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
have which was the Commendation and Direction given to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.8 10 11. If thus we live and labour for Religion then Religion will revive and live 7. That we stir up our selves to take hold of God who hath hid his face from us that is to recover and retain the presence of God the grace and favour of God If we suffer God to depart Religion will die If God depart the Glory will be removed but if God return Religion will live for God is our life Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave to him for he is thy life O if all those who have a real interest in God and who have power with God would stir up themselves and set themselves by Faith in Prayer to take hold upon him we might we should certainly prevail with him to return to us to abide and continue with us as our God and Saviour for he delights to return and meet his People in such a way Isai 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy wayes behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in those is continuance and we shall be saved Our returning unto God and Gods returning unto us will infer a blessed Resurrection of Religion That we may labour effectually in all these wayes to recover and preserve the life of Religion It is necessary 1. That we do and perform all with Mourning and deep Humiliation Mourning for and over our selves mourning for and over sinners mourning over our Families mourning over our Churches mourning over the rising Generations and over this whole People mourning under the sense of our own Sins and the Sins of others all the Sins of the times mourning under the sense of the dying state of Religion mourning under the sense of Gods displeasure of his departure and the woful effects of both mourning after God after the Lord Jesus Christ after the returns of his presence after his pardoning purging reconciling saving grace and mercy and all the effects thereof O that we could do all that we have to do even our whole work mourning in a frame and way of mourning with a spirit of mourning To that end we should set our selves apart retire our selves unto mourning as that mourning Prophet did Jer. 9.1 2. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day night Oh that I had in the Wilderness the lodging-place of a way-faring man that I might leave my People go from them Mourn alone in secret places Jer. 13.17 My soul shall weep in secret places We should be mourning and alwayes without ceasing without intermission Jer. 14.17 Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day let them not cease Lam. 3.49 Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without intermission Mourning with a deep and bitter mourning and lamentation sighing and crying bitterly unto the breaking of our loyns Ezek. 9.4 Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry Ezek 21.6 Sigh therefore thou Son of man with the breaking of thy loyns and with bitterness sigh before their eyes With an inward spiritual mourning with contrition humiliation and much soul-affliction admitting no comfort no common or carnal comfort Isai 22.4 Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me Mourning in a way of Prayer and Supplication Pray and Mourn and Mourn and Pray So Nehemiah he wept and mourned fasted and prayed Neh. 1.4 So Daniel Dan. 9.3 We must Sigh and Cry sighing and crying to God is the true voice of mourning and of mourners Our Prayers must be the voice of weeping Psal 6.8 9. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping we must mourn unto God So Nehemiah wept and mourned before the God of Heaven Nehem. 1.4 So bemoan our selves to him in our mourning that he may earnestly remember us still and that his bowels may be troubled for us and his compassions moved towards us Jer. 31.18 20. So mourn unto him as that our tears may drop into his Bottle and be written in his Book Psal 56.8 We must follow God mourning seek him mourning turn unto him mourning Jer. 31.9 They shall come with weeping and with supplication will I lead them Observe this is the way wherein God promiseth to revive his People and to raise them up by a Resurrection of Religion out of their deepest defection Jere. 50.4 In those dayes and at the time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going and weeping as they go they shall seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward Such a Mourning is the certain effect of the saving dispensation of the Spirit and converting Grace and is the only way of turning to God in a saving work of Conversion and reformation Zech. 12.10 11 12. And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall mourn in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem And the Land shall mourn every Family apart c. Without such mourning there is no hope or possibility of any deliverance or salvation either from sin or judgement if we will not mourn we shall perish in our Apostasie Ezek. 24.23 Ye shall not mourn nor weep but you shall pine away for your iniquities it is most fearfully signal to a People when God leaves a People without a spirit of mourning and takes away his Mourners Jer. 16.5 Thus saith the Lord enter not into the house of mourning neither go to lament or bemone them for I have taken away my peace from this People saith the Lord even loving-kindness and mercys O if God shall please to frame us to such a mourning then he will most certainly save us from our Sin and Apostasie and turn us unto himself then he will prepare dispose and spirit us unto all his work we shall go on and go through with the work of God which now we can do nothing in when we come to labour in it mourning God will do all by his Mourners Isai 57.18 I have seen his way and I will heal him I will restore comfort to him and his Mourners O that we could mourn after this spirit of Mourners God is speaking mournfully to us by his Word he is mourning to us by his Ministry Mat. 11.7 God sets matter and cause of Mourning before us the wayes and works of God towards us call for Mourning Our Land begins to mourn under the sins of the times God is many wayes calling to weeping and mourning and baldness and girding Sack-cloth Isai 22.12 O that sincere Christians who have through Grace received the spirit and principle of mourning would stirr up themselves thereunto and beg this Grace of God it is your
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