Deploring Mournful Penitential Crys of Prayer although there are a Praying People yet left with us those who are Gods Remembrancers who stand before him in the Gap But alas how much of the Spirit Life and Power of Prayer is decayed and wanting among People and Professors in Publick Private Secret and how much we have failed and falsifyed with God in our Prayers We have sad cause to Consider O that there might be such a General Powerful cry of Prayer as sometimes there hath been with us and as God now expects and looks for and which is absolutely necessary as the way and means wherein we are to seek and labour to obtain this Salvation from God God hath therefore promised that his People shall pray Jer. 29.11 12. Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall goe and Pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and yee shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart This is a promise that then they should Pray when the time of Salvation was come God alwayes Saves his People in the way of Prayer Jer. 31.9 They shall come with Weeping and with Supplication will I lead them Oh that God would pour out the Spirit of Grace Supplication upon us But it may be inquired What we are more especially and particularly to Believe and Pray for in order to the Obtainment of such Salvation I Reply It must be for the returns and continuance of the Divine Presence and the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit 1. That God would no further or longer withdraw himself His Spiritual Gracious Saving Presence but return to us in those ways and by those degrees wherein and whereby he hath been departing from us We have yet all the visible signs and means of his presence that ever we had or any People can have But alas how much have we lost of the Spiritual Beauty Glory Power Saving Effects and Blessedness of his presence and of the comfortable Beatifical Apprehensions of his presence in Spiritual Communion with him and communications from him God is much with-drawn from our hearts and from his own House much of the Protecting Directing Prospering Propitious presence of God in the wayes of his Providence gone And truly the Divine presence seems still to be upon its remove from us we our People seem to be very little sensible of it and growing more insensible unconcerned about it surely then it is high time for us to stir up our selves to take hold of God we may complain with the Church Isa 64.7 There is none that call upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord till he come that is till he return Truly Wo will be to us if we suffer God to depart quite away from us Hos 9.12 It was therefore the burthen of the Churches Prayer Psa 80.3.7.19 Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be Saved More plainly Expressed Verse 14. Return O Lord we beseech thee When ever God Saves his People he returns and when ever he returns he brings Salvation with him Zech. 1.16 I am returned to Jerusalem with great Mercies 2. We must believe and pray for the accomplishment of the great Promise of the Spirit It was intimated before that God works more immediately to Save his People by his Spirit they therefore can expect no such Salvation otherwise then by the accomplishment of that Promise of the Spirit which indeed seems to be a Fundamental Article of the Covenant of Grace because it is by the performance of that he brings his People into Covenant with himself and applies all the Saving Grace of the Covenant unto them and so thereby he becomes their God and makes them his People therefore it is so often in express terms given and renewed in the Scripture both of the Old and New Testament as Isa 44.1 6. Isa 59.20 21. Ezek. 36.27 Ezek. 37.14 Ezek. 39.29 Joel 2.28 and elsewhere abundantly which signifies that God hath laid this Promise of his Spirit in the foundation of the Faith Hope and Confidence of his People and that the accomplishment of it is the great thing which they are to believe and pray for in order to their Salvation and therefore he hath directed his Church to wait upon him for Salvation until he pour out his Spirit Isa 32.15 Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the Wilderness become a fruitful field There were gracious Promises of Salvation made to the Church in that Context but they were to wait for it until the Spirit was poured upon them from on high It all depended upon the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit We have it may be sometimes thought and hoped that we had seen God working in the way of his Providence at this time and at that for our Salvation and we have been apt to be much raised in our Spirits with what we have so thought God hath been doing for us and that with very high hopes of being suddenly and perfectly restored to as good and happy condition as ever But alas do we see do we feel God working by the power of his Spirit Truly if not whatever other Signs or Prognosticks of good we may think we see we may assure our selves that all such hopes and confidences will fail us and we shall be left to complain with the Church Jer. 14.19 We looked for peace but no good hath come for a time of healing and behold trouble and as Isa 59.9 11. We wait for light and behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness We looked for Judgment but there is none for Salvation but it is far from us Thus it will be so long as God doth with hold and suspend the Dispensation of the Spirit which is of all other the most humbling consideration of our present state and condition and therefore if we hope that God should ever have mercy upon New-England and Save us by himself we must labour our very Souls must labour by Faith in Prayer for the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit It is by the accomplishment of this Promise that God doth accomplish all other Promises and Prophesies also to his Church referring to their Salvation Yea it is by the accomplishment of this Promise of the Spirit that he doth accomplish all his most great and Glorious Works in the World referring more directly to his own Kingdom Name and Glory O may we obtain this Dispensation of the Spirit then his will be filled with his Spirit whereby the Ministry and Ministration of it will be made mighty and powerful as the Rod of Christs Strength sent out of Zion and we shall be made a willing people in such a day of his Power Psal 110.2 3. Then all Ordinances shall be filled with the Spirit and so become
will Signalize his special favour unto you by making and setting of you as a Signet upon his right hand Hag. 2. ult Then shall we with much joy and thankfulness acknowledge to his Praise That he hath given us Rulers divinely Spirited Just men fearing God and that he hath restored unto us our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the Beginning 2. I propose the same word of Exhortation unto my Brethren in the Ministry and herein I desire first to apply to my self who am among all the rest most unworthy therefore most unmeet in that respect to apply unto you yet having through divine patience and mercy lived to out-live the most of those of the more worthy Servants of Christ who have been Coaetaneous with me and being one of those Ancient Men yet Surviving who have seen the First Temple the First House in much of its First Glory I mean these Churches shining with the fulness and splendor of the divine presence in the beauty of holiness and who have also unhappily seen the beginning and progress of that defection which hath occasioned the gradual removes of the Glory and which doth endanger the dissolution of their Constitution therefore I ought to be the more sensible and deeply affected to propose press the Exhortation the more sensibly and affectionately Whereby O that we might be all moved to wait earnestly upon God by Faith in Prayer for the Promise of the Spirit in the more full accomplishment of it to our selves We tho unworthy are Servants of our Lord Christ under peculiar relation unto him as the great Prophet Apostle Shepherd and Bishop of Souls the head Minister of this most glorious Gospel Ministry and Ministration who hath engaged himself to his Servants by many special Promises of his Presence Spirit Power and Grace to carry on his own work in their hands more immediately by himself in respect of which it is said They are Labourers together with God and to work the work of the Lord that which is more peculiarly his unto which no Creature in Heaven or Earth hath any Self-sufficiency and wherein Paul and Apollos themselves were nothing and in which the Excellency of Power doth alwayes appear to be of God And because it is all Spiritual Supernatural Creating Work Wherein the Apostle himself said he laboured with fear much trembling doubtless under awful apprehensions of the more immediate Accesses and Concourses of the Divine Presence and Power nothing therefore is to be done in it Savingly but by Divine Sufficiency ingaged by the Spirit by whom his Servants may be endued with power from on high and made able Ministers of the Spirit the Holy Ghost being sent down from Heaven together with the Word Preached by their Ministry The means whereby this work is to be carried on are not Carnal but Spiritual and Mighty only through God and so are to be improved only through Faith that his Servants being full of Faith may also be full of the Holy Ghost and of Power God gave a very powerful prosperous progress to this glorious work by the First Old England Ministry in the first New England Churches which flourished exceedingly thereby And God hath graciously upheld it by the succeeding Ministry though not with like fulness of saving success Nor without a very fadening humbling diminition of Saving Grace and Blessing and a gradual failure of the work of Conversion The work being therefore attended with more more difficulty and discouragement O how much the more are the poor Servants of Christ concerned to reinforce and strengthen their dependence upon him by Faith in his Promise in all the Promises of his Spirit for more immediate and extraordinary Assistance considering they are called to labour for him in the decaying State of Religion the declining State of Churches and Christians with a Backsliding people with an hard-hearted unbelieving disobedient generation of Sinners heightning and strengthning themselves in their ways of sinning multiplying and aggravating all the Sins of the Times unto an higher and higher degree both of Transgression and Provocation and much in danger of falling under that most dreadful Execution of Divine Vindictive Justice upon the Souls of men by Spiritual Plagues and Judgments And in all this to stand before and minister unto an angry and departing God proceeding in a way of Judgment and before our Lord Christ who is so far provoked as to threaten to come quickly to remove the Candlestick out of its place except we speedily repent and do the first works O then with how much Soul concern ought all those who have received this Ministry to implore divine mercy that they may not faint but may obtain Faith to persevere with courage and confidence under the working of his Power which may work in them more immediately and mightily by the Spirit to furnish them more abundantly with the Spirit and Grace of the Gospel Ministry That they may speak as the Oracles of God all that which God would have spoken unto his people at such a time and in such a case which may be most suitatable seasonable powerful and effectual to awaken convince admonish warn instruct exhort humble to deliver all the Messages which God doth send even the whole burthen of the Word of the Lord to hear and receive the Word from his mouth and so to warn the people from him that they may deliver their own Souls O never never hath there been so great an incumbency upon any New England Ministry as upon this Ministry which God hath now raised up and through his grace hopefully qualified to labour with the present rising and standing Generations in these Churches forasmuch as our Weal or Wo in the issue of Gods Controversy with us either in Mercy or in Judgment either in Salvation or Destruction will have great dependance upon the successfulness or unsuccessfulness of this Ministry If God make this Ministry savingly successful in a general Conversion we are Saved If God suffer it to be Judicial we may tremble with fear at the thoughts of the issue inasmuch as this Ministry seems to be set for the last Tryal or Probation at least of that Generation with whom God hath been and is in a way of Judgment O then Let us be moved to believe and pray powerfully for such of the Servants of Christ who are just now Entred or Entring upon the Work of the Ministry and who are to labour therein under every dark and doubtful Dispensations not knowing what God will do with his People and Churches here Oh who may Survive or live to see the issues and events either in Salvation or otherwise I say Let us Believe and Pray for them that they may lay out themselves their very Hearts and Souls in every part of their work and that their Ministry may be savingly successful and themselves eminently Subservient to a Glorious Salvation by the Lord our God Himself in a way of
Unstedfastness in the Work of God doth render us not only unworthy and unfit but utterly uncapable of such Salvation 6. We must hearken most intensely and effectually subjecting our very Souls to the Word of God which is the highest means of the working of Divine Wisdom Power Grace and Mercy in all Saving Work for the Children of men Yea and in working all kind of Salvations for the Church and People of God The whole glorious work of Salvation out of Egypt was wrought by the Word Hos 12.13 By a Prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and by a Prophet he preserved them by the Ministry of his Word he Saved them out of their Apostacy and the Calamity of the Babylonish Captivity as appears by the whole History of Ezra and Nehemiah and the Prophesies of Zechariah and Haggai and by the Ministry of the Word the great and last Salvation for the Church shall be wrought Isa 52.6 7. How beautiful upon the Mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tydings of good that publisheth Salvation that saith to Zion thy God reigneth Our Lord also prophesieth the same Mat. 23.39 For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Surely it was by the Ministry of the Word that God wrought gloriously for New-England in giving of us our Being as his People It is by the Ministry of his Word that he upholds and carries on the work of Conversion and thereby upholds his Churches in their Spiritual Being and Constitution and Religion in them and therefore it must be by the Ministry of his Word that that Work and these Churches and Religion which are now sinking and dying must be recovered and revived by a thorough Saving Reformation It is by the power of the Word that God makes Mercies and Judgments and all other Providential Dispensations even all his wayes and works unto his people saving nothing will do us good till God work by his Word to make all effectual It is by his Word that he doth lead and guide his people into and in the way of Salvation It is by his Word that he removes all obstructions subdues all opposition that the great Mountains before Zerubbabel become a Plain Zech. 4.7 It is by his Word that he doth stir up and strengthen all Instruments quicken sanctifie and spirit all his Servants to his work O when God comes to Save New-England by himself we shall see and feel wonderful effects changes wrought by the Ministry of the Word and when once our hearts are fully generally subjected to the power of the Word then we may be assured that God is arisen and at work for us in a glorious way of Salvation by himself then we shall be prepared to be the Subjects of such Salvation When our hearts tremble under the power of the Word as it was with them when God was at work with them to reform them Ezra 9.4 Then were assembled to me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel and again Ezra 10.3 According to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the Commandment of our God God would do nothing for them till they did thus subject themselves to his Word Zech. 7.7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the voice of the former Prophets whilst Jerusalem was inhabited Surely God expects that New-England should hear and obey those many solemn words which he hath cried to them by the voice of the former Prophets as well as those which he is still crying unto us by the present Ministry and this we must do before we can upon any grounds of Faith and Hope expect that God should Save us by himself Thus we ought to approve our selves unto God I Proceed 3. To shew how we ought to apply our selves to God for such Salvation and this I need not tell you we all know it must be by Faith and Prayer 1. By Faith and it must be Pure Faith without the least mixture or tincture of carnal Confidence Prefidence or Diffidence and our Faith must work under a most humbling sence of our sins and of our unworthiness and of our own utter insufficiency to help our selves and our present Extream necessity of help from God and from God alone and that with a full reliance and recumbence upon him and an high and strong Confidence in him for such Salvation with an humble and yet firm dependence upon his Infinite Sufficiency and his Sovereign Grace and Mercy and with an hopeful patient earnest instant Expectation looking longing waiting and watching for him in this way of Salvation Thus we must believe by Faith Asserting our Covenant interest in him and relation unto him as our God the God of our Salvation as the Church Isa 25.9 Lo this is our God we have waited for him he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce and he glad in his Salvation 2. With such an exercise of Faith we are to apply unto God by Prayer for such Faith works most powerfully and effectually by Prayer and is ever prevalent with God never fails but ever obtains help from God but then we must pray indeed Pray in good earnest with utmost Sincerity Fervency Instancy Importunity labouring therein even unto an Agony not only cry but cry mightily with an out-cry of Prayer as a People ready to perish as the Children of Israel at the Red-Sea Exod. 14.10 The People of Israel Cryed out to the Lord. Truly we are now concerned to Pray as for our Lives yea much more than for our own Lives by the utmost improvement of all Arguments of Faith and Hope in pleading with God Striving as it were once for all resolving with Wrestling Jacob that through his Grace and by his own strength we will Hold him and not let him go till we obtain as Remembering that we are Praying and Crying for Sovereign Mercy and being sensible that not only the eternal concernments of our own Souls but that all the Saving concernments of our Churchces and People and of all Posterity that our very being and standing before God under his Covenant in his Kingdom as his People Yea that all the concernments of Gods own Cause Interest Name and Glory with us have great dependance upon the success of our Prayers at this time God hath been labouring long to make New-England cry God doth Expect Wait to hear us cry to him as Jer. 3.14 Wilt thou not at this time cry to me my Father thou art the guide of my youth he hath promised that he will be very gracious to the Voice of our cry that when he doth hear it he will answer Isa 30.19 Truly it is much to be feared that New-England doth not yet know what it is to cry that is with Lamenting Bemoaning Bewailing
powerful and effectual unto the most full and abundant communication of all saving grace and blessing represented in the Vision of the Candlestick by the two living growing Olive Trees or Branches distilling the Golden Oyl into the Pipes signifying the Spirit powerfully working for the communication of Grace Blessing by the Administration of Ordinances therefore the Vision was expounded by the Promise of the Spirit Zech. 4.6 Also God by filling his Word and Ordinances with his Spirit will fill his Churches with his Spirit then we shall see the Churches spirited unto Church Reformation and so flourishing again with all Spiritual Prosperity the Promise it is primarily made unto the Churches by the accomplishment of which God will also fill all his Servants betrusted with the management of the affairs of his People and Churches with his Spirit Yea all his people will be graciously influenced by his Spirit unto extraordinary Ability and Activity in his Service O that we may thus believe and pray effectually that God would Pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh according to his Promise Joel 2.28 29. Especially respecting the saving gifts graces of it in a general work of Conversion wherein more especially it is that God works more immediately to Save his People by himself and which is the only true and real Salvation And when God thus pours out his Spirit upon his People and Churches he works also in an extraordinary way and manner by his Spirit in the ways and works of his Providence especially with reference to his Church which is held forth to us in that Visional Scheme of Divine Providence Ezek. 1. By the Spirit of the Living Creatures and the Wheeles and the Throne and the appearance of a man upon it signifying our Lord Christ in the Administration of his Providential Kingdom by the working of his Spirit in the Dispensations of Providence a more glorious appearance of which will be seen in approaching accomplishments Hence we proceed to the 2 Exhortation Which is to Excite us to believe apply and improve this great Promise that God will have mercy upon New-England and Save us by himself Not by might nor by power but by his Spirit and that in a way of Sovereign Grace this seems to be the only hopeful way that we have left wherein God calls us to wait upon him for Salvation O therefore that we may obtain grace so to believe apply and improve this Promise and thereby enter into this most sure and happy way of Salvation Therefore 1. I take leave humbly to propose this Exhortation unto those who are or may be our Rulers together with the Representatives of the Perple in this General Assembly Right Honourable much Honoured and Respected Suffer your selves to be intreated in the Name of the Lord and by this Word of the Lord to undertake and carry on your whole work in the Administration of Government both by Legislation and Execution and in the management of all the great Affairs of the Publick Weal of this People of God which you are by him betrusted withal by a very powerful exercise of Faith in this great Promise that God will have mercy upon this his People and Save them by the Lord their God This is the Word of the Lord to you as it was to Zerubbabel the Governour of Judah Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts It remains as sure a foundation of Faith to you as it was to him Those whom God made Rulers and Deliverers of his People especially in times and cases of Difficulty and Danger they are Chronicled in Holy Writ for mighty men of Faith according to the Apostles Induction Heb. 11. Moses Gideon Barak Sampson Jeptha David Samuel to whom we may add Joshua Ezra Nehemiah Zerubbabel These all carried on their mighty works for the Salvation of Gods People by Faith and therefore were styled Saviours Neh. 9.7 According to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them Saviours who Saved them If God shall so spirit You unto believing we shall be comfortably perswaded if not assured that he will make you such Saviours and Save us by your means The present State of our People in this difficult distressing conjuncture of time and affairs doth require the extraordinary exercise and improvement of your Faith in God according to this promise nothing can be done effectually by you for our Salvation without it every thing will be savingly performed by it May you by the Exercise of Faith in Prayer obtain the accomplishment of this Promise to your selves you shall by an inexpressible Experiment feel the Spirit of God coming upon you moving and actuating of you by the more immediate influences of his Divine Wisdom Power and Grace in all Service unto God and his People in your several places and that with a sincere and single respect to his Glory and our good which is the highest good and end of all Government And then you shall be stirred up strengthened to set your selves with an high and holy zeal and courage in the Strength and Power of the Spirit of God against all the most powerful dangerous and destructive Sins and Evils of the Times The Spirit of God shall by you Lift up a Standard against them now they are breaking in upon us like a Flood It appears by Scripture Instances that it is Gods way to Save his People from their Sins by the power and working of his Spirit in and by Religious Rulers as well as in and by his Word seldome otherwise In the power of the Spirit also you shall labour effectually to recover uphold and advance Religion by promoting Holiness and Righteousness in all the wayes of it that so we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty Much Honoured I do with all humble Importunity Pray Beseech you to suffer this word of Exhortation It will be your highest honour as well as happiness in your Station to Subserve so immediately by the Spirit unto God himself when he comes to Saves his People by himself The first New England Magistracy under whose Conduct God led his People into this Land by Faith obtained this Promise of the Spirit and being extraordinarily even divinely Spirited both in the undertaking and progress of that glorious work unto an happy consummation in Setting up Churches Worship Ordinances and the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ here May it therefore be your highest and very holy ambition to be through the power and assistance of the Spirit Repairers and Restorers of that work and of these Churches thereby unto their primitive beauty and holiness that more especially at such a time wherein God seems to be arisen unto an extraordinary way of working in preparation unto great Accomplishments for his Churches and People in the World Herein you shall not only be graciously accepted but gloriously Rewarded for if God thus improve you and you thus approve your selves unto God he
World at the time appointed and truly this great Promise of the Spirit so often renewed in the Scripture it hath been and ever will be in successive Accomplishment to the Church it is that whereby the Church hath lived and been upheld in all Ages as the soundation of their Faith Confidence and Perseverance 4. God works more immediately by his Word when he make it mighty and powerful to all the saving Effects and Ends of it especially in the Conversion Reformation of his People he works all saving work all Spiritual Salvation for his Church by the means of the Ministry of his word that is he works more immediately by this means it being the highest means of the working of Divine Wisdom and Power especially upon the Souls of men the Church in their return out of Babylon could not recover themselves nor be recovered by any through Reformation unto Salvation until God wrought more immediately by the Ministry of his Word in the Prophesying of Haggai and Zechary Ezra 6.14 as we read more at large Hag. 1.12 13 14. Then Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel and Joshua the High Priest with all the remnant of the people did obey the voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai the Prophet and they did fear the Lord then spake Haggai the Lords Messenger in the Lords Message to the People saying I am with you saith the Lord Observe when the Word works then God is with a people to Save them therefore it follows and the Lord stirred up the Spirit of Zernbbabel Nothing could be done until God himself wrought by himself in the Ministry of his Word and then all Saving Work went on powerfully and prosperously Thus we may understand how God Saves his People by the Lord their God which was the main thing to be opened and proved But 4. There are certain times and extraordinary cases wherein God thus Saves his People by himself that is in general when their Condition in it self and as to them is altogether hopeless and helpless either respecting their Sins growing more and more general powerful incorrigible poenal judicial past any ordinary hope of Reformation their Defection and Apostacy in the Life and Power of Religion so deep that there is no ordinary hope of recovery All both Spiritual and Political Wounds Sicknesses so immedicable incurable that they are past ordinary hope of healing so when a people are in extream inevitable danger of perishing in their own sins under Gods Judgments both Temporal and Spiritual Judgments unless God in Sovereign Mercy appear and work Salvation for them by himself When all things are past man past means when the Wisdom the Power the Heart the Spirit the Prayers Enleavours and Labours of man fail then it is time for the Church to cry out as Psal 119.126 It is time for thee Lord to work More particularly 1. When a People are fallen into such a depth of Spiritual Heart Apostacy as that they are thereby become not only secure but utterly senseless sottish stupid supine and so altogether ignorant careless regardless of the greatest Concernments of their own Good and Welfare and of their own Salvation either from Sin or Judgment as being senseless of both not minding nor caring which way things go nor what doth become of themselves or of the main interest of God of Christ or of the Churches ready to speak as they Ezek. 33.10 If our Transgressions and Iniquities be upon us and we pine away in them how then can we Live as if they should have said there is no hope we shall perish in our sins and thus they conclude carelesly and desperately and as they Isa 3.6 In that day shall he swear saying I will not be a Healer make me not a Ruler of the People It follows verse 8. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen Thus they gave up themselves as desperate 2. When those who are sincerely concerned for the Welfare and Salvation of the People and Churches are altogether dispirited and succumb under sinking discouragements Hearts fainting Spirits failing have no heart left in them to make any further essay or to do any thing but to sit down Mourn Weep and Lament as the Prophet Jer. 8.18 When I would comfort my self against sorrow my heart is faint in me the Har west is past the Summer is ended and we are not healed for the hurt of the Daughte of my People I am hurt I am black Astonishment hath taken hold upon me Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there so Jer. 9.1 O that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night c. so Mic. 7.1 Wo is me When it is thus it is time to cry Help Lord Psal 12.15 3. When God seems to have wrought and done for a people all that can ordinarily be done by the improvement of means to Save them from all destroying Evils especially from their Sins and to reclaim and reduce them to himself and to secure and advance both their Temporal and Spiritual Welfare When God speaks after the manner of men as it were Complaining Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it so Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them for what shall I do for the daughter of my People Hos 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee God speaketh here as men do when they know not what to do more 4. When hereupon God doth cease to work in an ordinary way by ordinary means and leaves a people to themselves withdraws his Spirit his Presence his Power his Counsel his Conduct his Protection and Benediction and gives them up to their own wills and wayes Counsels and Courses to do what they will with themselves When God deserts his own work among a people suffers his own Worship and Ordinances to be ineffectual if not judicial When God saith of a People as of them Deut. 32.20 I will hide my face from them I will see what their end will be what lamentable evil end they will bring themselves unto and as Hos 4.16 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone When God appears only as a Stranger in the Land as a man astonied a mighty man that cannot Save Jer. 14.8 Surely then there is no hope unless God magnifie his Sovereign Grace in Saving such a People by himself 5. When the Interest of the World is Espoused and Exalted and the Interest of Religion is thereby enposed deposed and depressed When the Spirit of Worldliness grows exceeding high and strong and the Spirit of Religion grows low and weak weaker and weaker languishing even unto death when the World prevails against and over Religion to strike it past ordinary hope of a Resurrection When the Spirit of the World is the reigning governing spirit and carrys all before it nothing can be done but in subserviency
to it when it is become the Spirit of the Times truly then all kind of Impediments and Obstructions to the Work of God will become insuperable All Spiritual Evils which are most dangerous and destructive will become irresistible and invincible and the Work of Reformation more and more impracticable and impossible unless God undertake it by himself for when the foundations are thus out of course or destroyed what can the Righteous do Psa 11.3 at such times and in such cases as these nothing but Sovereign Grace can Save us Which is the last thing in the Doctrine therefore 5. It remains to be proved That when God thus Saveth his People by himself it is in Sovereign Mercy this is most evident by the instance in our Teaet for when this Promise of Salvation was made to Judah and much more before it was most signally Accomplisht to them Judah was as bad yea worse more wicked than Israel as was hinted before from Jer. 3.11 and is more at large set forth in Ezek. 16.46 c. where comparing Judah with Samaria God concludes that Judah had committed more sins more abominable than Samaria that Samaria had not committed half the sins that Judah had yea that Judah was worse than Sodom yet God saith in our Text and Context I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel but will utterly take them away But I will have mercy upon the House of Judah and will Save them by the Lord their God this must needs be Sovereign Grace in the glory of it Thus it appears That at some times and in some cases God doth in Sovereign Mercy Save his people both from Sin and Judgment in a more immediate and extraordinary way of working by himself I shall pretermit what might and ought to have been spoken in the Application by way of Inference for Instruction or Admonition and to proceed to the EXHORTATION Which speaketh in general to all the People and Churches of NEW-ENGLAND So far at least as they may be spoken unto and addrest in this General Assembly and it is to Move Excite and Encourage us So to approve and apply our selves unto God as he may be graciously moved to have mercy upon us and to Save us by the Lord our God that is to Save us in Sovereign Mercy in a more immediate and extraordinary way of working by himself Let not such an Exhortation be thought improper or impertinent to N.E. as to think or say within our selves we hope We are not yet come to that lamentable pass nor reduced to such an extremity as to be under an extream necessity to implore Sovereign Mercy for our Salvation we hope our Condition is not yet so hopeless but that we may hope to be Saved in the ordinary way of the working of Gods Power and Mercy by ordinary means and therefore that it may be too much a scandal and reproach to be represented otherwise as a people utterly lost and gone without Sovereign Mercy O would to God it were not so much so as upon serious consideration we may conclude it is but we must understand that an Apostatizing People are most secure when they are most in danger Isa 57.10 Yet saidest thou not there is no hope thou hast found the life of thine hand therefore thou wast not grieved Observe an hard-hearted People will never be brought to say there is no hope till it be too late therefore although I believe that we are yet a people as hopeful as to Salvation in the issue as any other visible people of God in the World if not more I say in the issue yet those who have any right understanding of our present State Frame and Way must needs acknowledge That we have need of present Help and Salvation from God himself working by himself in Sovereign Mercy and therefore that it is our instant Duty and Concernment so to approve and apply our selves unto him as that we may obtain it I shall therefore amplifie this Exhortation by shewing 1. How it doth appear that we stand in such present need of Sovereign Mercy 2. How we ought so to approve our selves to God as that we may be prepared to be made the Subjects of it and to recive it 3. How we ought so to apply our selves to God for it as that we may obtain it That we may be sensible that we have present need of such Salvation from God We may consider 1. Whether we can expect that God should do any more for us in the ordinary way of the working of his Ordinate Power and Mercy by ordinary means than he hath already done to Save us God doth put the Quaery to his People for Conviction What could have been done more that I have not done What shall I do for the Danghter of my People O Ephraim What shall I do unto thee It may not it cannot be denied but that God did as much in our first Constitution when he Planted these Heavens and Laid the Foundation of this Earth and said to New England thou art my People for Establishment before him in Faith Obedience and Perseverance under his Covenant and in his Kingdom and to secure us from Defection and Apostacy from him as we can say that ever he hath done for any People these many Ages Can we say what God could have done more for us to Settle us in a stedfast Standing before him with close constant adherence to him then he hath done He chose us and set us apart to be a peculiar people to himself he gave us a Constitution compleated with all kind of Priviledges Liberties and Immunities both Civil and Religious which any people could desire enjoy or improve unto the promotion of both Holiness and Righteousness Godliness and Honesty he gave us a full and compleat standing under his Covenant in his Kingdom or in Church State He gave us his House with all the Spiritual Furniture and Provision of it pure Doctrine and Worship the whole Gospel Ministry and Ministration the whole Faith and Order of the Gospel and hath hitherunto kept us in the full Possession Enjoyment and Improvements of all with full Freedom Liberty Seasons Opportunities Advantages Encouragements to do anything everything that was necessary for the advancement of Religion and the interest and work of our Lord Christ and our own Establishment with fafety from Apostacy he hath granted continued a special day of Grace with all possible means of Grace for the carrying on of the work of Conversion and Edification and for the progress of all Saving Work both in Churches and in Families both in Publick and in Private He also Created a Defence upon all the Glory and appointed his Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks What could we expect that God could do more for us in the ordinary way of the Improvement of Means Well notwithstandall this we have made a woful defection from God insomuch that he may justly upbraid us as he did them
Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus Requite the Lord your God O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father hath not he made thee and establisht thee Remember the dayes of Old ask thy father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee Now then let us further consider What God could have done more for us to recover and restore us and bring us back again to himself and this either by his Word or by his Works Let us Consider 1. How much how long how powerfully God hath laboured with us by his Word and by his Spirit therein It hath been his great Work by the Ministry of his Word to awaken convince and humble us for our Sins by charging judging condemning threatning denouncing very dreadfully against us for them by such of his Servants whom he commanded to cry aloud and not to spare to lift up their voices like Trumpets in testifying and crying against those Sins and ways of sinning especially those Heaven affrighting astonishing Sins whereby we have so far exchanged our Glory for that which profiteth not that is Our God for the World as Jer. 2 11 12 13. Also God hath by his Word plainly proposed and pressed all the general Duties of the Times wherein the work of Reformation doth consist and wherein he hath called us with utmost importunity to turn unto him moving of us by all his most graicous Promises of all kinds of Salvations and all this with infinite Patience and Long Suffering from One Generation to another as Neh. 9.30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in the Prophets yet would they not give ear and Zech. 7.17 But they refused to hearken and pulled away the Shoulder and stopped their Ears that they should not hear yea they made their hearts like an Adamant Stone lest they should hear and from thenceforth God gave them up to Sin and Judgment Psal 81.11 But my people would not hearken to my voice Israel would have none of me By rejecting of his Word they rejected God himself therefore it follows So I gave them up to their own hearts Lusts to walk after their own counsels O that my People had hearkened unto me I should soon have subdued their Enemies c. From thenceforth the Word of God became Judicial to them Isa 6.10 Go make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy shut their eyes Lest they should Convert and be healed God set them under an Hardening Soul-killing Dispensation of his Word Hos 6.5 Therefore I have hewed them by the Prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth Truly we may with fear and trembling consider how generally ineffectual the Ministry of the Word hath been with us as to any general work of Conversion and Reformation and is yet like to be seeing that we cannot say what God could have done more for us thereby in an ordinary way of working to recover us and reduce us to himself So that our Lord may complain of us as sometime he did of them in the person of the Prophet Isa 49.4 I have Laboured in vain I have spent my strength for naught and in vain But 2. Can we say what God should further do further for us by his Works to reform and save us and that either by his Mercies or by his Judgments and all hitherunto in vain 1. Consider how much and how long God hath Laboured with us in a way of mercy he hath multiplied all kinds both of Temporal and Spiritual Mercies upon us the richest rarest choicest peculiar mercies the most alluring obliging mercies even loving kindnesses and tender mercies and if we had rightly improved them they would have been Saving Mercies he hath wonderfully magnified all his Mercies to us in that they have been granted upon our Cries to him in the times and cases of our greatest extremity and continued unto us notwithstanding our great unworthiness and manifold abuses of them they have been in all respects very signal Mercies whereby God hath been drawing of us with the Cords of a man the Bands of Love Hos 11.4 But Oh how have we abused all these Mercies to Pride Carnal Confidence Hardness of Heart Presumption Security Sensuallity so that we may fear they have been hardening and so Judicial Mercies granted not in Saving Mercy but in Judgment 2. Consider we further how much and how long God hath been Labouring with us in a way of Judgment to reform and save us he began his Process with us by lighter afflictions in a way of Chastisement and Correction he began with the Rod but that not availing he Entered into Judgment drew the Sword and proceeded therein gradually according as our sins have arisen to higher and higher degrees of Transgression and Provocation so God hath hightned the Severity of his Executions and that unto a great consumption of our small people both by the Sword and by the Sickness and otherwise wasting weakening and consuming of us carrying on his whole Proces in such a way as that we have been convinced and forced to confess that his whole gracious design thereby hath been to reform as it is alwayes with his People Lev. 26.23 If ye will not be reformed by these things c. and the main issue of the whole Process is to humble and reform them verse 41. If then thine uncircumcised heart be humbled and thou accept of the punishment of thine Iniquity then will I remember my Covenant But may not God yet complain of us as he did of them Jei. 44.10 They are not humbled unto this day May we â—o fear that we are rather hardened than humbled as they Zeph. 3.7 I said surely they will fear me they will receive Instruction but they rose up early and corrupted all their doings We are under many fearful Symptoms of being hardened and not humbled by all past Judgments that we are rather the worse than the better for them as they Isa 1.5 6. Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more the whole head is sick the whole heart faint c. and truly if so we may dread that fearful Sentence 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 taken away reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Again 3. Consider How much and how long God hath been proving and trying of us both by his Word and by his Works both by his Mercies and his Judgments and indeed by all kind of merciful Probations to see whether we would repent and reform as he did his people of old Deut. 8.2 to humble thee and to prove thee and to know what was in thy heart whether thou wouldst keep his Commandments or no verse 16. That he might humble thee and prove thee to do thee good in the latter end truly so it is God hath been many wayes every
they understood these things that they would consider their Latter End 2. We must utterly renounce all carnal confidence in our selves or in any arm of Flesh especially those carnal confidences which we are most apt unto and which are most dangerous those carnal confidences in our visible Covenant-relation to God in our visible Church-State the visible Priviledges Interests and Enjoyments of the House of God to cry as they Jer. 7.4 The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. Carnal Confidence in our own Faith and Prayer is yet more dangerous to think as they spake Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not and afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge It is divers ways too evident that we have abused our Faith and Prayer too much to carnal confidence but that which is most dangerous and destructive is carnal confidence in God hâ—…elf Mic. 3.11 Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed like a field If ever we hope to be Saved in Sovereign Mercy by the Lord our God himself we must away with all our carnal confidences and Pray as the Church Hos 14.3 Take away Iniquity and receive us graciously Ashur shall not Save us for in thee the fatherless find mercy We must become as fatherless then God promiseth as ver 4. I will heal their Backslidings I will love them freely we must become a poor and an afflicted people Zeph. 3.11 12. For then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my Holy Mountain I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and then it follows ver 15. The Lord hath taken away thy Judgments he hath cast out the Enemy ver 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will Save When God seeth that all power is gone and that there is none shut up nor left then then they are prepared for Salvation in Sovereign Mercy Deut. 32.36 When a people speak trembling and out of the dust that is out of a depth of Humiliation then they are prepared for this Sovereign Mercy Hos 13.1 3. We must Labour to understand what it is to be Saved by the Lord our God what it is that God must work both in us and for us to Save us what Salvation is what our own Saving Good and Welfare is ignorance of this doth make a people uncapable of Salvation Hosea 11.3 They knew not that I healed them this Ignorance was that which our Lord lamented with tears weeping over Jerusalem Luke 19.41 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things of thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes God grant that this may not be verified on New-England of which there are very sad signs we must therefore set our hearts upon that which is and will be our Salvation and without which there can be no Salvation viz. the powerful progress of the Word Worship and Work of God the Conversion of our People the Reformation of our Churches the Resurrection of Religion O if our heart were set upon these things we should be heartily willing to be Saved earnestly desirous to be Saved and if we were so God would soon Save us Isa 1.19 If ye be willing But so it is an Apostatizing People depractically refuse to be Saved Isa 30.15 For thus saith the Lord in returning and in rest shal ye be Saved in quietness and confidence shall be your Strength and ye would not but ye said no c. Jer. 2.25 but thou saidst there is no hope we have loved Strangers and after them we wil go This also our Lord laments Mat. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate God never destroyes his people but they wilfully refuse to be Saved truly our wilfulness in those ways of sinning which are the direct and broad way to destruction is fearfully signaâ— to us God hath been healing of us and we will not be healed we will not be Saved from our sins but seem to be the more resolute in them Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the Iniquity of Ephraim the wickedness of Samaria was discovered truly that the sins of the times with us not only continue but prevail more more notwithstanding all that God hath been doing to Save us from them is matter of fearful consideration to us and deep Humiliation to all who have any sence of the State and Condition of our People and Churches O that we knew what it is to be Saved 4. We must submit and commit our selves unto God with a practical acknowledgment of and subjection unto his absolute Soveraignty as also to the Supremacy of his Wisdom and Will that whatsoever he doth it is good yea it is best in it self and as he doth it and withal giving of him the glory of all that he doth to us or for us or with us whether in mercy or in Judgment with an absolute submission to his Soveraign Will and Pleasure and an humble resolution to bear and indure whatsoever he shall please to inflict be willing he should take any course with us to Save us withal acknowledging our unworthiness of such Salvation thus the people Judg. 10.15 We have sinned do with us what seemeth good to thee deliver us only we pray thee this day Observe here how they Implore Sovereign Mercy for their Salvation and cast themselves into the arms of it and it follows ver 16. his Soul was grieved for the misery of Israel and so instantly Saved them by himself 5. We must arise and set to work for God with utmost labour diligence zeal courage faithfulness with all our hearts and Souls with all our might and strength with a most sincere and fervent love to the work of God and an heart care and concernment for it as long as we sit still and slight and neglect and desert the Work of God running every man to his own house as they Hag. 1.9 that is giving up our selves to the World and Worldliness so long as all seek their own things and not the things which are Jesus Christs Phil. 2.21 I say so long as it is thus there is no hope that God will work for us in such an extraordinary way of Salvation But if we will arise and work for and with God God will arise and work for and with us Hag. 2.4 5. Now be strong O Zerubbabel and be strong O Joshua and be strong all ye people of the Land and work for I am with you and my Spirit remaineth among you fear not Observe if we will work God will be with us and carry on all Saving Work for us by his Spirit Falseness Unfaithfulness
Sovereign Grace To Conclude 3 I propose this Exhortation To all the believing Praying People of God with us O believe and pray Improve this great promise by Faith in Praver That God may have mercy upon New-England and Save us by himself in a way of Sovereign Grace It is high time thus to believe and pray and to this end 1. We must take heed that we do not presume upon Sovereign Grace which we are apt and I fear we begin to doe We must therefore remember that God hath not by his Covenant absolutely ingaged the absolute sufficiency of his Sovereign Grace for the Salvation of his people but he hath ingaged himself only according to the Ordinate Ordinary working of his Grace and Mercy to a repenting believing obedient reforming People God is not wont to Save an hard hearted Impenitent unbelieving disobedient People continuning in their sins slighting neglecting abusing rejecting ordinary mercy offered to them I say God is not wont to Save such a People by Sovereign Grace he doth seldome if ever supersede this course process of his with such a People by Sovereign Mercy he doth rarely Save such a Generation who have first provoked him to enter into Judgment by Sovereign Mercy It is therefore dangerous to presume upon Sovereign Grace 2. We must remember also that the promise of Sovereign Mercy is made only to Mourners to a People brought down to such a depth degree of mourning humiliation that their Spirits their Hearts their Souls are ready to faint fail within them so expresly in the text of that promise Isa 57.16.18 With him also who is of an humble contrite Spirit to revive c. For I will not contend for ever for the Spirit should fail before and the Soul which I have made I have seen his ways I will heal him I will restore comfort to him and to his mourners c. Truly we must Expect that God will make New-England Mourn until our Spirits our Hearts be ready to faint within us before he will Save us by Sovereign Grace with these cautions all the sincere People of God in the Land may ought to set themselves to believe pray with confidence comfort for the accomplishment of this glorious promise of Salvation and have not good but great incouragement so to doe for as much as 1. Though our condition respecting our sins and Gods wrath Judgment for them be very dangerous yet it is not desperate there is always hope for the People of God When there is not any no not the least or most remote appearance of hope from man or means either Ordinary or Extraordinary Yea though there may be all the most prodigious signs formidable appearances and inevitable approaches of destruction both by Sin and Judgment Yet still there is hope in God and he would have his People to understand it Isa 4.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my Judgment passed over from my God hast thou not known hast thou not heard that God the everlasting God the Lord fainteth not nor his weary c. Yea God incourageth his People to hope in their most desperate cases Jer 31.16 17. Thus saith the Lord refrain thy voice from Weeping and thine eyes from tears for there is hope in thine end Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards thee thoughts of peace not of evil to give you an expected end God sometimes gives his People The Valley of Achor for a door of hope Hos 2.15 Opens to them a door of hope in the greatest depth of distress There is always Hope in Israel in the most desperate case Ezra 10.2 Yet NOW there is hope in Israel concerning this thing 2. That we have not only hope but a sure Foundation of Faith Confidence in God for Salvation viz. His Covenant and all his promises whereby we are assured that he is not only able but graciously Willing to Save us reserving to himself the absolute liberty of his Sovereignty either to Save or Destroy Jer. 18.16 O house of Israel cannot I do with you as the Potter But God hath not yet taken away his Covenant from us he hath not yet said of us as of this People in our text either Loruhamah I will no more have mercy or Loammi ye are not my People I will not be your God nor broken the staff of Beauty or of Bands He doth yet own us and call us his People and give us leave to call him our God yea our Father and our Fathers God also We may yet Pray in Faith as the Church Isa 63.15 Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and thy glory where is thy strength thy zeal the sounding of thy bowels and thy mercy are thy restrained Doubtless thou art our Father and as Isa 64.8 9. O Lord thou art our Father behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People and as Jer. 14.9 Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us we are called by thy Name leave us not 3. God delights to Save his People by Himself thereby most gloriously to magnify his own Wisdom and Power above man and means as in our Text I will Save them by the Lord their God and will not Save them by Bow nor by Sword nor by Battle nor by Horses nor by Horsemen Observe God would not Save them by Ordinary means but by Himself that he might exalt himself in his own Strength Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted in thine own Strength so we will sing and praise thy Power Sometimes God Saves his People by terrible things in Providence Psal 65.5 By terrible things in Righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our Salvation By wonderful visicissitudes of Providential dispensations the Wheels of Divine Providence are sometimes so high that they are dreadful Ezek. 1.18 This made the Apostle to break forth into highest expressions of Admiration and Adoration with doxology Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past find-out who hath known the mind of the Lord Or who hath been his Counsellor For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen There will be a time when the Church shall sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb Rev. 15.3 Gaeat and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints O that New-England may live to have her part in this Song 4. If God shall thus Save us by himself It will be the most full perfect saving and glorious Salvation that over God worketh for his People in this World He will magnifie New-England again before the World he will make us again a Praise in the earth by causing our righteousness to go forth as brightness and our Salvation as a Lamp which burneth Isa 62.1 7. God will glorifie himself before all people in us when he shall thus Save us from our sins apostacy by the power of his Spirit in a general work of Conversion and Reformation and by a glorious resurrection of Religion in the life and power of it and by the return of his spiritual and gracious Presence unto us in the fulness of it and so by causing his face to shine upon us O this will be glorious Salvation and that is the Salvation which I have intended and spoken of all along and when this Salvation comes then shall that great Promise unto the Church be fulfilled to us Jer. 33.9 And I will cleanse them from all their Iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon their iniquities and it shall be unto me for a Name of joy a praise and an honour before all Nations of the earth which shall hear of the good that I will do to them and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the Prosperity that I shall procure unto it In that day will God accomplish that great Promise unto us Zeph. 3.17 In that day it shall be said unto Jerusalem fear not the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy rest in his love to thee joy over thee with singing O blessed will such of the Servants of God be who shall survive or hereafter live to see the accomplishment Yea blessed shall we be may we dy in the Faith hope confidence and comfort of the accomplishment of this Promise in Gods time to his people and Churches here I will have mercy upon New-England and I will Save them by the Lord their God What remains then but that we believe pray and wait for as much as the Lord waiteth that he may be gracious to us and he will be exalted that be may have mercy upon us for the Lord is a God of Judgment and blessed are all those that wait for Him FINIS