confounding shame and scandal unto this Generation of New-England Christians before the World If having had Religion transmitted to us by our Fathers who through the grace of God upheld it in so much of the power and purity of it while they lived and being still priviledged with all Religious interests and injoyments as the highest advantages and incouragements to preserve the life of Religion we should notwithstanding through our carelessness slothfulness unfaithfulness suffer to decay languish and dye away yea and by our own declensions therein give it a mortal wound Surely if Religion die Christians will in this respect be more inexcusably guilty of the death of it than others O let this be considered and laid to heart The general Exhortation speaks also to Churches as such Religion in the most proper sence of the Text and Doctrine is most properly the life of Churches it is that which gives them being and which is the great end of their being God hath constituted Churches both by Religion and for Religion therefore it is the great design and ought to be the great work of Churches to propagate and preserve the life of it that is recovering and maintaining Holiness Purity in Ecclesiastical constitution union communion administrations both of Doctrine and Worship by religious fear reverence sincerity and solemnity in all Religious Assemblies Attendancies Performances and Churches transactions in the Name of Christ by Zeal Courage Faithfulness in the whole work of Christ and in the management of all the Affairs and the whole interest of Religion Let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit saith to the Churches The Exhortation speaketh also unto Families Parents Masters Heads of Families to move you to keep Religion alive in your Families by being truly Religious your selves in all your Family converses by training up your Children and Servants Religiously unto and for Religion by exercising and upholding the Worship of God in all the wayes of it and in the Life Spirit and Power of it in your Families hereby Religion shall live in Families Thus Abram Gen. 18 19. I know him that he will command his Children and Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. The Exhortation speaketh to all who are the Children of the Covenant and of the Promise though you may at present have no saving Knowledge and Experience of or Interest in Religion and therefore no hearts ingagement to it or hearty care or concernment for it but are in your present state and way Enemies unto it Yet O Remember that Religion is your life also you have been born and bred up under the visible dispensation of the Covenant and Kingdom of God in the House of God for Beligion and therefore if you have any care of your Souls or hope of Salvation if you would not be cast off for ever as a Reprobate Generation a Generation of Gods wrath O apply your selves to Religion approve your selves Religions labour by all means to make Religion your own in a saving work of Conversion prepare your selves to undertake and uphold a pure and sincere Profession and Practice of it that you may not only keep it your selves but transmit it to succeeding Generations then Religion shall be your life also Then the Lord your God will be with you as he was with your Fathers he will not leave you nor forsake you 1 King 8.57 And now O that all who do understand and believe any thing either concerning God or their own Souls concerning good or evil life or death Heaven or Hell may at lest so far take notice of and bare this Exhortation as to suffer themselves to be moved thereby no more to slight or set light by Religion but to have high and appreciating thoughts of Religion most seriously and solemnly to consider of the eternal concernment of your own immortal Souls therein in the Being Life and Continuance of it as that whereby you may live spiritually live eternally and without which you will most certainly perish inevitably utterly and everlastingly May we not ought we not all in the conclusion to reinforce this Exhortation upon our Souls by that vehement contestation whereby Moses doth in a most solemn and awful manner as it were conjure that People unto Faith and Obedience Deut. 30.19 I call Heaven and Earth to Record against you this day that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy Seed may live that thou love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave to him for he is thy life When God doth thus set life and death before his Covenant People and put them to their full Trial as to final choice O then it is their most important Duty and Interest to chuse life that both they and their Seed may live May we not with fear and trembling apprehend our selves even these Churches and this whole People New-England as it were standing before God upon our great Trial for Life and Death O that we understood that the great case of Life and Death is now depending between God and New-England what reason have we to take heed as for our lives how we approve our selves upon this great trial that God hath set Life and Death before us all the World is witness Heaven Earth may be called to record against us that he hath done it God hath set Life before us by setting the whole way of Life before us his Law his Gospel his Covenant his Kingdom all both Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good he hath set Religion before us and exhibited himself unto us through his Son as our life God hath also set Death and Cursing before us by setting all our whole way of Sin and Apostasie before us the whole way of Death and Destruction which we have been walking in as also by setting both Temporal and Eternal Judgement before us in those Threatnings which have been denounced against us This proposal of Life and Death hath been made in an extraordinary way and manner by the concurrent voice and cry of the Ministry more especially by such of the Servants of God whom he had made eminently able and faithful who have finished their Testimony and are removed God hath also made this Discovery and Proposal of Life and Death general to all Sorts Orders and Degrees to all the Churches to all the People in all the Congregations and God continueth thus to set Life and Death before us by all seasons and opportunities but more plainly expresly fully and generally upon such occasions and in such General Assemblies as these and that with extraordinary Solemnity It hath been Gods great work of late to set Life and Death Blessing and Cursing before us by the Ministry of his Word and he is so doing unto this day wherein God is yet in infinite Mercy crying unto us Chuse life that both you and your Seed may live By this Word God is once more calling
A PLEA For the Life of Dying Religion from the Word of the Lord IN A SERMON Preached to the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the COLONY of the MASSACHVSETS at Boston in New-England May 16. 1683. Being the Day of ELECTION there By Mr. Samuel Torrey Pastor of the Church of Christ at Waymouth Rev. 3.1 I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain which are ready to dye Deut. 30.19 I call heaven and earth to Record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave to him for he is thy life Hosea 6.1 Come let us return to the Lord. 2 After two dayes he will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND Printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Sewall 1683. TO THE READER IT was the Importunate Solicitation of many and more especially of them whose Request caused the Sermon emitted herewith to be Preached that prevailed with the Reverend and Worthy Author so far to gratifie their desires as to let others have a Copy of what he delivered on so Solemn an Occasion leaving it with them to dispose of as they should see cause I have perused it with great satisfaction finding it to be not only an affectionate and awakening but a rational and judicious Discourse and than which nothing can be more seasonable It hath often been affirmed and truly that the distinguishing Character whereby New-England is differenced from other Out-goings of the English Nation is in that the great motive inducing the first Planters to remove themselves and theirs into a wast and howling Wilderness was like that of the Children of Israel of old the Interest of Religion which their Souls were concerned for And whilest Men continued faithful to that blessed design as the Prophet said to Jehojakim it was well with them They that sought first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness had other things added to them which they never thought nor could in reason hope to enjoy Nor did any Weapon formed against us in those dayes prosper The Lord hath caused us and all the World about us to see that Religion is our life That this Interest without which we our selves cannot live hath been for many years languishing and dying is the observation of all men that have their hearts exercised in discerning things of this nature The complaint is that N-England is not to be found in N-England but we are become like the rest of the Nations being grown into the same conformity to the World with other Plantations whose Interest and profession never was as ours hath been There is a woful decay as to externals and the Form of Religion amongst the Professors of it Hearing the Word as to the publick dispensation thereof Prayer with Fasting and other religious Exercises which reach no further than the Form of Godliness are not so frequent as in former dayes and that is a most certain sign that the power of Godliness is much more in a bleeding and dying state It is not then to be wondered at if the tenour of divine Dispensation hath of later times been changed towards us The hand of God hath been heavy upon many places in the Land he hath smitten us with a deadly destruction The killing Sword a mortal Contagion and other judgements have threatned life it self And since we have let Religion die we have been in greater danger than ever of being deprived both of our Political and Ecclesiastical life Let us not be high-minded but fear If we do not in this our Day know the things of our peace so as to recover the life of Religion the consideration of Gods holy severity towards others may cause trembling of heart lest at last the Lord do unto us as he hath done unto them Are we better than Shiloh where the House of God continued almost four hundred Years Are we better than Jerusalem the perfection of Beauty and Joy of the whole Earth Are we better than the Churches in Asia planted by the Apostles themselves and amongst whom there was once a gracious and glorious presence of the Son of God But those Candlesticks are long ago removed out of their Places not so much as one of them remaining Because they have lost their Religion they have lost their lives and beings A late Historian who about twelve years ago was in those parts saith that horrour took hold upon him as he was viewing the doleful Ruins of those once Glorious Churches fearing lest the sins of other places which as yet enjoy the Gospel might in time expose them to the like miseries He saith that in Ephesus there are now only a few Cottages and not so much as one Christian dwelling there Smyrna is at this day a considerable place in respect of Trade but no settled Inhabitants there to uphold so much as the Name of Christians excepting a few Superstitious Greeks In Pergamus there are but fifteen Families of Christians and those in a state most miserable both as to Spirituals and Temporals In Thyarira the Turks have eight Mosches but very few Christians now residing there Sardis which was once the Metropolis of Lydia is now a beggerly Village Earthquakes and Wars having brought that famous City under horrid desolations There is nothing like a Church there In Philadelphia there is a greater number of Men calling themselves Christians than in any of those Asiatick Churches excepting Smyrna For in that City are two hundred Families of those who are called Christians but they are Idolaters and in miserable slavery to the cruel Turks As for Laodicea which was once a rich and populous place and the Buildings in it exceeding magnificent it is now utterly desolated not so much as one Inhabitant there excepting Wolves and doleful Creatures Thus did all these famous Places and Churches by losing Religion lose their own Lives and Beings Time was when in Africa there were many thousands of Churches but the true Religion being gone out of that vast Continent thrice as big as Europe what but Death is to be seen there Let us look nearer home In the Land of our Fathers Sepulchres there were Churches amongst the antient Britains but when those sins of Pride Drunkenness Contention Worldliness notwithstanding Gildas and other faithful Ministers did zealously testifie against them became common and prevailing Evils God first sent a sweeping Plague amongst them and when that Besom af Destruction could not Reform them the Lord brought the Saxons upon them who rooted them out of their Land And if we consider the dispensations of God since the Reformation successfully begun by the Ministry of Luther Zuinglius Calvin and other great Champions for the Truth
and Reformation And not only so but when God hath given him an opportunity more than once to speak in the Name of the Lord unto this People in respect of the Heads and Representatives thereof he hath delivered his own Soul by giving Warning and what he hath spoken shall turn to him for a Testimony It is an hazardous thing as much as life is worth for men not to comply with the Word of God by whomsoever or to whomsoever spoken If a Josiah regard not the Word of God spoken by a Pharaoh Necho he loses his Life for it and so did Zedekiah because he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. It s true that Ministers in these dayes have no immediate Call or Commission from Heaven yet if they deliver such Messages as are according to the Law and the Testimony it is God that speaketh by them and many times their hearts are inclined to this or that subject by a special operation of the spirit of Christ who is with his Servants to the end of the World Let us then hear that so our souls may live God of his free Grace hath seen meet to dignifie an handful of his People who are separated from their Brethren with the chief and choicest of Blessings It is promised as an high favour Jer. 30.21 Their Nobles shall be of themselves and their Governours shall-proceed from the midst of them We have had these over us who have been as the Expression of the Antient is Nobiles genere Nobiliores sanctitate We cannot be thankful enough for that Blessing Civil Liberty is an invaluable mercy The Jewish Rabbins have a saying that if the Sea were Ink and the Earth Parchment it would not be sufficient to write down the praise due to God for liberty But what then shall be said concerning the Liberties of the Gospel we enjoy all at this day The way to have them continued is for us to approve our selves faithful to the interest of Religion For then God will be for us and if he be for us who can be against us Boston in N. England August 31. 1683. INCREASE MATHER A PLEA FOR THE LIFE OF Dying Religion DEUT. 32.47 Because it is your Life IT hath pleased the great and blessed God in his infinite Soveraignty to transact with Man about the everlasting Concernments of his immortal Soul to dispense both his Mercy and Justice both Life and Death to distribute Eternal Rewards and Punishments and to govern Man unto his Eternal State only in the way of a Covenant All Reprobate Sinners are destroyed and damned under the Curse and Condemnation of the Covenant of Works All God's Elect are saved by and through our Lord Jesus Christ according unto and under the Covenant of Grace God hath constituted the Covenant of Redemption in his own Eternal Counsel before the World was and therein laid the Foundation both of the Constitution and Administration of the Covenant of Grace in by through that one only great and glorious Mediator Jesus Christ whose work it is to bring a certain Elect number of sallen Man unto God concerning whom he saith I will be their God and they shall be my People Hence God ever hath had and ever will have a Covenant-People in the World untill this Dispensation of Grace shall be consummated in Glory And when the most High divided to the nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel For the Lord's Portion is his People and Jacob the Lot of his Inheritance Deut. 32.8 9. This Book it may be in some respects most properly called The Book of the Covenant because it contains not only a more full plain Revelation Exposition of the Covenant it self in the constitution way manner means of the Administration Confirmation of it of the All-Sufficiency of God unto his People therein as their God in Covenant but also a description of that notable Covenant-Transaction wherein all the Duties all the Blessings and all the Curses of the Covenant are expresly and in set form proposed and the people moved unto the most solemn Restipulation of their Souls to God under the most sacred and indispensible Obligations to live to him and walk with him by religious Fear Reverence Faith Love and Obedience as his Covenant-people for ever and this ratified and confirmed by a most awful Contestation whereby Heaven and Earth are called to record Deut. 30.19 20. I call Heaven Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing therefore chuse Life that both thou and thy seed may live And now Moses having thus finished his great and extraordinary Ministry wherein he had been accompanied with an extraordinary presence and power of God and was eminently a Type of Christ he doth prepare himself instantly to take leave of the People of his Work and of the World The people he incourageth by a promise of God's Presence to make their Progress unto and Enterance into and full Possession of the Land of Promise His Office and Work he resigneth unto Joshuah whom he did by divine appointment ordain his Successor charging of him with the Care and Conduct of the People unto their Rest in Canaan and this upon full assurance that God would be with him and that he would never fail him nor forsake him The Law which he had received of the Lord and delivered unto the people containing the whole Word and Worship of God and so their whole Religion together with a prophetical Song shewing the diverse State of that Church and People in succeeding Ages under the successive Dispensation of the Covenant this Law and this Song he delivers to the Priests and People for their improvement charging of them most earnestly and affectionately to set their hearts unto it because it was their Life These words because it is thy Life they are some of the last words of Moses that great Prophet and therefore they contain matter of the greatest Importance to the People of God They are together with the Context his last his farewell and dying Charge whereby he set himself in a sentence or two to speak all at once to deliver unto them the Sum or a System of all that Doctrine and Duty which he had before throughout the whole course of his Ministry been delivering unto them all that they were to know to believe or to practise the whole both of Faith and Obedience that is more plainly their whole Religion And he chargeth them to set their hearts unto it that is to prise it love it keep it cleave to it live and walk in the sincere pure powerfull Profession and Practice of it with all their hearts with all their minds with all their Souls with all their might and with all their strength from Generation unto Generation themselves and
was so of the People of Israel It made them great and glorious above all other Nations Deut. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel A People saved by the Lord And great above all Nations it also made them Deut 4.7 For what Nation so great that hath God so nigh unto them High also it made them above the Nations in praise in name and in honour Deut. 26.19 It made them a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal Diadem in the hand of their God Isa 62.3 That God hath made our People and Nations at least in these latter Ages so much a Glory among the Nations and so much the Bulwark and Defence of Religion in the World it ought to be acknowledged with Doxologie That God hath bless'd poor New-England with so much of Religion planted these Heavens and laid the foundations of this Earth in such an happy subserviency thereunto this we ought to commemorate with Thankfulness yet not without some yea much diminution of our joy and comfort under a sorrowful sense of our present Defection therein VSE II. It ought to be for Admonition If we are a People of Religion if Religion be our Life O let us then be Admonished to take heed that we do not destroy our Religion and so destroy our own Life destroy our selves utterly and most miserably by destroying our Religion And we are the more concerned to give most diligent and earnest heed to such an Admonition and Warning because our Lord Jesus seems to speak to these Churches as to the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.1 I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead That there hath been a vital decay a decay upon the very Vitals of Religion by a deep declension in the Life and Power of it that there is already a great Death upon Religion little more left than a name to live that the things which remain are ready to dye and that we are in great danger of dying together with it This is one of the most awakening humbling Considerations of our present State and Condition Oh! the many deadly Symptoms Symptoms of Death that are upon our Religion Consider we then how much it is dying respecting the very Being of it by the general failure of the work of Conversion whereby only it is that Religion is propagated continued and upheld in being among any People As converting work doth cease so Religion doth dye away though more insensibly yet most irrecoverably How much Religion is dying in the very Hearts of sincere Christians by their Declensions in Grace Holiness and the Power of Godliness How much it is dying respecting the visible Profession and Practice of it partly by the Formality of Churches but more by the Hypocrisie and Apostasie of formal hypocritical Professors How much it is dying under the prevailing power of those Sins and Evils which are utterly inconsistent with and destructive of the Life of it Those Sins continuing and prevailing Religion cannot live it must needs dye Such as are the deep and general Degeneracy of the Generations Unprofitableness under all means of Grace Unbelief Disobedience to the Gospel Formality Hypocrisie and spiritual Idolatry in the Worship of God Prophanation and Pollutions of the House of God Slighting and Neglect of Holy Things Interests and Injoyments thereof Worldliness Prophaneness Sensuality All these Sins more especially when they are become the very Spirit of the Times and Generation when they are penal and judicial then they will certainly issue in general and total Apostacy and so will destroy not only the life and power but the external Form Order and Interest of Religion also Hence how is Religion dying in Churches Churches which are constituted on purpose for the propagation and preservation of the Life of Religion that live and have their being only by the life of Religion how little is there of the life of Religion left in them and how are Churches themselves languishing and dying together with Religion How is Religion dying in Families through the neglect of the religious Service and Worship of God and of the religious Education of Children and Youth in Families Truly here and hereby Religion first received its death's wound Hence Religion is dying in all other Societies among all Orders and Degrees of men in all ways of Converse both Civil and Ecclesiastical O there is little or nothing of the Life of Religion to be seen or appearing either in the Frame or Way Hearts or Lives of the generality of the Professors of it And that which remains thereof ready to dye How much and great cause have we then to take heed that we do not quite destroy it That is 1. Take heed that we do not exchange our Religion for the World that we do not commit that Heaven-astonishing Sin which God charged his People with Jer. 2.11 12 13. But my people have changed their Glory for that which doth not profit Be astonished O ye heavens at this be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken Me the Fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water They had exchanged their God and their Religion for the World they had advanced the Interest of the World above the Interest of Religion and thereby Inslaved themselves V. 14. Is Israel a servant is he a home-born Slave why is he spoiled God destroyed them by that worldly Interest whereby they had destroyed their Religion If once a People do set their hearts upon the World so as to make it their highest and heart-interest their preponderating ruling Interest which doth sway all and carry all before it when the Spirits Principles Counsels and Designs of a People are all for the World set for the promotion and advancement of their worldly Interest when the Interest and Concernments of Religion yea even Religion it self is made subordinate and subservient to the World yea prostituted by worldly men to worldly Lusts and thereby exposed to all kind of abuse scandal shame reproach and made an Opprobrium when the visible Professors of Religion are not only in heart alienated from but are become secret Enemies to it when Religion is oppressed and depressed when it is made not only to serve but also to suffer under the rising ruling Interest of the World WO then will be to such a People for they have exchanged their Religion for the World therefore their Religion will dye The spirit of the World and of Worldliness hath been is and is like to be the most general and powerful Principle of Apostacy to the professing people of God and it is often yea ordinarily the death of Religion It is always so when where it prevails 2. We are admonished to take heed that we do not desert Religion If we desert it it will certainly dye dye without remedy That we do not desert it by
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
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
their Children for ever And thus he moves them to set their hearts unto Religion Because it is their Life Whence we have this DOCT. That Religion it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God Our Text and Doctrine deliver the great and universal Reason of the Profession and Practice of our Religion Viz Because it is our Life Religion in the most full and comprehensive notion of it It is that whereby Man is qualified and capacitated to live unto God to live with God to live upon God to see and to injoy God in Christ as the Only and All-sufficient Author of Life and Object of Blessedness and Happiness as his last End and chief Good Religion comprehends Man's Deliverance from all both moral and miserable Evil both Sin Death and Hell as also all both moral and beatifical Good Holiness Happiness Grace and Glory And it is consummated in a perfection of Beatifical Vision and Fruition by the Light and Life of Heaven In the Explication I am to shew 1. That Religion is Life 2. That it is the Life of the Covenant-people of God 1. Religion it is Life that is 1. The true and pure Religion It is originally and only from God the living God the God of all Life who is Life it self in the abstract and the Fountain of Life to all living Religion it ariseth from and is founded in the very Being and Nature of the blessed God If there were no such God there could be no such Religion Religion it is of God both in a way of divine Revelation and in a way of divine Operation It is purely of divine Revelation respecting both the Doctrine of it the spiritual supernatural and saving Knowledge of it It is that whereby God hath revealed himself unto man and whereby man hath that saving Knowledge of God and Jesus Christ his Son which is Life eternal Joh. 17.3 It is that whereby God hath commanded Light to shine out of Darkness and by the enlightening power of his Spirit shined into our hearts and given us the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4.6 It his marveilous Light 1 Pet. 2.9 Religion it is also from God in a way of divine Operation It is the most powerful Effect of the quickening power and operation of the Spirit of God as a Spirit of Life upon the creature hence it is phrased the Life of God Eph. 4.8 Religion it is the most glorious created Emanation of spiritual heavenly and divine Light and Life from God as the fountain of both Psal 36.9 For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy Light shall we see Light 2. Religion it is also from Christ the Mediator It is founded in the Person Office and Work of Christ The being of Religion the light life good blessedness and happiness of it it is all from the Merit Satisfaction and Intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ and from the power and operation of his Spirit Religion it consisteth in our Faith in Christ and Obedience unto Him and in our practical and experimental Union Communion with his Person and the Application of all his Benefits even eternal Life Thus Religion it is our Life because thereby we are made partakers of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life Joh. 11.25 The Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14.6 By having of whom we have Life 1 Joh. 5.12 who is our Life Colos 3.4 Christ is the great PATRON and PROFESSOR of our Religion He hath confirmed it by his own personal Profession and Practice when on earth and is himself the great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Heb. 3.1 Whence it is most properly called the Christian Religion 3. Religion it is respecting the Principles of it Life The Principles of it are living Principles Principles of Life Religion it is wrought into the hearts of men by the quickening power of the Spirit in that saving work of Grace wherein we are raised from Death unto Life wherein we are passed from Death unto Life 1 Joh. 3.14 Religion it is our spiritual Resurrection and so it is our spiritual Life 4. Religion in the practice of it it is the only way of Life It is by the performance of Religious Duties that men walk in the way of Life Practical Religion it is the narrow way which leadeth to Life Mat. 7.14 It is that way of Life which is above to the wise to depart from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24 It is the Everlasting Way Psal 139.24 5. Religion in the visible external Forms of it in all the religious Institutions Constitutions and Administrations which are of divine Appointment so it is the only Means of Life that whereby God gives Life or works Life In which sence it is said Salvation is of the Jews Joh. 4.22 Religion it is the living Waters the Waters of Life the Tree of Life which gives Life to the Nations Ezek. 47.8 9. Zech. 14.8 Rev. 22.1 2. Where Religion is there are all the Means of Life and the saving Improvement of those Means Where Religion is not there is no Day of Grace no Means of Grace no Life no Salvation 6. Religion it is that wherein and whereby man is brought to God to Christ to God in Christ. It is that whereby we do know God acknowledge him fear him believe hope and trust in him love serve worship and glorifie God and whereby we come to God converse with God have Communion with God and receive all saving Communications from God through Jesus Christ It is that whereby men move and act towards and upon God in and by which God dwells with men on earth it is that whereby we do apprehend cleave unto and live upon God as our Life Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and cleave to him for He is thy Life Thus Religion in the Principles of it it is Life in the Practice of it is the Way of Life in the visible and external Forms and Institutions of it it is the Means of Life and respecting the original Object and Ends of it it comes from and leads and brings us up unto God in Christ who is our Life Thus it is demonstrated that Religion is Life Secondly That Religion is Life to the Covenant-People of God that is 1. It is their spiritual Life that whereby they live spiritually It is that whereby every single Saint lives the Life of Grace and Holiness the Life of Faith and New Obedience The spirit and power of Religion in the heart it is Life to the Soul and gives being to the New Creature Rom. 8.6 To be spiritually minded it is Life Hence Religion it is that which makes the People of God a Living People God's People must be a living People Whenever God takes a People to be his People He quickens them with spiritual Life and makes them a Living People Ezek. 37.6 And ye shall live ' and ye shall know that I am
be so much danger of the Death of Religion O then let all who love and desire life both temporal spiritual and eternal life and who fear death so great a death be moved to labour with all our hearts minds souls might and strength by all ways and means to recover and save the life of Religion which is our own life This Exhortation proposeth and presseth all the great and general Dutys of the Covenant People of God at such a time and in such a case as we are Moses applied all the whole Word of God at once to the People by this one Word of Exhortation Set your hearts unto all the Words c. because it is your life It is also the sum of all which our Lord Jesus propounds to the declining Churches Rev. 3.2 Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die I am though most unworthy called forth this day and set in this General Assembly to speak for the life of Religion to plead in the Name of the Lord and by the Word of the Lord for the life of Religion to plead for the life of dying Religion Oh! were the heart of N-Engl rightly and fully prepared resolved and set for the recovery and safety of the life of Religion God would then most graciously make clear and full discoveries of our whole way and work therein and of all the means thereunto Yea God himself would soon bring all to pass for us To this end we ought to be throughly convinced of and deeply humbled even unto shame and confusion of Face under the sense of the decaying dying state of Religion and withal charge judge condemn loath and abhor our selves for all that Sin and Apostasie whereby we have brought Religion into such a state Under such Conviction and Humiliation we must set our selves to labour unto the resurrection of Religion and that with extraordinary Zeal Courage Faith-fulness and Resolution in the improvement of all means with one heart and one soul as one man even as for our lives and more than for our lives still acknowledging that when we have done all that we can Religion must be revived not without the greatest Miracle of Divine Power Grace and Mercy by God himself Ezek. 37.12 O my People I will open your Graves That we may obtain the accomplishment of this great promise it will be necessary 1. That we do under an humbling heart-breaking sense of our present absolute and extream necessity of the mighty power and working of the Spirit of God in a way of Soveraign Grace and Mercy for the recovery of the Life of Religion labour unto an extraordinary exercise of Faith and Hope in God for it Plead and improve his Covenant and all his Promises to that end We have great encouragement from the Word of God so to do Hos 6.1 2. Come let us return unto the Lord After two dayes he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight If we could thus come unto God by Faith he would revive us there is nothing more dangerously Symptomatical than when a People grow senseless secure stupid sottishly supine in the depth of Apostasie None of the declining Churches so irrecoverably gone as that of Laodicea and that because utterly senseless and secure Rev. 3.17 Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So the People of Israel I mean the ten Tribes when they were sunk in their Apostasie past recovery God by the Prophet Elijah put them upon the utmost trial by that great proposal 1 King 18.21 How long halt ye between two Opinions If the Lord be God follow him if Baal then follow him and the People answered him nor a word Observe the People answered him not a Word which fignifies plainly that although they were fully convinced of their Apostasie and manifested by their silence that they were judged and self-condemned yet they were so stupid and sottish under it that they were not at all careful nor concerned about it nor willing to trouble themselves their minds or thoughts with it God grant it may not be so with us 2. That we do carefully and very curiously observe and labour to understand the Time the Way the Work of the Lord when and wherein he is graciously willing and working to revive and raise up yielding up our selves unto him as the Subject of so great a Work It is the greatunhappiness and misery of any declining People not to understand when and how God is labouring with them to revive and raise them Hos 11.3 I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their Arms but they knew not that I healed them Hence it was they abused all both ordinary and extraordinary means and mercies unto their own deeper defection and utter destruction as Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the Iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the Sin of Samaria the more God laboured with them to heal them the worse they were until at last they became wilfully unwilling to be healed and even desperately resolute in their Apostasie Jer. 2.25 But thou saidst there is no hope no for I have loved Strangers and after them I will go So Jer. 18.12 Isai 30.15 This made the Prophet to lament to dolefully without hope Jer. 8.18 20. When I would comfort my self against sorrow my heart is faint in me the Harvest is past the Summer ended and we are not healed for the hurt of the Daughter of my People I am hurt I am black astonishment hath taken hold upon me That which broke the heart of his hope was they had not known nor improved the time and means of their healing and salvation and therefore now their case was hopeless and remediless this made our Blessed Lord Jesus to weep out the Bowels of his Compassion over Jerusalem in that doleful lamentation Luk. 19.41 42. And when he was come near he beheld the City wept over it if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the things which belong to thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes Verse 44. Because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation So Mat. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. How often would I have gathered thy Children c. and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate When a People do not will not observe nor understand the time way and work of the Lord and so refuse to be healed and saved God doth then give them up as a reprobate People Jer. 6.29.30 The Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed of the fire the Founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Ezek. 24.13 Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged
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
after this Generation of Vnconverted Sinners You who are yet in your sins in a state and way of Sin and Death remaining secure and senceless therein who have heretofore and hitherunto slighted neglected and rejected all the Calls of the Gospel and all the Ministerial offers of eternal life through Jesus Christ After all the proposals of life after all the calls commands and perswasions that you have been under to move you to chuse Life You are now this day once more called commanded perswaded yea intreated beseeched and prayed in the Name of the Lord and by the Word of the Lord to chuse Life Our Lord Jesus is most graciously pleased by the Ministry of this Word to exhibit himself in all his fulness and sufficiency of Grace and Life all an Alsufficient Saviour and is crying in this General Assembly unto New-England Sinners to chuse him to come to him that they may have life as once he did by his own personal Ministry in a General Assembly of that People far greater than this John 7.37 In the last and great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cried if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me c. You have been set and have been continued under an extraordinary improvement of all means in this your day of Grace which is continued and protracted beyond the ordinary date of divine patience by an extraordinary protraction of longsuffering in a way of probation and trial God hath been trying and proving of you and waiting upon you a great while But know that his Spirit shall not alwayes strive Gen. 6.3 He hath limited a certain day beyond which he will not wait Heb. 4.7 and upon a supposition that God hath so limited a certain day whereby he hath dated his patience and longsuffering and the period of the present day of Grace unto this Generation of Sinners you may sadly conclude that you live under the latest and last the final and farewel calls and cries of Mercy by the Ministry of the Word that God will not much longer call and cry after you nor strive with you therefore you are warned to flee from the wrath which is to come Mat. 3.7 12. And now also the Ax is laid to the root of the Tree therefore every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire You are in extream danger under the power and working of that spirit of unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel which is the Spirit of the times and whereby the Generation that is the generality of Sinners are so strongly inclined and carried out to refuse Life and chuse Death It is much to be feared that many if not the most have already so done and are accordingly in dreadful judgement given up by God unto that fatal choice Psal 81.12 So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts c. O it is high time then now now if ever because you may fear now or never to chuse life to chuse Spiritual Temporal and Eternal Life to make that great comprehensive unchangeable eternal Choice upon which depends not only the Salvation of your own Souls but even the deliverance and salvation of this People and these Churches If you do thus chuse Life all will be well with New-England but if you should refuse generally to chuse Life you will be likely not only to destroy your selves but all posterity it would be fearfully signal if any sinners should be so prodigiously hardened and heightned in their impenitency and unbelief as to be raised unto that presumptuous and desperate resolution with those in the Prophet Isai 22.13 14. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die I have no other word to leave upon such but that which follows in the next verse And it was revealed in mine ear by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die God is also by this word calling upon his own Servants to chuse Life though you have already made the great and most happy choice of Life for your own Souls last spoken of yet you are further to chuse life that is all the wayes and means of life whatsoever may any way conduce unto the furtherance of the work of Conversion and the progress of Reformation the recovery of the life of Religion Chuse indeed that is chuse it practically make a practical choice of it that is chuse it so as to make it your work You are in this respect not only to chuse life for your selves but for others chuse life for your Families for your Children and Servants Josh 24.15 Chuse you this day whom ye will serve But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. It was a time wherein all the People were put to their choice and Joshuah chose for himself and his House Again chuse life for the Churches It is with a few of the sincere Servants of God to chuse life for the Churches O chuse the way and work of Church Reformation and all means and helps thereunto Life and Death is in this respect set before Churches if the Servants of God in them chuse life for them the Churches will chuse life Finally chuse life for the People the Servants of God in their several places and stations according to their betrustments ought to chuse life for the People chuse all things that do conduce to the preservation of the life of this People in all the forementioned respects O it is a great thing to be charged and betrusted with the life of a People the visible People of God the publick weal the life of a People hath great dependance upon the Wisdome and Faithfulness of those who are and ought to chuse life and blessing for them Thus God hath set New-England between Ebal Gerazim he hath life and blessing on the one hand death and cursing on the other hand brought us to a Trial what we will chuse it is Gods way and work with us so to do by all his dispensations what the issue will be what exit we shall make upon this trial is awful considerable O that it might be the holy will of the blessed God to chuse life and blessing for us and inable us by his spirit and grace to chuse it for our selves and not suffer us to run upon our own ruin by the fatel woful choice of death Wherein we shall make our selves most inexcusably both sinful and miserable because we have been warned according to the charge that God hath given unto his Watch-men Ezek. 33.3 8. The Trumpet hath been blown and the People have been warned It hath been the greatest care and concernment of those of Gods faithful Watchmen who have had fullest discoveries of our extreamest dangers both by sin and judgement so to discharge themselves as to deliver their own Souls that they might themselves be clear from the blood of all men Hence all
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