and Reformation And not only so but when God hath given him an opportunity more than once to speak in the Name of the Lord unto this People in respect of the Heads and Representatives thereof he hath delivered his own Soul by giving Warning and what he hath spoken shall turn to him for a Testimony It is an hazardous thing as much as life is worth for men not to comply with the Word of God by whomsoever or to whomsoever spoken If a Josiah regard not the Word of God spoken by a Pharaoh Necho he loses his Life for it and so did Zedekiah because he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. It s true that Ministers in these dayes have no immediate Call or Commission from Heaven yet if they deliver such Messages as are according to the Law and the Testimony it is God that speaketh by them and many times their hearts are inclined to this or that subject by a special operation of the spirit of Christ who is with his Servants to the end of the World Let us then hear that so our souls may live God of his free Grace hath seen meet to dignifie an handful of his People who are separated from their Brethren with the chief and choicest of Blessings It is promised as an high favour Jer. 30.21 Their Nobles shall be of themselves and their Governours shall-proceed from the midst of them We have had these over us who have been as the Expression of the Antient is Nobiles genere Nobiliores sanctitate We cannot be thankful enough for that Blessing Civil Liberty is an invaluable mercy The Jewish Rabbins have a saying that if the Sea were Ink and the Earth Parchment it would not be sufficient to write down the praise due to God for liberty But what then shall be said concerning the Liberties of the Gospel we enjoy all at this day The way to have them continued is for us to approve our selves faithful to the interest of Religion For then God will be for us and if he be for us who can be against us Boston in N. England August 31. 1683. INCREASE MATHER A PLEA FOR THE LIFE OF Dying Religion DEUT. 32.47 Because it is your Life IT hath pleased the great and blessed God in his infinite Soveraignty to transact with Man about the everlasting Concernments of his immortal Soul to dispense both his Mercy and Justice both Life and Death to distribute Eternal Rewards and Punishments and to govern Man unto his Eternal State only in the way of a Covenant All Reprobate Sinners are destroyed and damned under the Curse and Condemnation of the Covenant of Works All God's Elect are saved by and through our Lord Jesus Christ according unto and under the Covenant of Grace God hath constituted the Covenant of Redemption in his own Eternal Counsel before the World was and therein laid the Foundation both of the Constitution and Administration of the Covenant of Grace in by through that one only great and glorious Mediator Jesus Christ whose work it is to bring a certain Elect number of sallen Man unto God concerning whom he saith I will be their God and they shall be my People Hence God ever hath had and ever will have a Covenant-People in the World untill this Dispensation of Grace shall be consummated in Glory And when the most High divided to the nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel For the Lord's Portion is his People and Jacob the Lot of his Inheritance Deut. 32.8 9. This Book it may be in some respects most properly called The Book of the Covenant because it contains not only a more full plain Revelation Exposition of the Covenant it self in the constitution way manner means of the Administration Confirmation of it of the All-Sufficiency of God unto his People therein as their God in Covenant but also a description of that notable Covenant-Transaction wherein all the Duties all the Blessings and all the Curses of the Covenant are expresly and in set form proposed and the people moved unto the most solemn Restipulation of their Souls to God under the most sacred and indispensible Obligations to live to him and walk with him by religious Fear Reverence Faith Love and Obedience as his Covenant-people for ever and this ratified and confirmed by a most awful Contestation whereby Heaven and Earth are called to record Deut. 30.19 20. I call Heaven Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing therefore chuse Life that both thou and thy seed may live And now Moses having thus finished his great and extraordinary Ministry wherein he had been accompanied with an extraordinary presence and power of God and was eminently a Type of Christ he doth prepare himself instantly to take leave of the People of his Work and of the World The people he incourageth by a promise of God's Presence to make their Progress unto and Enterance into and full Possession of the Land of Promise His Office and Work he resigneth unto Joshuah whom he did by divine appointment ordain his Successor charging of him with the Care and Conduct of the People unto their Rest in Canaan and this upon full assurance that God would be with him and that he would never fail him nor forsake him The Law which he had received of the Lord and delivered unto the people containing the whole Word and Worship of God and so their whole Religion together with a prophetical Song shewing the diverse State of that Church and People in succeeding Ages under the successive Dispensation of the Covenant this Law and this Song he delivers to the Priests and People for their improvement charging of them most earnestly and affectionately to set their hearts unto it because it was their Life These words because it is thy Life they are some of the last words of Moses that great Prophet and therefore they contain matter of the greatest Importance to the People of God They are together with the Context his last his farewell and dying Charge whereby he set himself in a sentence or two to speak all at once to deliver unto them the Sum or a System of all that Doctrine and Duty which he had before throughout the whole course of his Ministry been delivering unto them all that they were to know to believe or to practise the whole both of Faith and Obedience that is more plainly their whole Religion And he chargeth them to set their hearts unto it that is to prise it love it keep it cleave to it live and walk in the sincere pure powerfull Profession and Practice of it with all their hearts with all their minds with all their Souls with all their might and with all their strength from Generation unto Generation themselves and
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
his People of old Hos 12.13 Truly God hath done all in New-England by his Word as long as we hearkened to the Word of God we prospered if we would now hearken all would be well 2 Chron. 20.20 3. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion with holy religious lively spiritual Devotion to God in his Worship more especially in his House The loss of which hath been and is one great if not the greatest cause of the decay of Religion for Religion lives much by such Devotion to God in his Worship and is kept alive by it Religious Devotion it is much of the life of Religion if we would then recover and preserve the life of Religion we must labour to have our Souls raised unto a very high and dear esteem of and love unto a most sincere and fervent Zeal for the House of God and all the interests and injoyments thereof We must labour to understand the excellency of the Worship of God and of the House of God and the blessedness and happiness of those who have not only visible but a real spiritual interest and standing therein we must give up and devote our selves our very souls unto God in a way of holy Fellowship and Communion with him in his House in all the wayes of his Worship and uphold the Worship of God in the life spirit and power of it we must have our hearts inlarged to take in a fulness of the spiritual and gracious presence of God and raised unto living apprehensions of that presence with spiritual pleasure delight Soul-solace and satisfaction therein That our Souls may be drawn forth more more after it with longing desires earnest Prayer as the Souls of Saints of old were Psal 27.4 36.7 42.1 2. 63.1 2. 84.1 2 10. We must labour to keep the House of God pure and holy and all the services and administrations of it and to obtain a spiritual Soul-settlement therein Psal 92.13 Those that are planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God If we would have Religion live we must really dwell in the House for there and therein Religion lives by nothing have we more indangered and destroyed the life of Religion than by withdrawing our hearts from God in his Worship in his House by our formality hypocrisie and spiritual Idolatry therein by slighting neglecting prophaning and polluting thereof and by sinning away the presence of God from it these evils are deadly they are death to Religion so long as these evils remain and so long as we remain so estranged to the House and Worship of God there will be no hope of the life of Religion neither shall we be able to do any thing effectually for the recovery and preservation of it 4. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion with the special presence and under the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Religion lives only by the presence and power of Christ who is our life and therefore is the life of our Religion That we have by our sins and miscarriages moved our Lord Jesus to withdraw and withhold so much of his presence and power from us thence it is that we suffer such a privation of the life of Religion and unless we obtain a return thereof Religion will dy quite away That we may obtain the return of the presence and power of Christ we must be sensible of and humbled for those sins and evils whereby we have grieved and provoked him Our unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel not subjecting to his spiritual rule and government and to the ministerial exercise of his power therein unfaithfulness to his cause interest and work dissention disorder and confusion in Churches the loss of our first love and life and the great dishonour to his holy Name These evils must be repented of and removed Unconverted Sinners must receive him and give themselves to him by Faith in a way of Gospel-Obedience Christians must awake and rouse up their sleepy Souls out of carnal ease and rest follow him and seek him until you have found him and repossest your Souls of him with a fulness of spiritual joy pleasure and delight in your injoyments of him as the Spouse Cant. 3.4 The Churches must give him free full and open entrance and entertainment in the greatest fulness of his presence and power recovering their first life and love doing their first works in maintaining integrity of love peace union purity of communion regularity and tranquility of order within themselves cleaving to his cause interest and work fully stedfastly and faithfully managing all the affairs of his Kingdom in a way of sincere soul-subjection to him for the advancement of his Name and Glory O if Christians and Churches could thus prepare and dispose themselves unto the return of the presence and power of Christ they would soon feel themselves enabled thereby to perform all that is necessary for the recovery and preservation of Religion the sad cause why we have hitherto Failed in all our undertakings is the want of the presence and power of Christ O there is woful evidence of the want of it until Christ return it nothing will or can be done the return of the presence and power of Christ will instantly infer an happy Resurrection of Religion O let us seek it pray and cry for it under a deep sence of our extream necessity of it and of our woful condition without it let us be moved hereunto from the consideration of the gracious disposition of our Lord Jesus to return it is yet his voice to these as it was to those declining Churches after he had reproved charged threatned them very sharply and severely he concludes all Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open unto me I will come in by opening to Christ we shall do all and obtain all salvation 5. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion quickly there must be a sudden quick dispatch of all that is to be done for the life of Religion It must be done presently instantly without delay as we would do any thing for our life when in utmost and extreamest danger if we do not do what we have to do quickly it may be quickly too late and truly it will be Gods infinite mercy if it be not already too late as it was to them Luk. 19.42 Mat. 23.37 O we have lingered and delayed upon utmost peril already it is now high time more than time if we mean to do any thing Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord till he come God is now crying to day whilest it is called to day after so long a time Psal 95.7 Heb. 4.7 God calls for present hast he is every way hastening of us the dying state of Religion and
the Lord. V. 14. And shall put my Spirit in you and ye shall live Hence Religion it is Life from the dead to any People Rom. 11.25 What shall the Receiving of them be but Life from the dead The Conversion of the Jews shall be Life from the dead to the World by a general and glorious resurrection of Religion 2. Religion it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God i. e. It gives them their spiritual Being and Constitution under Covenant-Relation unto God It gives a People their spiritual Standing before God as his People his Covenant-People It is the essence and substance of the Covenant Heb. 8.10 For this is the Covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People taken from Jer. 31.33 Religion in this sence constitutes the Covenant and is the spiritual Constitution of the Covenant-People of God 1 Pet. 2.9 But ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculior People It follows V. 10th Which in time past were not a People but now are the People of God Without Religion they were no People but Religion made them the People of God 3. Religion it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God as to their Political Constitution in visible Church-state and Order under the Administration of all Ordinances Religion gives a People their visible Standing under the visible Dispensation of God's Covenant and Administration of his Kingdom as in our Text. For it is your Life and by this thing ye shall prolong your days in the Land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it It was their Religion which gave them a Standing and Settlement in that Land the land of Promise in the full possession of their visible Covenant Interests and Enjoyments as the Covenant-people of God So that it remains a manifest plain Truth from the Word of God that Religion is the Life of the Covenant-people of God The Application follows VSE I. It is for our Information and Instruction in divers Particulars 1. That there is there can be but One only true real Religion and no more Religion hath been is and ever will be One the same unchangeably And because there is but One God but One Lord Jesus Christ One Spirit One work of Redemption One way of Application One Doctrine of Godliness One Faith One Obedience One and the same moral Worship One Covenant of Grace One Covenant-people of God One Family and Houshold of God One State both of Grace and Glory One Life One Heaven therefore consequently but One Religion All the sincere People of God in the World ever have been and ever shall be One in the Profession and Practice of this One Religion whereby all God's Elect are gathered together in One in Christ and perfected both in Grace and Glory unto the completion and perfection of the mystical Body of Christ which is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all Eph. 1.10 23. True it is the Apostle grants 1 Cor. 8.5 that there are which are called gods as there be gods many and lords many So there be that are called religions such religions many But as the Apostle concludes V. 6. but to us there is but One God and One Lord Jesus Christ So ought we to conclude that to us there is but One Religion which is the pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father Jam. 1.27 This is the Religion without which there is there can be no Life or Salvation 2. That this Religion it is the Supreme thing in this lower World viz. because it is in all respects our Life and that nothing else is so Religion in the full and whole nature and notion of it is the most glorious effect and product of divine Wisdom Power Grace Mercy Goodness Truth and Faithfullness yea of the whole divine Sufficiency and Efficiency in the accomplishment of all God's eternal Counsels concerning his own Glory in the Salvation of his Elect. Religion it comprehends all the whole Interest of God of Christ and of his Church and People in this World all that is heavenly spiritual and divine all that is of Heaven upon Earth respecting both State Interest and Enjoyment It gives a Being Standing to all Saints both in Grace and in Glory Oh! Religion it is a marvellous high and heavenly thing All the real worth and excellency that is in the World it is from Religion There would be nothing of God that is of the knowledge of God of the spiritual gracious and saving Presence of God were it not for Religion Those who are without Religion are without God in the World Eph. 2.12 We have no more of God than we have of Religion Again there could have been no Good or Goodness in the World had it not been for Religion The World would have been a meer Vacuum of all good nothing else but a receptacle of desperate Sinners a very Hell of Sin and Misery there could have been nothing of Light or Life or Grace Holiness or Happiness there would have been nothing but Darkness and Death and all kind of woe no news of Heaven no hope of Heaven yea there could have been no Heaven unto fallen Man without Religion Religion doth in a sence give being unto Heaven There had not been such Place or State of Blessedness unto Man neither had Man ever been capacitated to live in Heaven otherwise than by this Religion No wonder then that God by his Word doth extoll it and advance it as the most excellent inestimable invaluable incomparable thing Prov. 3.15 She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her And it is advanced because it is our Life Prov. 4.13 Keep her for she is thy Life V. 21 22. Keep them in the midst of thy heart for they are thy Life It is Religion that doth make the poor despised Saints of God the Excellent Ones of the Earth Psal 16.3 Prov. 12.26 It is Religion that doth make the Church of God beautifull the perfection of Beauty the Joy of the whole Earth Psal 48.2 Lam. 2.15 Yea an Eternal Excellency Isa 60.15 3. That it is the Infinite Grace Mercy and Goodness of God to any People that He doth give them Religion The greatest part of the World and of the Nations of the World are most miserable without it all the Pagan and Popish World O that so great so much the greater part of Mankind should so ly buried in gross Ignorance and Atheisme without God and Religion 1 Joh. 5.19 The whole World lieth in Wickedness So much the more is the Mercy of God magnified to such People and Nations unto whom He hath granted Religion in the light life and power of it It is the happiness honour and glory of any Nation or People It
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
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