we return plainly declaring thereby that they knew but little that was amisse in themselves whereof they should repent or wherein they had need to be reformed And therefore lest there should be any soul amongst you that should entertain this exhortation of ours in the like manner and be or pretend to be ignorant whereof they should repent give us leave therefore as the Prophet must Shew the people their transgressions and the house of Iacob their sinnes and another Prophet is bidden to Cause Ierusalem to know her abominations Give us leave we beseech you after their example to instance in some principall sinnes which were very common in Lancashire when we were there and which we fear are much continued in that countrey unto this very day and therefore had need to be repented of And first of all we may mention that generall sinne of prophanenesse or Atheism and disrespect of all Religion when multitudes of men and women from one end of the countrey to another have so demeaned themselves as if they had been born for no other end but to serve themselves and their own lusts the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life and so have spent their daies as if there had been nothing else for them to do or to look after but to eat and to drink â—o sleep and to play to build and to plant to buy and to sell to marry and to give in marriage and the like but with as much irregiousnesse and prophanenesse of heart in all these things and with as much neglect of the glory of God and the salvation of their souls and the means thereof as if there had been no God to be served or acknowledged or as if themselves had had no souls to be saved It is but too apparent the Lord knows how the glorious and holy Name of God hath been impiously prophaned and blasphemed in that County by multitudes of vain and wicked Oaths in the mouths of Gentlemen and mean men too yea and very children how the holy Sabbaths of God which he hath commanded to be sanctified for ever and for that end hath bid us remember the same have been greatly prophaned and polluted not only by neglect of publick and private worship whereby the same should have been sanctified but also by the contrary prophane and impious practices in stead thereof such as are carding dicing drinking bowling bear-baiting shooting piping dancing at greens ales may-poles and such like And when the licence for sports and recreations upon the Sabbath came forth from Houghton-Tower to the lasting shame and infamy of the place and County where such an unhappy birth was brought forth oh how gladly was the same entertained and embraced by multitudes of people in that Countrey and how proudly did they bear up themselves upon the authority of the same to the confronting and defiance of the faithfull Ministers of God that would not nor could not consent to such prophanations but by authority of the 4th Commandement of God did bear witnesse against the same It is also a further testimony of this spirit of prophanenesse that now we are speaking of that duties of Religion have been so exceedingly neglected in private families children and servants being not at all instructed and catechized yea many families having not a Bible in them morning and evening praier being never used nor any blessing upon the creatures desired of God when men have gone unto their meals all directly contrary to the expresse word of God Deut. 6.6 7 Eph. 6 4. 1 Tim. 4.4 5. and the commended examples of David Ioshuah Cornelius Abraham and such like servants of God But if the saying of Christ our Saviour be true as it cannot but be most true that they that are the children of Abraham will do the works of Abraham surely then the neglect of family-duties for the practice whereof Abraham is so much commended doth testifie to the faces of many people that they are no children of Abraham neither children of his flesh nor children of his faith and whose children they then are you may all judge yea such hath been the impiety of many persons that such as have made some conscience of Gods holy Name and service and Sabbaths and have shewed any care to walk with God in the way that is called holy them they have greatly hated despised derided slandered and other waies evill entreated and persecuted and all because they seemed to be more holy then themselves Wherefore to make an end of this particular If there be any soul among you whether man or woman whether young or old whether great or small that stands culpable of this prophanenesse and ungodlinesse and that is a despiser and hater or so much as a carelesse neglecter of God and the holy things of God carelesse of Gods word and the knowledge of it of his Sabbaths and the sanctifying thereof and of the Christian duties of Gods holy worship in publike Assemblies and in private families yea carelesse of walking with God in holines for his own particular but walks in his own lusts of swearing whoredome drunkennes or any other Let such an one be exhorted to repent yea as he tendreth his own eternall comfort be earnestly entreated to repent yea charged and commanded in the name of God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ to repent of all this his wickednesse and turn unto the Lord For the word is gone out of Gods mouth and shall not be recalled but must stand for ever that without holines no man shall see the Lord except it be as a Judge against all such ungodly sinners but never see God to his comfort in this or in another world Oh consider this therefore all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be no deliverer yea consider it seriously and beleeve it of a truth for the Lord hath spoken it that neither whoremongers nor adulterers nor drunkards nor any that walk in such waies and works of the flesh shall have any inheritance in the kingdome of God Be assured of it for the day is coming when you will finde it most true that where there is no holy knowledge of God in the minde no change of the heart from its former prophanenesse and uncleannesse and no purity and sanctity of the affections and desires no reformation and sanctification of the life and conversation such a man so continuing is most certainly a man of death prepared against the day of slaughter and shall immediatly drop down without all hope of recovery into hell as soon as death shall strike him to the ground Oh then whosoever you are that reade or hear these words humble your selves for all your iniquities and turn unto the Lord with fasting and weeping and with mourning For he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great goodnesse and repenteth of the evill cast away all your transgressions
worthy of him If you should be stripped of your estates and friends and afterwards of your lives also you know our dear Saviour laid down his life for you and therefore it is but equall if you give all that is dear unto you and even your very lives for him If you lose any thing for him and his cause you shall be no losers in the end but by that time all accounts are cast up you shall finde you have an hundred-fold for all your losses whatever they be or can be we mean as our Saviour doth even an hundred fold in this life and in the world to come life everlasting Should you forsake the truth for fear of affliction which God forbid you might then peradventure for a time preserve your estates and liberties and lives and yet that may be a question too but suppose the best you should neverthelesse have a very losing bargain of it in the end and should shew your selves to be penny-wise therein and pound-foolish For our Saviours words must stand and all flesh shall finde them most infallibly true that he that shall save his life shall lose it and he that shall lose his life for his sake and the Gospels shall save it Many of you have been professors of the truth for these many years it is fit therefore that by this time you should be grown up to some good measure of heavenly-mindednesse and living by faith even then when sense and reason and all creature-comforts shall fail Look not therefore on things that are seen but on things that are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal Learn now by faith to see him that is invisible and thereby to endure all that may befall you as Moses sometimes did by that means Buy the truth but sell it not Rather sell all that you have for the buying thereof for the merchandise thereof is better then silver and the gain thereof then fine gold The Doctrine of the Gospel and the grace of Christ therein is such a treasure and such a pearl that he deals like a wise man that shall purchase the same though with the losse or sale of all that he hath For Popery we trust you so far do see the vanity and loathsomenesse thereof that you will never decline nor turn aside thereto but take heed of Arminianism Familism and all other erroneous doctrines of which these daies are so fruitfull especially take heed of the leaven of the Anabaptists which if we be not mistaken is so dangerous and pernicious and yet withall so contagious and apt to spread in these daies that we scarce know any other of which Christians had so much need to take heed and to be advertised and exhorted so to do It is but too manifest that many of all sorts are now a daies hankering and leaning that way and it is therefore a testimony of our love and so we hope you will take it that we advise you to beware lest you also or any of you be plucked away with that or any other error and fall from your own stedfastness Love one another and cleave together in firmness of Christian and cordial affection The enemies of the truth are not so weak nor you so strong that there can be any need of your dissentions and divisions for the weakning of your selves or the strengthning of them Divide impera Divide them and make your selves Masters of them all is one of Machiavels principles and a most perillous one it is It will be your wisedom to take heed lest the Jesuites should practise the same design amongst you whether among your military Commanders or otherwise your safety and strength under God doth in great part consist in your unity and agreement among your selves Beleeve the truth when it is held forth unto you either in books and private discourse or specially in the publike Ministry receive it in the love of it that you may not be deluded with lies Content not yourselvs with literal knowledg in the brain head but chiefly look after spirituality and sincerity of heart and manifest and shew forth the same by the power of godlinesse in all your conversation What upon sober and serious consideration you shall finde your selves shall have most need of another day whether the day of death or the day of judgement or any other day of deep distresse of that if you be wise doe you chiefly make your choice now and what will be most uncomfortable then do you now abandon And to apply this generall the day is coming and not far off neither when the favour of God through Christ Jesus true interest to his speciall love as reconciled through the bloud of his son with the amiable and sweet light of his countenance will be of more worth to the soul and yield more satisfaction to the heart then all that this world can afford from the rising of the Sunne to the going down thereof Yea the day is coming when these things will all be miserable comforters and physitians of no value but those other will then be found to be of such absolute alsufficiency to the soul as that he shall be most happy for ever that hath them and of such necessity that he shall be most wretched and accursed that shall live and die without them Wherefore we beseech you consider wisely what now you have to doe and now with Mary make choice of the better part which will never be taken from you Choose the Lord God in Christ for your portion and the lot of your inheritance choose not any way of sin or errors or creatures for your God for they are no Gods but now make a choice and the Lord direct you so to doe that you may have the comfort of the same hereafter and for evermore We doe not think our selves to be the only Prophets nor that we only are able to give a word of counsel or comfort to our countreymen we trust we are so far conscious to our own weaknesse that such arrogant apprehensions are far from us Nor doe we doubt but Lancashire is blessed of God with many faithful and able Watchmen who are continually blowing the trumpet in your streets and imparting the message of the Lord amongst you much more suteably to your condition then we at so many miles distance can possibly do of whom we have no other thoughts but that the meanest of them might adde much unto either of us But because we dearly love our Countrey though we live not in it therefore we think it meet to seek the weal thereof in the best manner we are able and we hope we may be allowed so to doe We also consider that sometimes the God of heaven may give as great a blessing to weaker means as to those that are more excellent and eminent that so himself and not the means may have all the
glory Finally we are both of us well stricken in years and posting on apace towards our dissolution and never like to see your faces nor you to see ours in this world and therefore we are willing to doe this office of love unto your souls conceiving it may be the last that we can do unto you in this kinde before we die and glad we should be if you may have the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that concern your own peace in remembrance after our decease Upon these and such like considerations we have adventured to do as here you see hoping our sincere and loving intentions will be accepted in good part For which we desire no other recompence at your hands but the benefit of your praiers on our behalf and this we do most affectionately request from you Finally Brethren farewell and the God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Iesus after that you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Fear none of those things which possibly you mâ—y yet suffer but be you faithful unto the death and the Lord hath promised he will give unto you a Crown of life To his grace we commend you all in our best desires and so rest Desirous of your eternal comfort in Christ Jesus RICHARD MATHER WILLIAM TOMPSON Dorchester in New England the last of December 1649. A POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER UNderstand dear Friends and Countreymen and any to whom this ensuing Letter may be presented that the Authours who writ the same did intend it only as a small Remembrance of that Christian love that ought to flow and abound in all that are members of that misticall body according to that Heb. 3.13 so especially it ought to manifest it self betwixt Ministers and people and though these Friends that now write are so distant that they cannot speak to those to whom they write as sometime they have done yet they cannot forget those bowels of love as here is expressed and once did more fully declare to be in them when they dwelt among you and though it come so late to your hands the reason was the place being so remote and the way of conveyance so difficult being it was intended to be Printed that so the more might enjoy it The Presse at that time being full of other imployment which was in the Year 1645. it was cast by so long that at last the Authours thought it out of season and so sent for it home again to N. E. till now this Year some Friends understanding and seeing oâ— it encouraged the Authours to put it forth still which they willing to shew their love to their Countreymen condescended unto And therefore let it not seem to thee as an Almanack out of date but well weigh and consider it and what thou findest in it that concerns thee in any kinde make use of it to the glory of God and thine own good for that is it which the Authours wish and desire as their preachings formerly and Letters now expresse that the Name of God may be glorified in you and you in him FINIS Rom. 10.1 Jer. 9.1 Isa. 66.16 Isa. 26.9 Jer 3.8 Dan. 5.20 21 22. Lev. 26.21 c. Lam. 3.4 Jer. 8.6 31.19 Job 40.4 Job 42.6 Jon. 3.8 Isa. 17 9. Mal. 3. 7. Isa. 58.1 Eze. 16.2 1 Joh. 2.16 Psal. 101. Josh. 24.15 Act. 10.2 Gen. 18.19 Joh. 8.39 Heb. 11.14 Psal. 50. â—2 Gal. 5.20 21. 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Joel 2.12.13 Eze. 18.30 Ezâ—k. 33.11 Luk. 18.9 10 11 12. Rom. 10 3 Object Answ. Psa. 44. â—â— 1 Cor. 16.13 Heb. 12.12 Phil. 1.28 Isa 8.13 Heb. 10.34 Mâ—â— 10. â—9 30. Mâ—r 8.35 2 Cor. 4.18 Heb. 11.27 Pro 23.23 Mat. 13.46 2 Pet. 3.17 2. Thes. 2.11 1 Pet. 5.10 11. Rev. â— 10
and so iniquity shall not be your ruine for the Lord hath said and sworn that as he liveth he taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn from his way and live turn you turn you wherefore will you die The very Angels of heaven will be glad at the day of your conversion But if you harden your hearts and refuse to hearken to the gracious call of the Lord your damnation is just your bloud will be upon your own heads you have been warned and warned again and again by many worthy Ministers and messengers of God that have preached in your Congregations and amongst others you have been warned heretofore by us in preaching and now by us in writing But besides this sinne of prophanenesse and open ungodlinesse there is another evill no lesse dangerous which is often found amongst them that professe more purity and reformation of life and that is when men blesse themselves in their own righteousnesse and think their condition safe and good meerly because of some legall reformation without any feeling of their need of Christ any high prizing of him any earnest longing for him any true relying or resting on him That it is incident to professors to offend in this kinde is plain by that which is written of the Pharisees that they trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and accordingly one of them is brought in boasting of himself before God that he was not like other men he was no extortioner no adulterer no unjust person nor like that Publican but he fasted twice a week he gave tithes of all that he possessed and the like And it is said of the nation of the Jews generally that they being ignorant of the righteousnesse of God and going about to establish their own righteousnesse did not subject themselves to the righteousnesse of God Which place doth also shew the dangerous condition of all such justitiaries in this respect that being so full of their own righteousnesse they submit not themselves to the righteousnesse of God nor unto Christ Jesus who is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeves But of this you may be sure that whatever a mans righteousness may be unlesse he were one that had never sinned he hath nothing in him that is of any worth for the present justification of his person nor for the everlasting salvation of his soul For the text is plain that in Gods sight there is no flesh living that can be justified Psal. 143.2 And therefore such holy men as David Daniel Nehemiah Paul and others durst not stand to be tried and justified that way Psal. 143.2 Dan. 9.18 Neh. 13.22 Phil. 3.9 but have been glad to fly for this matter only to the free mercy and grace of God and the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus which is by faith and you will finde that it will be best for you to do the like It may be you will say We have no need to be told of this for we are not Papists to hold justification by works but do beleeve that justification is by faith only without the works of the Law Neverthelesse we cannot think it needlesse for men to be put in minde of this matter I partly because there are many the Lord knows in that dear countrey of ours who discover themselves to be deeply tainted with this as well as other points of Popery and partly because this Popery this pride and self-love is naturall to all the sons of men being a part of that originall sinne which is common to all as well as to those that make direct profession of popery and therefore your selves unlesse you were free from all originall corruption are in danger of this relying upon self-righteousnesse as well as Papists nay we fear be it spoken without offence that there are sundry amongst you that do so rely indeed and though they be not outwardly culpable in respect of popery and prophanenesse but professe a stricter and purer way yet in very truth are in no better condition to God-ward then others are as being utterly without part and portion in Christ Jesus For the manifesting whereof we hope you will easily grant that whoever hath no more religion in him but what might have been attained if Christ had never been such an one whatever relgion he may seem to have is certainly without Christ and in a state of death unto this day And that so it is with many professors may appear by this that trouble of conscience for sinne and reformation of life after that troubler is all the religion that is found in many professors for let a man attain to these two to be stung in conscience for his sinne and afterwards to take up a stricter course of life in the practice of good duties as praier in his family frequenting of Sermons conversing with Christians and such like and how many are there that hereupon would account themselves and be accounted by others to be right good Christians and in a most blessed condition Whenas the truth is all that is here mentioned is no more then might be wrought by the Law though Christ Jesus had never come into the world For a serious consideration of the curses of the Law being threatned might produce the one and the serious consideration of the duties of the Law being pressed urged might produce the other but both the one and the other without Christ and consequently both the one and the other without salvation sith there is no salvation without Christ Wherefore dear friends in the bowels of Jesus Christ we do beseech you examine your selves whether it be thus with you or with any of you ask your selves this Question whether any Evangelicall and saving work of grace and faith in Christ be yet wrought in your souls or whether all that yet you have had experience of doe amount to no more but legall affrightment and legall amendment And if upon examination any soul amongst you shall finde his condition to be no better then this that here we are speaking of in the name of God let such a soul be deeply humbled and repent in dust and ashes for this amongst all his other sinnes that he hath prized Christ no more thinking himself to be rich and encreased in goods and to have need of nothing because of legall duties and â—â—mmon graces not knowing how through want of Christ Jesus in his soul he hath all this while been miserable and wretched and blinde and poor and naked And let a man consider with himself and the Lord grant that he may consider it seriously that it is not all this humiliation and reformation that can make satisfaction to the justice of God for any one though but the least of all his manifold transgressions nor justifie his person in the sight of God and therefore if he die in this condition which God forbid he will certainly die accursed