his People of old Hos 12.13 Truly God hath done all in New-England by his Word as long as we hearkened to the Word of God we prospered if we would now hearken all would be well 2 Chron. 20.20 3. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion with holy religious lively spiritual Devotion to God in his Worship more especially in his House The loss of which hath been and is one great if not the greatest cause of the decay of Religion for Religion lives much by such Devotion to God in his Worship and is kept alive by it Religious Devotion it is much of the life of Religion if we would then recover and preserve the life of Religion we must labour to have our Souls raised unto a very high and dear esteem of and love unto a most sincere and fervent Zeal for the House of God and all the interests and injoyments thereof We must labour to understand the excellency of the Worship of God and of the House of God and the blessedness and happiness of those who have not only visible but a real spiritual interest and standing therein we must give up and devote our selves our very souls unto God in a way of holy Fellowship and Communion with him in his House in all the wayes of his Worship and uphold the Worship of God in the life spirit and power of it we must have our hearts inlarged to take in a fulness of the spiritual and gracious presence of God and raised unto living apprehensions of that presence with spiritual pleasure delight Soul-solace and satisfaction therein That our Souls may be drawn forth more more after it with longing desires earnest Prayer as the Souls of Saints of old were Psal 27.4 36.7 42.1 2. 63.1 2. 84.1 2 10. We must labour to keep the House of God pure and holy and all the services and administrations of it and to obtain a spiritual Soul-settlement therein Psal 92.13 Those that are planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God If we would have Religion live we must really dwell in the House for there and therein Religion lives by nothing have we more indangered and destroyed the life of Religion than by withdrawing our hearts from God in his Worship in his House by our formality hypocrisie and spiritual Idolatry therein by slighting neglecting prophaning and polluting thereof and by sinning away the presence of God from it these evils are deadly they are death to Religion so long as these evils remain and so long as we remain so estranged to the House and Worship of God there will be no hope of the life of Religion neither shall we be able to do any thing effectually for the recovery and preservation of it 4. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion with the special presence and under the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Religion lives only by the presence and power of Christ who is our life and therefore is the life of our Religion That we have by our sins and miscarriages moved our Lord Jesus to withdraw and withhold so much of his presence and power from us thence it is that we suffer such a privation of the life of Religion and unless we obtain a return thereof Religion will dy quite away That we may obtain the return of the presence and power of Christ we must be sensible of and humbled for those sins and evils whereby we have grieved and provoked him Our unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel not subjecting to his spiritual rule and government and to the ministerial exercise of his power therein unfaithfulness to his cause interest and work dissention disorder and confusion in Churches the loss of our first love and life and the great dishonour to his holy Name These evils must be repented of and removed Unconverted Sinners must receive him and give themselves to him by Faith in a way of Gospel-Obedience Christians must awake and rouse up their sleepy Souls out of carnal ease and rest follow him and seek him until you have found him and repossest your Souls of him with a fulness of spiritual joy pleasure and delight in your injoyments of him as the Spouse Cant. 3.4 The Churches must give him free full and open entrance and entertainment in the greatest fulness of his presence and power recovering their first life and love doing their first works in maintaining integrity of love peace union purity of communion regularity and tranquility of order within themselves cleaving to his cause interest and work fully stedfastly and faithfully managing all the affairs of his Kingdom in a way of sincere soul-subjection to him for the advancement of his Name and Glory O if Christians and Churches could thus prepare and dispose themselves unto the return of the presence and power of Christ they would soon feel themselves enabled thereby to perform all that is necessary for the recovery and preservation of Religion the sad cause why we have hitherto Failed in all our undertakings is the want of the presence and power of Christ O there is woful evidence of the want of it until Christ return it nothing will or can be done the return of the presence and power of Christ will instantly infer an happy Resurrection of Religion O let us seek it pray and cry for it under a deep sence of our extream necessity of it and of our woful condition without it let us be moved hereunto from the consideration of the gracious disposition of our Lord Jesus to return it is yet his voice to these as it was to those declining Churches after he had reproved charged threatned them very sharply and severely he concludes all Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open unto me I will come in by opening to Christ we shall do all and obtain all salvation 5. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion quickly there must be a sudden quick dispatch of all that is to be done for the life of Religion It must be done presently instantly without delay as we would do any thing for our life when in utmost and extreamest danger if we do not do what we have to do quickly it may be quickly too late and truly it will be Gods infinite mercy if it be not already too late as it was to them Luk. 19.42 Mat. 23.37 O we have lingered and delayed upon utmost peril already it is now high time more than time if we mean to do any thing Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord till he come God is now crying to day whilest it is called to day after so long a time Psal 95.7 Heb. 4.7 God calls for present hast he is every way hastening of us the dying state of Religion and
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
any more from thy filthiness until I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent If a People will not be healed and saved they must be they shall be destroyed O that we understood how much we are concerned to discern know and improve the present time lest the Harvest should be past and the Summer ended and the things of our peace of our temporal spiritual and eternal welfare should be hidden from our eyes 3. That we do wait earnestly upon God in an extraordinary way of Humiliation and Supplication under the Administration of his Word and Worship for the dispensation of his Spirit and of Converting Grace No hope no possibility of the Resurrection of Religion otherwise than by such a dispensation of the Spirit and Grace of God until God shall pour out his Spirit from on High Isai 32.15 Vntil the Spirit be poured upon us from on High and the Wilderness be a fruitful Field that De structions and Desolations were to remain upon them until God should work a general work of Conversion and the Resurrection of Religion thereby They were to remain dead and buried in their Graves until God should accomplish that great Fundam ental Covenant Promise Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will put my Spirit within you So Ezek. 37.13 14. When I have opened your Graves and brought you up out of your Graves and shall put my Spirit in you and ye shall live Therefore it is high time for us to seek the Lord until he rain Righteousness Hos 10.12 Of if God shall please to pour out his Spirit upon our Seed and his Blessing upon our Off-spring then there will be a glorious Resurrection of Religion with the rising Generation They shall spring up as amongst the Grass and as Willows by the Water-courses Isai 44.34 O that we could approve our selves an Humble Penitential Prayerful People prepared for such a dispensation of the Spirit and waiting upon God under the promise of it 4. That we strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die This is our Lord Jesus his Direction in terms Rev. 3.2 keep alive and cherish that of the life of Religion which is left the remains of it O Christians let dying Religion have a Reviving and a Resurrection in your hearts and lives live it up to life again there is there can be nothing more of the life of Religion kept in the World than what is preserved and upheld in the heart of a few and they are comparatively but a very few living and lively Christians there never hath been nor ever is but a little of Religion in the life spirit and power of it in this lower World it is a very choice rare thing in the best of times but there is never less of it than when sincere Christians are fallen into a frame and way of Declension nothing more deadly to Religion than the declension of Christians which strikes at the very heart and life of it so much the more should you labour to rise to the utmost height of attainment in Grace and Holiness even unto a conspicuous eminency therein that Religion may not only live but shine in all your Converses throughout your whole Conversations that you may shine as Lights in the World Phil. 2.15 16. Christians if you do not thus revive and raise Religion in your hearts and lives before you die you may not expect that it will long survive you though Religion cannot die so long as you live yet if you suffer Religion to live a dying Life in you you may fear that though it cannot die in you it may notwithstanding die with you 5. That we set our hearts unto and upon Religion Make it our highest our dearest even our heart-interest our whole our all as to Interest and Injoyment in this World that which we live for that which we live by that which is our Life viz. because it is that whereby we live to with and upon God in Christ let our Souls therefore be drawn forth after and ingaged unto Religion in esteem love zeal desire delight that our minds may be so exercised unto the Doctrinal Practical and experimental Knowledge of it as that we may be raised to real spiritual discoveries and apprehensions of the excellency glory and perfection of it with a transcendency above all the glories and perfections of this lower World That we may account all Worldly Interests and Injoyments but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of it as the Holy Apostle did Phil. 3.8 And may by Faith also apprehend our own Interest in it with most certain assurance that it is ours our own and that nothing is so or so much ours our own as our Religion that is our God our Christ and our Religion as it is and because it is our life O if we could thus devote our selves to Religion become true real Votaries to Religion Religion would then revive and live 6. That we set our selves in whatsoever we have are or can do in a full and direct Subserviency to the Propagation and advancement of Religion Lay out our selves improve all time strength and gifts grace and estate power Authority interest influence unto our utmost capacity and possibility for Religion and that with utmost Care Conscience Zeal Courage Faithfulness in a way of stedfast perseverance through all incounters and conflicts to the last making of it our main design our whole work and business in all our transactions both with God and Man That we therefore labour servently and instantly with God in Prayer That for Zions sake we do not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake we do not rest that we never hold our peace day nor night give him no rest until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isai 62.1 6 7. That we henceforth transact with God and one with another with religious sincerity in truth and faithfulness in and about that great and most important business of Reformation in suppressing all the great and general Sins and performing the great and general Duties of the times that we trifle dissemble falsifie no more therein as heretofore we have too much done and as the People of old did to their own ruin and destruction Jer. 3.10 Nothing hastned their utter defection and destruction more than their formal hypocritical Reformations That we also labour to retrieve and raise the visible Interest of Religion and advance it above the head of our chief joy Psal 137.6 That we do cleave by an Heart-Engagement to the Word Worship Ordinances Administrations Ministry Order Rule and Government of Christ in his Church to the whole Cause Interest and Kingdom of Christ That we keep the Word of his Patience and do not deny His Name but hold fast that which we