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
any more from thy filthiness until I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent If a People will not be healed and saved they must be they shall be destroyed O that we understood how much we are concerned to discern know and improve the present time lest the Harvest should be past and the Summer ended and the things of our peace of our temporal spiritual and eternal welfare should be hidden from our eyes 3. That we do wait earnestly upon God in an extraordinary way of Humiliation and Supplication under the Administration of his Word and Worship for the dispensation of his Spirit and of Converting Grace No hope no possibility of the Resurrection of Religion otherwise than by such a dispensation of the Spirit and Grace of God until God shall pour out his Spirit from on High Isai 32.15 Vntil the Spirit be poured upon us from on High and the Wilderness be a fruitful Field that De structions and Desolations were to remain upon them until God should work a general work of Conversion and the Resurrection of Religion thereby They were to remain dead and buried in their Graves until God should accomplish that great Fundam ental Covenant Promise Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will put my Spirit within you So Ezek. 37.13 14. When I have opened your Graves and brought you up out of your Graves and shall put my Spirit in you and ye shall live Therefore it is high time for us to seek the Lord until he rain Righteousness Hos 10.12 Of if God shall please to pour out his Spirit upon our Seed and his Blessing upon our Off-spring then there will be a glorious Resurrection of Religion with the rising Generation They shall spring up as amongst the Grass and as Willows by the Water-courses Isai 44.34 O that we could approve our selves an Humble Penitential Prayerful People prepared for such a dispensation of the Spirit and waiting upon God under the promise of it 4. That we strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die This is our Lord Jesus his Direction in terms Rev. 3.2 keep alive and cherish that of the life of Religion which is left the remains of it O Christians let dying Religion have a Reviving and a Resurrection in your hearts and lives live it up to life again there is there can be nothing more of the life of Religion kept in the World than what is preserved and upheld in the heart of a few and they are comparatively but a very few living and lively Christians there never hath been nor ever is but a little of Religion in the life spirit and power of it in this lower World it is a very choice rare thing in the best of times but there is never less of it than when sincere Christians are fallen into a frame and way of Declension nothing more deadly to Religion than the declension of Christians which strikes at the very heart and life of it so much the more should you labour to rise to the utmost height of attainment in Grace and Holiness even unto a conspicuous eminency therein that Religion may not only live but shine in all your Converses throughout your whole Conversations that you may shine as Lights in the World Phil. 2.15 16. Christians if you do not thus revive and raise Religion in your hearts and lives before you die you may not expect that it will long survive you though Religion cannot die so long as you live yet if you suffer Religion to live a dying Life in you you may fear that though it cannot die in you it may notwithstanding die with you 5. That we set our hearts unto and upon Religion Make it our highest our dearest even our heart-interest our whole our all as to Interest and Injoyment in this World that which we live for that which we live by that which is our Life viz. because it is that whereby we live to with and upon God in Christ let our Souls therefore be drawn forth after and ingaged unto Religion in esteem love zeal desire delight that our minds may be so exercised unto the Doctrinal Practical and experimental Knowledge of it as that we may be raised to real spiritual discoveries and apprehensions of the excellency glory and perfection of it with a transcendency above all the glories and perfections of this lower World That we may account all Worldly Interests and Injoyments but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of it as the Holy Apostle did Phil. 3.8 And may by Faith also apprehend our own Interest in it with most certain assurance that it is ours our own and that nothing is so or so much ours our own as our Religion that is our God our Christ and our Religion as it is and because it is our life O if we could thus devote our selves to Religion become true real Votaries to Religion Religion would then revive and live 6. That we set our selves in whatsoever we have are or can do in a full and direct Subserviency to the Propagation and advancement of Religion Lay out our selves improve all time strength and gifts grace and estate power Authority interest influence unto our utmost capacity and possibility for Religion and that with utmost Care Conscience Zeal Courage Faithfulness in a way of stedfast perseverance through all incounters and conflicts to the last making of it our main design our whole work and business in all our transactions both with God and Man That we therefore labour servently and instantly with God in Prayer That for Zions sake we do not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake we do not rest that we never hold our peace day nor night give him no rest until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isai 62.1 6 7. That we henceforth transact with God and one with another with religious sincerity in truth and faithfulness in and about that great and most important business of Reformation in suppressing all the great and general Sins and performing the great and general Duties of the times that we trifle dissemble falsifie no more therein as heretofore we have too much done and as the People of old did to their own ruin and destruction Jer. 3.10 Nothing hastned their utter defection and destruction more than their formal hypocritical Reformations That we also labour to retrieve and raise the visible Interest of Religion and advance it above the head of our chief joy Psal 137.6 That we do cleave by an Heart-Engagement to the Word Worship Ordinances Administrations Ministry Order Rule and Government of Christ in his Church to the whole Cause Interest and Kingdom of Christ That we keep the Word of his Patience and do not deny His Name but hold fast that which we
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
Calling as Christians to mourn to be Gods mourners Sions Mourners O how much might you do for God and these Churches in this frame and way of mourning More especially if those of the Servants of God who are betrusted with the work of God and the publick weal of the People and these Churches were such Mourners and did labour in their work mourning Ezra Nehemiah were great Mourners and the work of the Lord prospered in their hands whilest they carried it on mourning Nehem. 1.4 Ezra 10.1 6. Joel 2.17 Let the Priests the Lords Ministers weep between the Porch and the Altar and say spare thy People O Lord Then the Lord will be jealous for his Land and pity his People 2. We must do what we do for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion believing and obeying the Word of God I mean the Word of God as it hath been Preached and Delivered unto us by his Servants in the Ministry Those particular and extraordinary Messages which God hath sent to us by his Messengers those full and general Testimonies which God hath given by them against all the Sins of the times and unto all the duties of the times amplified in the delivery of them from the Word of God by so many solemn Words for Conversion whereby God hath charged us plainly expresly and fully with all our Sin and Apostasie judged and condemned us for it declared and denounced wrath and judgement against us in case of impenitency Yet withal most graciously calling of us unto Repentance and Reformation by many general Instructions Exhortations Directions Motives and Arguments proposed and pressed by Promises and Threatnings applied with much instancy and importunity and set home in the Application of them with very severe Admonitions and Warnings for our awakening Yea God hath made Application of his Word unto us in an extraordinary way and manner viz. In that great Ordinance wherein our Lord Jesus Christ was extraordinarily present to discover and to declare the summ of all that hath been spoken to us by the Ministry And whereby all the Churches have declared their conviction and published their confession and acknowledgement thereof Thus God hath spoken to us all that can be spoken suitable and proper to our state and condition we cannot tell what God can say more to us by the Ministry of his Word than he hath done but alas we have not hearkened nor believed nor obeyed those words of the Lord which have been sent unto us so that God may justly complain of us as of them Jer. 7.25 26. Since the day that your Fathers came out of the Land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my Servants the Prophets daily rising early and sending them yet they hearkened not unto me nor incleaned their ear and this God chargeth upon them every where as the great cause both of their utter defection from Religion and of their Destruction viz. because they would not hearken unto the Words of the Lord So 2 Chron. 36.16 Jer. 25.8 4. 35.15 Zech. 7.12 13. Yea God tells them plainly after their return from Captivity that it would never be well with them until they had hearkened unto the words of the former Prophets Zech. 7.7 Religion was never revived and raised they were never able to do any thing effectually in the work of Reformation neither did God work savingly for them by his Spirit until they had so done Neither may we expect any recovery of Religion or Salvation from Sin and Apostasie until we have hearkened to that is believed and obeyed that word Those Words of the Lord which he sent to us and which he is still sending unto us by his Servants And therefore O that Unconverted ones would hearken to the Words of the Lord which he hath sent to them for their awakening conviction humiliation and conversion believe and obey the Gospel that the work of Conversion might have a general and prosperous progress then Religion would revive and live And that those who are the sincere People of God would also hearken to the Word of the Lord which hath been spoken unto you to awaken and convince you to bring you to an humbling sight and sense of your own Sins and of the Sins of the times and of the wrath of God against your selves and against this People and these Churches as also to move and stir you up to quicken and strengthen you unto duty the duty of the times the work of Christs Churches you see all the general Sins and evils of the times growing and prevailing you see Religion decaying and dying You see this People and these Churches sinking and in great danger of perishing in this defection and apostasie you hear God threatning dreadfully and have seen his hand lifted up to Execution and you sit still do nothing are able to do nothing you are unable weak and feeble as other men unto and in the work of Reformation you fail utterly in all your essays to it and the reason is because you do not hear and obey the Word of God Believe it Christians you will never be able to exercise your Faith Hope or Confidence in God or to pray to God in good earnest you will never be able to ingage your hearts in the work of Reformation you will never find your selves quickened sanctified and strengthened thereunto and assisted therein until you have obeyed and subjected your very souls to the Word of God and so do ingage and labour in his work under the power of his Word there are none fit to intermeddle in Religious Reformation but those who tremble at the Word of God Ezra 9.4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the Word of the Lord Ezra 10.3 Now therefore let us make a Covenant with our God according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the Commandment of God O Christians did you but once tremble at the Word of God you would find your Souls wonderfully raised in love zeal and courage unto and for his work more especially such of the Servants of the Lord who have any peculiar betrustments for others and for the Publick are more than others concerned to subject their Souls to the power of the Word of God Then they will find themselves extraordinarily spirited to their work and assisted by the Spirit of God Then they would prosper in their work Ezra 6.14 And the Elders of the Jews builded and prospered through the Prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah Hag. 1.12 Then Zerubbabel and Joshua obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the Prophet Ver. 14. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel c. O that we generally and fully understood how much we are concerned thus to hearken to the Word of God God hath magnified his Word to New-England he hath wrought powerfully and gloriously for this People by his Word as for
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
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