever that Church of Sardis and those other declined Churches were recovered or no by a resurrection of Religion is more uncertain Sure we are they afterward dyed and were buried together with their Religion in their own ruines 2. When Religion dyes all dyes with such a People The death of Religion destroys all kind of Life both the Spiritual and Political Life It destroys Church-constitution Order Administrations yea it destroys the being and standing of a People before God under his Covenant When Religion dyes then Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah are born then God saith Ye are not my People and I will not be your God And He will no more have mercy but that He will utterly take away Hose 1.6 8. Thus that People destroyed themselves by destroying of their Religion and remain dead and buried in their Graves unto this day Ezek. 37.1 14. If we should destroy our Religion we should destroy all our Publique Weal all that wherein we have been peculiarly happy as the People of God If once Religion dye there will be nothing but Death Death in our Hearts Death in all our ways of Converse we shall be a dead People Sin and Death do always reign when and where Religion dyes and is destroyed 3. When a People destroy themselves by destroying Religion they perish inevitably utterly most miserably When God doth leave a People to destroy Religion then He hath no Salvation for them By destroying Religion a People do put away Salvation from them and render themselves utterly uncapable thereof If God lot such a Peope alone and execute no outward temporal Judgement upon them they will soon make a miserable end of themselves for they will abuse all their Peace Prosperity Means Mercyes Interests Injoyments unto their own Ruin and incurre all kind of destroying Evils make themselves a Shame a Reproach a Taunt a Curse an Execration and an Astonishment to all People So did that People of old Jer. 24.9 Jer. 25.18 And so they continue to be unto this day No such vile refuse People under heaven as they who have destroyed Religion Such a People must needs perish most hopelessly Ezek. 33.10 If our Transgressions and our Sins be upon us and we pine away in them how should we then live Observe Religion being dead and gone they cast away all hope of Salvation and give up themselves desperately unto Destruction saying How should we then live It is hard to produce an Instance of any People recovered when they have destroyed Religion by a general and total Apostacy from it For it is the utmost height of all Sin Transgression and Provocation which moveth the Wrath of God to arise 2 Chron. 36.16 Vntill the Wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no Remedy or no Healing By destroying of Religion a People do fill up their Sin alway till Wrath cometh upon them to the utmost 1 Thes 2.16 To fill up their Sins alway for the Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Furthermore to destroy Religion it is a sin most directly against our Lord Jesus Christ because Religion it is more peculiarly His His Work His Cause and Interest Therefore to destroy it is a sin which doth expose a People more directly to the dreadfull Wrath and Displeasure of Christ It is the greatest Injury that can be offer'd or done to Him and therefore He will avenge it We know it was the Lord Jesus who did denounce so dreadfully against all the Churches Rev. 2.5 Else will I come unto thee quickly and remove thy Candlestick V. 16. Else will I come unto thee quickly and will fight against them V. 23. I will kill her Children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works The condition of a People or Churches is become unspeakably woful and lamentable when Christ who is the only Mediator and Intercessor with God to procure all both temporal and eternal Deliverance and Salvation is turned against them and become their Enemie for He is the most dreadful Enemie concerning whom it is written Exod. 23.21 Beware of Him and obey his Voice provoke Him not for He will not pardon Psal 2.12 Kiss the Son lest He be angry and ye perish from the way when his Wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their Trust in Him Well then may any People or Churches who have any care or concernment for their own Salvation be surprized with Astonishment unto some degree of Horror under an apprehension of any danger of the death of Religion It is the Infinite Mercy of God to New-England that althô Religion doth languish yet if we be admonished and take warning there is still hope that it may Revive and Live Hence the III. VSE Wherein the Doctrine is to be improved and applied in a way of Exhortation If Religion be our life and if there
Calling as Christians to mourn to be Gods mourners Sions Mourners O how much might you do for God and these Churches in this frame and way of mourning More especially if those of the Servants of God who are betrusted with the work of God and the publick weal of the People and these Churches were such Mourners and did labour in their work mourning Ezra Nehemiah were great Mourners and the work of the Lord prospered in their hands whilest they carried it on mourning Nehem. 1.4 Ezra 10.1 6. Joel 2.17 Let the Priests the Lords Ministers weep between the Porch and the Altar and say spare thy People O Lord Then the Lord will be jealous for his Land and pity his People 2. We must do what we do for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion believing and obeying the Word of God I mean the Word of God as it hath been Preached and Delivered unto us by his Servants in the Ministry Those particular and extraordinary Messages which God hath sent to us by his Messengers those full and general Testimonies which God hath given by them against all the Sins of the times and unto all the duties of the times amplified in the delivery of them from the Word of God by so many solemn Words for Conversion whereby God hath charged us plainly expresly and fully with all our Sin and Apostasie judged and condemned us for it declared and denounced wrath and judgement against us in case of impenitency Yet withal most graciously calling of us unto Repentance and Reformation by many general Instructions Exhortations Directions Motives and Arguments proposed and pressed by Promises and Threatnings applied with much instancy and importunity and set home in the Application of them with very severe Admonitions and Warnings for our awakening Yea God hath made Application of his Word unto us in an extraordinary way and manner viz. In that great Ordinance wherein our Lord Jesus Christ was extraordinarily present to discover and to declare the summ of all that hath been spoken to us by the Ministry And whereby all the Churches have declared their conviction and published their confession and acknowledgement thereof Thus God hath spoken to us all that can be spoken suitable and proper to our state and condition we cannot tell what God can say more to us by the Ministry of his Word than he hath done but alas we have not hearkened nor believed nor obeyed those words of the Lord which have been sent unto us so that God may justly complain of us as of them Jer. 7.25 26. Since the day that your Fathers came out of the Land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my Servants the Prophets daily rising early and sending them yet they hearkened not unto me nor incleaned their ear and this God chargeth upon them every where as the great cause both of their utter defection from Religion and of their Destruction viz. because they would not hearken unto the Words of the Lord So 2 Chron. 36.16 Jer. 25.8 4. 35.15 Zech. 7.12 13. Yea God tells them plainly after their return from Captivity that it would never be well with them until they had hearkened unto the words of the former Prophets Zech. 7.7 Religion was never revived and raised they were never able to do any thing effectually in the work of Reformation neither did God work savingly for them by his Spirit until they had so done Neither may we expect any recovery of Religion or Salvation from Sin and Apostasie until we have hearkened to that is believed and obeyed that word Those Words of the Lord which he sent to us and which he is still sending unto us by his Servants And therefore O that Unconverted ones would hearken to the Words of the Lord which he hath sent to them for their awakening conviction humiliation and conversion believe and obey the Gospel that the work of Conversion might have a general and prosperous progress then Religion would revive and live And that those who are the sincere People of God would also hearken to the Word of the Lord which hath been spoken unto you to awaken and convince you to bring you to an humbling sight and sense of your own Sins and of the Sins of the times and of the wrath of God against your selves and against this People and these Churches as also to move and stir you up to quicken and strengthen you unto duty the duty of the times the work of Christs Churches you see all the general Sins and evils of the times growing and prevailing you see Religion decaying and dying You see this People and these Churches sinking and in great danger of perishing in this defection and apostasie you hear God threatning dreadfully and have seen his hand lifted up to Execution and you sit still do nothing are able to do nothing you are unable weak and feeble as other men unto and in the work of Reformation you fail utterly in all your essays to it and the reason is because you do not hear and obey the Word of God Believe it Christians you will never be able to exercise your Faith Hope or Confidence in God or to pray to God in good earnest you will never be able to ingage your hearts in the work of Reformation you will never find your selves quickened sanctified and strengthened thereunto and assisted therein until you have obeyed and subjected your very souls to the Word of God and so do ingage and labour in his work under the power of his Word there are none fit to intermeddle in Religious Reformation but those who tremble at the Word of God Ezra 9.4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the Word of the Lord Ezra 10.3 Now therefore let us make a Covenant with our God according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the Commandment of God O Christians did you but once tremble at the Word of God you would find your Souls wonderfully raised in love zeal and courage unto and for his work more especially such of the Servants of the Lord who have any peculiar betrustments for others and for the Publick are more than others concerned to subject their Souls to the power of the Word of God Then they will find themselves extraordinarily spirited to their work and assisted by the Spirit of God Then they would prosper in their work Ezra 6.14 And the Elders of the Jews builded and prospered through the Prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah Hag. 1.12 Then Zerubbabel and Joshua obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the Prophet Ver. 14. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel c. O that we generally and fully understood how much we are concerned thus to hearken to the Word of God God hath magnified his Word to New-England he hath wrought powerfully and gloriously for this People by his Word as for
the dangerous state of this People and of these Churches thereby will admit of no further delay God is hastening in his way and work Zeph. 1.14 The day of the Lord is near it hasteth greatly Christ hath threatned to come against us quickly except we repent and do the first works quickly Rev 2.5 16. In such a case a People must be quick Numb 16.46 47. And Moses said unto Aaron take a Censer and go quickly to the Congregation and make an Attonement for them and Aaron took as Moses commanded him and ran O it was well for the poor People of Israel in that instant of their extream and distressing danger that Moses and Aaron who had the care and charge of their publick Weal were so quick in doing what was to be done for their publick safety and salvation Wherefore Let the general Exhortation be humbly proposed to the Servants of God in the Magistracy Much Honoured It doth in the Name of the Lord by the Word of the Lord in most solemn manner bespeak your utmost help and your very hearts and souls therein for the recovery and preservation of the life of dying Religion It is your greatest Honour that you are betrusted with so much of the care and charge of Religion in the civil concerns of it It will be both your and our Happiness if God shall make you instrumental Saviours of the life of Religion and so of the life of this People and these Churches It is your highest work and although the heaviest yet the happiest part thereof wherein you serve and subserve more directly to the honour and glory of God and highest good of his People and which being fully and faithfully performed will turn to your highest account in the day of Account and add much weight and splendor unto your Crown of glory The General Exhortation It is also proposed to the Servants of Christ in the Ministry the whole Order and Office work of the Ministry it is Religious Ordained by Christ as the great Ordinance for the Ministerial Exercise of his Power for the propagation and preservation of the life of Religion by the progress of the work of Conversion and Edification among men and that in a more direct subordinacy to himself and subserviency to his Name and Glory in the World who is himself the Shepherd and Bishop of Souls it is cause of deep Humiliation unto his Servants that they have been called forth to labour under the sinking discouragement of the decaying state of Religion that Religion should be dying under their hand and they lament lest they should be called to minister under that woful commission given to the Prophet Isai 6.10 Go tell this People hear ye indeed but understand not Make the heart of the People fat lest their Ministry should in just judgment be made penal and judicial and so become a savour of death unto death and so that they should Preach Religion to Death and Preach this People to death Hos 6.5 Therefore I have hewed them by the Prophets and slain them by the words of my mouth The fearful apprehensions of such a danger may move them to labour though lamenting as Gods Servants of old yet with so much the more care love zeal even unto the spending and consumption of their very souls by fervency instancy and constancy in all their prayers and soul-labours throughout their whole work more especially in travelling in birth with Souls until Christ be formed in them until they are born and brought forth to God in a saving work of Regeneration which will be the most certain way and means unto a general Resurrection of Religion in these Churches O how should they then make full proof of their Ministry and approve themselves throughly in their life in their labour in all their ministrations in their whole ministerial Conversations as those who are more than any other Order of Men in the World directly charged and betrusted yea set for the life of Religion and the salvation of Souls The Exhortation it is further proposed as in our Text and Context unto all Israel and Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel It was his final farewel Exhortation to all the whole Covenant People of God The People of these Churches both the passing standing and rising Generations are all the visible Covenant people of God and therefore Religion it is our life we ought generally to care labour pray cry to God for the recovery preservation and continuance of it as for our life You who are sincere Christians are here again moved by this Exhortation not only as before to keep Religion alive in your own hearts but also to discharge your selves fully and faithfully in whatsoever duty or service you may can or ought to labour for the general Resurrection of Religion in these Churches More especially wherein you may be any of you betrusted with any of the concerns of it either Civil or Ecclesiastical Truly Christians the great incumbency the burthen of the work it is upon you the work it is most properly yours Because Religion it is peculiarly yours you are under the most sacred and indispensible obligations both unto God and one unto another to uphold it it is the most general duty of that high holy and heavenly Calling wherewith you are called to be Saints and wherein you are to approve your selves eminently the Servants of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ for the defence and advancement of his Cause Interest Kingdome Name and Glory wherein we shall live and dye as Saints obtaining those glorious promises which Christ made to those who laboured faithfully for the recovery of Religion in those declining Churches of Asia Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the middest of the Paradise of God and ver 10. And I will give thee a Crown of life ver 17. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new Name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh the same shall be cloathed in white Raiment Ver. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God Ver. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my Throne c. that is in Heaven O what exceeding great and precious Promises hath our Lord Jesus made for the incouragement of those who are his Sincere Servants to labour to uphold Religion in declining times and Churches we believe and are upon good grounds perswaded that there are many that there are enough Sincere Christians yet remaining in these Churches to do and perform whatsoever is necessary for the recovery and preservation of Religion and that if you would do what you might and ought Religion would not die but live and flourish with much spiritual prosperity Will it not then be a
sorts of People and Persons have been warned Vnconverted Sinners have been warned of their danger of perishing in unregeneracy Common Professors have been warned of their danger of perishing in Hipocrisie and Apostasie Worldly People have been warned of their danger of perishing in their Worldliness and Sensuality Prophane Persons have been warned of their fearful danger of being cut off in their high-handed and presumptuous Wickedness and that with more signal instance of the dread and terror of Gods avenging justice both in their temporal and eternal destruction Christians also have been warned of the dangerous effects and consequents of their declensions and of their security therein All Orders and Degrees of Persons have been warned Families have been warned Churches have been warned all other Societies have been warned consequently all New-England hath been warned warned of all Sins of all Duty of all Danger we have had full plain Warning many warnings all kind of warnings particular personal and private warnings general and publick warnings warnings from the Word of God warnings from the Works of God some dreadful and terrible warnings God hath given us from Heaven and in all these wayes we have had long warning many years warning The Lord is now by his Word testifying on the behalf of his Watchmen more especially those who have finished their Testimony by faithful warning given and have thereby delivered their Souls and are at rest that they have warned us and we have been warned Yea God is calling Heaven and Earth to Record for himself against us that he hath warned us and therefore if we will not take warning to repent reform and turn to God but perish in our Sins and Apostasie Our blood will be upon our own heads the Lord and his Throne will be clear and his Servants guiltless Ezek. 33.4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the Trumpet and taketh not warning if the Sword come and take him away his blood shall be upon his own head He heard the sound of the Trumpet and took not warning his blood shall be upon him So thou O Son of Man I have set thee a Watch-man to the house of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the Word at my mouth and shalt warn them from me ver 9. If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it if he do not turn from his way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy Soul This God will have declared for the vindication of his Justice in the execution of his Judgements and that if we are destroyed by and in our sins we may be forced to acknowledge that God is holy righteous and just and that our destruction is of our selves wherefore it follows ver 11. Say unto them as I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way live turn ye turn ye for why will ye dye O House of Israel Whence in the close of all we have comfort and incouragement in hope that if yet we will take warning God is and will be most graciously disposed in a way of soveraign and prerogative mercy to revive raise us up and cause us to live in his sight Notwithstanding all that hath been spoken concerning the death of Religion we must understand that Religion it is in it self an immortal thing it cannot die nor be destroyed all the powers of darkness cannot destroy Religion although this or that people may lose the life and being of it and destroy themselves by Apostasie from it Yet notwithstanding Religion shall live have its being in the World there will be a general and glorious Resurrection of it in the successive accomplishment of those Promises Prophesies which the people of God in all ages have believed hoped for God brought forth our Fathers with a gracious design to give Religion a being in this Land of Darkness which was then none other than the Region of the shadow of Death We have been Originally a People seperated and set apart unto and for Religion we have seen as much of the beauty and glory of it experienced as much of the light life power grace and blessing of it injoyed as much tranquility prosperity and felicity in the profession and practice of it as ordinarily hath been or can be we may therefore comfortably and confidently believe and pray that God will keep Religion alive with us and not suffer it to be totally extinguished in these ends of the Earth which we believe God hath given to his Son for an Inheritance and for a firm Possession We are a People who have yet a Covenant Right unto and Interest in Religion yea God hath yet a sincere faithful People in New-England who have a spiritual heart-Interest in Religion and some among them who are his Mourners whose very Souls are labouring by Faith and Prayer in a way of deep humiliation and mourning before God for the life of Religion And therefore although we being deeply and generally declined God may cause us to pass under purging and refining dispensations and be unto us like a Refiners fire and like Fullers Sope Mal. 3.2 Turn his hand upon us purely purge away all our Dross and take away all our Tyn Isai 1.25 Though God may visit our transgression with a rod and our iniquity with stripes nevertheless his loving-kindness he will not utterly take from us nor suffer his faithfulness to fail his Covenant he will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of his Lips Psal 89.32 33 34. Although God doth sometimes save his People in such a way yet such Salvation will be wrought out by the Resurrection of Religion which is the most great and glorious Salvation which God works for his People in this World and wherein he is most exalted magnified and glorified O why may not we then have and profess our Faith Hope and Confidence in God for such Salvation as the Church Micah 7.7 8. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me rejoyce not against me O mine Enemy whan I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause c. We have great incouragement thus to wait for God because God is waiting that he may be gracious unto us Isai 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of Judgement and blessed are all those that wait for him O when God thus saves New-England by the resurrection of Religion we shall rejoyce and triumph in his Salvation as the Church Isai 25.9 And it shall be said in that day lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce and be glad in his Salvation For then we shall sing as heretofore in the height of Zion and flow together unto the goodness of the Lord Jer. 31.12 Then will be in a measure fulfilled in us and for us what is prophesied and promised Zeph. 3 12-17 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor People and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speaklies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid Sing O Daughter of Zion shout O Israel be glad and rejoyce with all thy heart O Daughter of Jerusalem the Lord hath taken away thy judgements he hath cast out thine enemy The King of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt see evil no more the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing and Hos 14.4 c. I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the Corn and grow as the Vine the sent thereof shall be as the Wine of Lebanon Ephraim shall say what have I any more to do with Idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green Fir-Tree from me is thy fruit found Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the wayes of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein FINIS Advertisement THere is now in the Press 〈◊〉 Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providence◠wherein an Account is given of many Remarkable and very Memorable Events which have hapned in this last Age especially in New-England By the Reverend Mr. INCREASE MATHER