with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 2. Let all the Friends Lovers Well-wishers Well-willers unto the Publick Good and Prosperity of these Churches up and be doing in the Work of Reformation You who are of the passing generation of the first undertakers of this Work of Reformation surviving and who have seen with your eyes and told us what works God did in your dayes as Psal 44.1 who have therefore yet a living remembrance of the gracious Wayes and glorious Works of God to his people in the first beginnings and prosperous progress of the Work of Reformation and so of the House of God of the Churches here in their first glory Hag. 2.3 You have also seen and observed the gradual declension and defection of these Churches and therefore you cannot chuse but be most sadly and sorrowfully sensible of our present necessity of Reformation O then be moved to do what in you lyeth by your Faith Prayer Life and Example to revive the Work of Reformation again before you die You also who are the present standing Generation the next and immediate Successors unto those first Reformers who have been actually betrusted with Church-Order Ordinances and Administrations with the whole Cause of God Kingdome of Christ and Interest of Religion and so with this great and glorious Work of Reformation and who are likely to be found most guilty of this general defection and have too much already endangered the loss of all O be you moved to stand up strongly unto the work under that Charge and all those solemn Obligations and Engagements which God hath laid upon you the weight and burthen of the Work lyeth upon you we have been raised up in the stead of our Fathers as Josh 5.7 to carry on this Work And truly if we should desert or be slight and negligent therein it will soon fall to the ground and sink past recovery and we shall thereby at once cut off the hope of our Fathers and lay the Foundation of the Ruine of Succeeding Generations utterly undo all Posterity O let us therefore make it our Prayer which is in 1 Kings 8.57 58. The Lord our God be with us as he was with our Fathers let him not leave us nor forsake us that he may incline our hearts unto him to walk in his wayes c. And you who are of the Rising Generation Adult Youth and Young men You are many of you if not most of you a Third Generation from those whom God first brought out into this Wilderness You are they who are likely to out-live Joshua and all the Elders of Israel that out-lived Joshua and all that Generation as it is said of them Judg. 2.7 8 9. You cannot many of you remember the works which God wrought for your forefathers You have never seen these Churches in their first Beauty and Glory nor the Worship and Ordinances of God in their first Spiritual Power and Purity It hath been so far your unhappiness that you have been brought forth and lived under the decaying state of these Churches and of Religion and therefore are like to grow up under the prevailing power of a Spirit of Apostacy And alas upon you is likely to fall all the Calamity and Misery of this Apostacy which is begun you will see and feel the sad and lamentable Effects of it O therefore that Youth and Young persons could lay this Consideration unto their hearts and be moved also to engage in this Work of Reformation before it be too late by labouring unto a sound Conversion and a religious Conversation in the dayes of their Youth O that All thus concerned would Vp and be doing True it is there are many great discouragements so that the hearts of those who are most and best disposed unto the Work are ready to fail especially considering that all means of Reformation have hither unto failed nothing hath hither unto done us any good So that God himself may justly complain of us as he did of that people Hos 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee c. Jer. 6.29 the bellows are burnt Truly Reformation it is likely to prove a very hard and heavy Work yet we must never despair of Reformation as that people seemed to do Ezek. 33.10 If our transgressions and our iniquities be upon us and we pine away in them how then should we live q.d. You call us to Repentance and Reformation and denounce Wrath and Judgement against us if we do not do it but alas to what purpose for God is resolved to suffer us to pine and die away in our sins And therefore God doth instantly give them an encouraging call to Repentance and Reformation Ver. 11. Say unto them As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn and live Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die O house of Israel Surely God is yet calling of us unto Reformation and waiting upon us for Reformation It is yet a Probation-time with us wherein we are standing before God upon our Tryal God hath repented once more of the evil as Amos 7.3 the unprofitable Tree hath one year more to stand in the Vineyard Luk. 13.8 Yet truly now God seemeth to be limitting of us to a certain day Psal 95.7 To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts O let us take heed then unto this day this limited day which will put a period unto Gods patience and long-suffering lest God swear suddenly and irrevecably in his wrath against us if once our day be past it will be indeed too late witness our Saviours mournful doleful Lamentation which he wept out over Jerusalem Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things of thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes And why see ver 44. Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation therefore I say now now it is high time to reform It is pressed as a present as an instant duty Zeph. 2.2 3. Before before before before that is in all haste speedily Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord that is it is high time more then time the onely time now if ever now or never I do now re-inforce the Exhortation at least by way of allusion to that in Hag. 2.4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel and be strong O Joshua the son of Josedech the high Priest and be strong all ye people of the Land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts according to the word that I Covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you fear ye not So let Magistracy Ministry and People be strengthned and encouraged to this Work believing and hoping that Gods Spirit remaineth among us according to the Covenant which he made with his people when he brought them forth first into this Wilderness
Idolatry in the Worship of God Sinners are spâ—â—â—ed unto and with the sins of the Times those sins are even rooted and grounded in the Spirit of the Generation as Jer. 17.1 The sin of Judah it is graven upon the table of their heart so that there is no hope of Reformation except we make us a new heart and a new spirit And truly this is the reason that we do not reform that we cannot reform though we do promise and vow Reformation unto God Deut. 5.29 This people have well said O that there were such an heart in them q.d. the great thing which this people want is an heart Truly so the great thing which New-England doth want it is a new Heart and a new Spirit Here then we must begin and in order hereunto 1. All sincere Christians must begin this work of Heart-reformation by labouring to recover your Souls out of your Spiritual Declensions in grace and in the life and power of godliness This Spiritual Declension it is in the first and most strict and proper sense that having of our first love reproved in the Context and therefore restitution from this Spiritual Declension it is in the first most strict and proper sense Doing of our first works commended in the Text and therefore sincere Christians are first and most properly concerned in this duty of doing of their first works How generally and deeply Christians are thus declined both their hearts and lives do sadly testifie It is the great and general complaint of all sensible Christians O their decayes and declensions hence little of the life and activity of grace hardly enough to evidence the sincerity of it clearly and comfortably either to themselves or others little of the life of Obedience either in duties of Religion or Righteousness much Carnality Formality Hypocrisie in the Worship of God both in publick private and in seeret in all their Converse and Communion both with God and Saints their Souls languishing under a Spiritual Consumption and those things which remain even ready to die Rev 3.2 It is true first of Christians then of Churches in this sense That there is a universal deadness upon the hearts of Churches hence great unprofitableness and unfruitfulness under all Ordinances sin more unmortified then ever their hearts and lives deeply corrupted with the sins of the Times and many Christians fallen into a very dangerous way of Communion with and Conformity unto the wicked World and all this appearing upon some of those whose first life love sincerity purity and eminency in grace and godliness was sometimes a Beauty unto these Churches O how is our gold become dim and our fine gold changed Lam. 4.1 How is our silver become dross and our wine mined with water Isa 1.22 How are Zions Nazarites changed in their visage Lam. 4.7 How are the faces the Countenance the Conversation of many Christians changed O Christians what shall we say what shall we do what will become of us yea what will become of Religion in this next succeeding generation If you live and die under your declensions as truly many Christians are likely to do being fallen into such deep security under their declensions that they are not like to be awakened untill the Cry be made at Midnight The Bridegroom cometh and must bestir themselves very hard to trim their Lamps in time to enter in with him O Christians It is your Spiritual Declension that is the main root of the degeneracy of this Noble Vine Jer. 2.21 It is your leaving of your first love which doth make way for the removal of the Candlestick your Spiritual declension will lead the way unto and lay the foundation for the general and total defection of these Churches in succeeding generations therefore as the defection hath been in part begun by your declension so the work of Reformation it must be begun by your restitution It is impossible that ever these Churches should be restored unto their first Spiritual prosperity and flourishing state unless Christians do first recover their first love life sincerity fervency purity activity eminency in the exercise of grace and in the performance of duty and in all practical piety both in heart and life O how can you hope to lye down in your Graves with peace and comfort before you have done what in you lyeth in the Work of Reformation How can you die in peace under your Spiritual declensions and thereby leave Religion decaying and dying and these Churches and this Generation your poor Posterity sinking under a general and total defection Sure in vain and frustrate will be all your prayers desires hopes of a Reformation except that you Christians do thus begin and lay the foundation of the work in your own hearts before you die 2. The work of Heart-reformation or making of a new heart consisteth in Conversion and Regeneration This is the most full and proper sense of those words Ezek. 18.31 Make ye a new heart and new spirit for why will ye die so Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die It is a Call to the unconverted when God doth restore his people from any deep and general defection and renew his Covenant with them he doth promise and actually pour out abundance of converting grace and so revive and renew the work of Conversion So Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will take the flony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will put my Spirit within you Let me be hold to say If ever these Churches be throughly recovered it will be it must be by such a dispensation of converting grace unto an unconverted generation It is Unregeneracy that is the radical and total degeneracy of any generation whereby it is wholly turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine unto the Lord. Here will be our deepest and most dangerous defection and that which will prove inevitably ruining unto these Churches unless the Lord have mercy upon us O our unbelief and disobedience unto the Gospel our rejection of Christ and his Kingdome It is a most sad and lamentable sign that these Churches and Religion are falling into an irreparable irrecoverable decay That there are so many of the generation growing up under the Ministry of the Word and the improvement of all means of grace in their Vnregeneracy under the prevailing power of Spiritual Apostacy and as we have cause to fear under a dreadful dispensation of divine Justice by Spiritual Plagues and Judgements being justly given up by God unto a spirit frame and way of unprofitableness under a Judicial Ministry sent to make their heart fat lest they should be converted as Isa 6.10 O it is a fearful word Lest they should see with their eyes c. and convert and be healed Observe there is no help no healing for any people if the work of Conversion cease amongst them Truly
it is a matter of very sad Consideration unto us that the work of Conversion doth fail and is failing more and more in many if not in most Congregations although we have cause with thankfulness to acknowledge the Presence and Power of the Spirit of God so far with his Ministry that there is yet some fruit of their labour appearing in the work of Conversion but alas not with proportion unto the great increase of the generation O how rarely do we hear of a sound work of Conversion held forth with full and clear demonstration of the sincerity of it O how few such Converts are there as do evidence their Conversion by a powerful practical Profession of Religion Multitudes there are growing up in their Ignorance Atheism Unbelief and Profaneness who receive no impression at all by the Word of God and many others who do receive some degrees of common grace who yet fall away by Spiritual Apostacy who prove either vain profane Professors or close Hypocrites or gross Apostates Truly unless God is infinite Mercy revive and uphold the work of Conversion there will be no hope we shall perish under this our Spiritual Apostacy which is begun for if the work of Conversion fail all the sins of the Times will be multiplied and aggravated and unconverted sinners will be in just Judgement given up to God unto the power of those sins so that our sins will become our plagues and those incurable O that all unconverted sinners might be moved to wait earnestly upon God in the improvement of all means for converting grace and bemoan themselves before God under their Unregeneracy Impanitency Unbelief then there would be hope in our end Jer. 31.17 18. There is hope in thine end saith the Lord It follows I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Turn thou me and I shall be turned the onely hope which was and which yet remains in the End of this people it ariseth from the reviving of the work of Conversion amongst them this shall be their resurrection And this seems to be a promise of that glorious dispensation of converting grace which shall be effectual unto their last Conversion This hope there is yet in our end that the work of Conversion shall yet have a powerful progress in these Churches and then we shall return and revive as the Corn and grow as the Vine Hos 14.7 Secondly In order unto the promotion and progress of the Work of Reformation we must renew our Covenant with God By Covenant here understand the Covenant of Grace as it is constituted and confirmed and savingly dispensed in by and through the Lord Jesus Christ as the onely Mediator thereof together with all the Means both of the visible and Spiritual dispensation thereof in a way of holy Communion with God and Saints That Covenant whereby God is our God and we his People Now this Covenant it is alwayes in some degree or other violated and broken by defection and apostacy and therefore God calleth it Forsaking of his Covenant Jer. 22.9 Breaking of his Covenant Jer. 31.32 Trangressing of his Covenant Hos 6.7 Hence when God doth reject any people for their Apostacy he is said to break his Covenant with them Zech. 11.10 Hence also we reade that the people of God have alwayes perfected the work of Reformation by renewing their Covenant with God 2 Kings 11.17 23.3 And when God gives reforming grace he alwayes renews his Covenant with his people Jer. 31.33 God singled out our Fathers and separated them unto himself in a more peculiar manner as a people with whom he did particularly as it were personally renew his Covenant and more amply and explicitly confirm it that in renewing of it he might more fully reveal it and restore it unto the more pure and primitive way of Administration according to his own Institution We cannot say when where or with whom God hath in more special grace and favour renewed his Covenant that they might be a special people unto himself above all people as Deut. 7.6 Therefore if we hope for the confirmation of Gods Covenant with us it is our duty after our defection to renew it 1. It is the work of sincere Christians who are actually and personally in Covenant with God who yet have by the omission of Covenant-duties and by the commission of Covenant-breaking sins walked loosely remissly unconstantly unsteadfastly and in all respects very unworthily under Gods holy Covenant to renew your Covenant with God by the renewed stipulation of your Souls unto God under the Soul-binding Obligations of the Covenant To renew your Covenant-Engagements unto God under the renewed sense experience power and efficacy of New-Covenant grace by which you have had the experimental knowledge of Gods Covenant in the saving Mystery and Sufficiency of it as a Covenant of Life as in Psal 25.14 The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant and whereby God doth put his Covenant write his Covenant in your hearts Jer 31.33 Thus renew your Covenant by Faith with an holy resolution to cleave unto God fully and firmly to walk with God closely and constantly in his holy Covenant with fear and reverence holily humbly chearfully joyfully thankfully faithfully and fruitfully in a way of Communion with full and abundant satisfaction in your Interest in and enjoyment of God as a God in Covenant as David 2 Sam. 23.5 For this is all my salvation and all my desire O Christians it is your work to uphold Gods Covenant in the life spirit and power of it and unto all the spiritual and saving ends of it as a Covenant of life in these Churches 2. It is the duty of all those who are not yet savingly in Covenant with God actually personally and professedly to take hold upon the Covenant Gods Covenant it must be thus renewed with his Church in every Age of it in order unto the continuation and succession of it from generation to generation And thus to renew the Covenant is the proper work of this Generation of those who are the Children of the Covenant that is to lay hold upon the Covenant by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as the onely Mediates of the Covenant and in God through Jesus Christ as a God in Covenant with you and so by giving up your selves into God under the Bond of his Covenant to walk with him and to live unto him in a way of Faith and Gospel-obedience as his Covenant people Thus to lay hold on Gods Covenant and actually personally and professedly to Enter into Covenant with God is the Foundation of your being and standing before God as his people and indeed of your whole Religion O how many be there of this Generation growing and grown up in these Churches under the visible dispensation of the Covenant who do rest and trust and boast in their visible Covenant relation and all the while live without saving Covenant-relation unto
open and professed Enemies unto pure Churches Worship and Ordinances are arisen unto so high a degree of bold Presumption among us and that notwithstanding they know that Publick Authority is by good and wholsome Laws and so by Oath and so by Conscience and by divers obligations both Civil and Sacred engaged against them I am no Casuist in the great Case of Toleration neither shall I undertake either to state dispute or decide that Question what is in it self or in divers respects or cases at divers times and places either Tolerable or Intolerable in matters disputable But this I take to be undeniable That gross bold scandalous presumptuous transgression of any one or more or all the Commandments of the First Table perpetrated and persisted in with an high hand notwithstanding all due means of Conviction used and against clear light held forth and manifestly under the Prevailing Power of a Spirit of Errour with malignity in open opposition to the Truth the true Churches worship and ordinances of Christ I say I take it to be unquestionable That such transgression it is Intolerable Such I take to be the transgression of those who do grosly and scandalously profane any of the holy Ordinances of Christ in the Administration of them presuming to offer strange fire but much more of those who do both professedly and practically deny most if not all Fundamentals both of Faith and Order and are known and acknowledged so to do by all the Reformed Churches in the world who are in their wayes of corrupt worship no less the Synagogue of Satan then those in Rev. 2.9 Now I say if such Transgressors and Transgressions should after the long labour and patience of these Churches in a strong and stedfast encounter and conflict with this Temptation at last prevail to break open a door unto corrupt worship by Teaching Seducing Tempting and Enticing others unto corrupt Communion with them according to the Doctrine of Balaam to cast a stumbling block before the people of the Lord as Rev. 2.14 I say if this should come to pass our case would be exceeding dangerous especially this coming upon us in our declining and languishing state when we have lost so much of our first life and love that we have soarcely strength enough left to reinforce our former Zeal and Courage in the Encounter yea and at such a time when the Generation is lamentably exposed by the sins of the Times which are all tempting unto a Compliance with such a Temptation and are too much without grace to resist it and in a very unsetled state as to their standing before God under his Covenant even standing upon the dangerous Precipice of a gross Apostacy the very opportunity for Satan to over throw us by such a Temptation Surely if it be thus or likely to be thus then there is very great need of watchsulness against this Temptation Neither let it be slighted or accounted a light thing for such Profanations and Abominations if Indulged will become the sins of the Land and the guilt and Punishment of them will lye and fall exceeding heavy upon the Land in a day of wrath O they will pull down wrath upon this Land and upon this People and the filth of them will pollute and defile the Land it will be such Pollution as will not be purged away without fire the guilt and filth of corrupt worship is not purged away without the fire and the fornace And that which is most Perillous it is the universal diffusion of the Corruption and Contagion of corrupt worship by the subtile and insensible infusion and influence of a Spirit of Libertinism a Spirit and Principle it is of all other most dangerous and destructive unto Pure Churches and will soon open a wide door unto all kinde of Abominations for all false worships although they seem in themselves to be contrary Extremes yet they all agree in this Principle of Libertinism and will break in at that door It will be in vain for us to hope for or Promise our selves Security from gross Superstition and Ceremony if we will leave open this door or admit of a contrary Extreme in corrupt worship And truly if we should give way unto any kinde it will be just with God to give us up Judicially unto all kindes of corrupt worship And let me adde That a Spirit of Libertinism if it prevail will in the end bring in all kinde of Licentiousness and Profaneness for it is a Womb big with all kinde of Abominations for corruption in Worship and conruption in Manners do alwayes grow and go together See at large Ezck. 22. beginning Although Libertinism doth promise much Liberty yet it bringeth into bondage to Corruption 2 Pet. 2.19 It doth gender altogether unto bondage O that these Churches may recover their first Zeal against Libertinism both the Spirit Principle and Practise of it and so against all corrupt worship which hath been the common destruction of Reformed Churches and will most certainly be of these Churches if it should break in upon us O let us consider we have been hither unto a People extraordinarily Priviledged with Immunity from corrupt worship we are yet free from any foraign or forcible Temptation thereunto we have yet all Advantages and Encouragements to withstand it and to keep it out If we admit of will-worship we shall lose all the glorious work of Reformation which our Fathers laboured in which consisted chiefly in Separation from corrupt Worship we shall at once reze the Foundation and ruine the Superstructure of these Churches which in the very Constitution were set up and stand in a way of opposition unto corrupt worship such Churches will not cannot bear any degree of corrupt worship VVill-worship it would even destroy our very Religion and reduce this VVilderness-People unto a kinde of Heathenism O wo unto us if we admit of will worship we shall soon fill up the measure of our sin and prepare our selves for Judgement even wrath to the utmost O wo unto New-England if ever God be provoked to revenge this quarrel of his Covenant upon us according to that Threatning Lev. 26.25 If we admit of will-worship New-England will become the shame and scandal of Religion and of all Reformed Churches the Reproach of the Christian world the Scorn and Triumph of Antichrist and in all respects a most sinful and miserable People Thus we are to do our first works in all things pertaining to the worship of God 4. Labour unto the promotion and progress of the work of Reformation by the full and faithful discharge of duty to the Children of the Covenant multiplying and growing up under the Covenant in those Churches under how great and general omission of duty towards them we have cause seriously and sadly to consider and to lament Truly it is much to be feared that we shall so long doubt and dispute the Interest and Right of fuch Children and controvert and neglect our duty towards them
people for their recovery Hos 14.2.3 Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously c. Asshur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I shall take leave now in the Conelusion to propose this general Exhortation unto Reformation more particularly unto those who are especially concerned as Reformers I. I crave leave to Apply my self yet with humility and sincerity as it becometh me speaking in the Name and fear of God unto Those who are or who shall be Established or Re-established this day in Place of Rule and Government among us as our Magistracy Much Honoured that which I have humbly to offer unto You in the Name of the Lord and on the behalf of this People it is this plain yet great word of Exhortation Whereby I do most humbly beseech you to labour in your Place by the utmost and most faithful improvement of your Power Interest Wisdome Grace and Spirit of Government which you have received from the Lord to promote this great Work of Reformation in all the Parts and in all the Degrees of it This Government and so this Magistracy it was through the most wife and merciful Providence of God constituted unto a more direct subserviency unto the Work of Reformation as the great and main design of it in the intentions both of God and of all his faithful People Therefore God Spirited our first Magistracy unto this Work of Reformation and prospered that glorious Work unto a very happy progress under their Civil Conduct of this Religious and Reforming people And now the Place the Power the whole Betrustment of this Reforming Magistracy it is by our Annual Election and so by a Providential Succession devolving upon You and remaineth vested in You. Therefore our eyes our hearts our hopes are under God and as to men much upon You as our Reformers It is our great hope and will be our great rejoicing to see the Plummet stin in the hand of Zerubbabel with those Seven to see a powerful and prosperous progress of the Work of Reformation under your hand labouring therein with a full concurrence of Divine Assistance True it is there are great Mountains standing before you but this is the Word of the Lord unto you Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit if the Lord Spirit you unto the Work they shall become a Plain and although the work be much declined it shall be again revived and the Topstone thereof shall be brought forth with Shoutings and Acclamations of Grace unto the glory of God It hath been a great if not the greatest Honour which God hath pu upon Civil Magistracy and that which addeth true Glory unto its Greatness That he hath made Civil Magistrates Reformers Seldome hath there been any great Work of Reformation wrought either in the Church of old or in the succeeding Ages of it but God hath made Kings Princes and Civil Magistrates his Ministers in it And alwayes in the most flourishing state of the Kingdome of Christ he hath caused the Mountains to bring peace and the little hills righteousness The Church on earth will be in the height and top of its prosperity when the Mountain of the Lords House shall be exalted in the tops of the Mountains when Kings shall be her Nursing-fathers and Queens her Nursing-mothers You have the most encouraging Examples of the most Illustrious Refor mers before you You know this people their present spirit state and way You have been with us at Massah at Meribah and at Kibroth-hattaavah where we have both tempted God and tryed you You may well say of us as Moses did of them I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck and so you may by a solemn Contestation call Heaven and Earth to record against us as he did sometime against them You are to labour with a very immorigerous rebellious backsliding generation under an extraordinary juncture of Provocations and Temptations Difficulties and Dangers O so much the more I am imboldened in the Name of the Lord with an humble importunity to beseech your Care Constancy Courage and Faithfulness in this your great Duty lest the Ruine of this Self-destroying people should be found under your hand It will be your Glory not onely to be Reformers but Repairers and Restorers to Repair the Breach and to raise up Foundations for many Generations Such as You are in Scripture called not onely Gods but Saviours and Saviours raised up upon Mount Sion we style you so with Modesty and Sobriety in Scripture phrase and sense as still remembring that you must die like men But hereby we understand that you are concerned in betrusted with somewhat that is Sacred you cannot approve your selves to be Gods more then by the Patronage of Religion you cannot approve your selves to be Saviours more then by being Reformers Reformation will be our Salvation We are to chuse you this day for God and so doing we may hope that God will in mercy chuse you for us You being so Chosen both by God and his people are under a double and so indispensible Obligation even by your Election to be for God and for his people that is for the promotion and preservation of that which is the main Interest of God and his people here which is Religion You are to Rule not onely over Men but Christians not onely over People but the People of God therefore you are to Rule as in the fear of God so in a more peculiar manner from God and for God that God may Rule by you that you may be the Ministers of God for our good God hath set you as our Hedge and as our Wall whereby he hath enclosed this his Vineyard and all his precious and pleasant things with us he hath set you as a part of the Defence upon the Glory God doth therefore expect that you should fully Assert and Exert all that Power which he hath committed to you to be improved for the publick Weal of his people especially in and about matters of Religion which is the greatest concernment of our publick Weal Courage and Faithfulness therein is the peculiar Excellency of a Christian Magistracy the regular exercise thereof will be the Strength and Glory of your Government and the Stability and Prosperity of this people under it It is your Concernment to uphold this Government in the full and whole interest and influence of it unto all the Ends of it especially this great and main End of it the Preservation and Propogation of Religion It will be your Commendation which was holy Davids as he was eminently a Type of Christ in the Work of Reformation that the Zeal of Gods house had consumed him The hearts of the sober faithful peaceable and religious people of the Land are towards the Governours
of Israel who offer themselves willingly to the help of the Lord in the Work of Reformation in this time of general defection And surely this is the greatest Trust that we repose in you and therefore the highest hope expectation confidence and dependance that we place upon you as our Rulers Governours Leaders Publick Benefactors and Fathers That you will by the utmost improvement of your Power and Interest advance and establish the true pure and holy Worship of God and so far as it concerneth you not suffer these Churches no not this People to be corrupted no not this Land to be polluted and defiled with Will-worship A Religious Reforming Magistracy hath hither unto been our Crowning Mercy if God set You over us in mercy he will make you such a Magistracy And therefore our Prayers for you shall ever be That he that is the Light of Israel will be a Light unto you that you may be as the Light of Israel unto us And that you may be abundantly influenced with a Spirit of Government from Him whose all Government is that you may receive a large portion of that Spirit which resteth upon Him even a Spirit of Wisdome and Vnderstanding a Spirit of Counsel and of Might a Spirit of Knowledge and of the fear of the Lord that you may be of a quick understanding in his fear And that in your measure also Righteousness may be the girdle of your loins and Faithfulness the girdle of your reins that so you may feed and lead this people both in the skilfulness of your hand and the integrity of your hearts We also shall pray That you may be kept and carried above all the Temptations and Provocations of our Murmurings Dissentions and Rebellions that God may never be angry with you for our sakes and that it may never go ill with you for our sakes as also above all your own frailties and infirmities that God may never be provoked by our sins to suffer you to fall as once he did holy David that he might punish Israel We wish you all the blessings which those who are just ruling in the fear of God may expect that we might behold you as the Light of the Morning When the Sun riseth a Morning without Clouds that the Anniversary Revolution of this Government by our Annuall Election may be unto us as the rising Sun by which we may receive Influences of Divine Blessing which may cause us to grow up as the tender grass by the clear shining after rain that in your dayes the righteous may flourish and abundance of peace that we may enjoy Prosperity and Tranquility under this Magistracy and that there may be a peaceful and prosperous Succession of it from Generation to Generation that God continuing unto us our Judges as at the first and our Counsellers as at the beginning we may remain to be a City of Righteousness and a faithful City II. I shall take leave to propose this Exhortation unto the Ministry of these Churches nextly concerned as Publick Reformers in the Work of Reformation It is proposed in the Text directly To the Angel of the Church of Ephesus The Angels of the Churches are particularly directed unto and charged with this Work in the several Churches The first Ministry of these Churches it was eminently a Reforming Ministry extraordinarily qualified unto and improved in the Work of Reformation God made them great Reformers and wrought a great Work of Reformation by them and they lived faithfully labouring in that Work unto the death though not without some discouragement and some diminution of their joy and comfort from a prae-apprehension yea from some present appearance of the sad signs of the defection of these Churches before their departure That Ministry those Ministers they are generally departed some few here and there one onely of that Ancient Old England-Ministry remaining with us as the Crown and Ornament of our New-England-Presbytery And truly the remembrance of the departure of that Ministry with the signal Circumstances and said Consequences thereof may justly move lamentation they being divers of them carried away as it were in Chariots of sire I mean by an Anticipation of their translation in the ordinary course of Nature and when in the strength and travail of their Ministerial Labours for these Churches and with this Generation bearing a full clear Testimony unto the great duties and against the great sins of the Times and standing in the Gap before God to turn away impending Judgements Their Praise is yet fresh and flourishing in these Churches being legible in living Epistles of Commendation written not with Ink but by the Spirit of the living God They have a living Memory and a lasting Monument in every godly heart who hath experienced the converting quickning comforting presence and power of the Spirit in their Ministration They are departed and we have wept over their faces with that Lamentation My father my father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsmen thereof The Burthen of the Work of the Ministry and so of this great Work of Reformation in these Churches it now resteth upon you who are the present standing Ministry this New-England Ministry which is Coaevall and Coaetaneous with this New-England Generation Amongst whom I am not worthy to be mentioned as one though with the utmost expression of diminution as less then the least of those whom God hath called forth to take a part of this Ministry and therefore most unmeet and unworthy thus to speak unto you yet I am bold to beseech you to bear this Exhortation from the Lord Jesus Christ in whose Name I speak and say O Labour to be a Reforming Ministry Although there hath been a change of Ministers in most of the Churches yet we hope there is not a change of the Ministry but that the same Ministry is still remaining that is a Ministry of the same Constitution Spirit Principles Minde Judgement and Practise in all things pertaining to the Work of the Ministry in these Churches a Ministry which hath received not onely the Mantle but a portion of the Spirit of Elijah And therefore you are engaged to undertake to uphold and to carry on the same Work of Reformation in all the parts of it and to labour unto the progress of it in the Spirit and Power of it so far as you are concerned respecting either Doctrine Profession or Practise More especially God expecteth that you should promote the Work of Reformation in your several Churches and Congregations by the regular and thorough exercise of the Power of Christ committed unto you in the Administration of Doctrine and Worship which is the great Trust and Charge committed unto you to keep 1 Tim. 6.20 This is the Rod of his strength out of Zion whereby his people are made a willing people in the day of his power Psal 110.2 3. Exalt Christ by the due exercise of his Power in his Name that Christ may reign Ministerially in these Churches The
Now we must set to the Work 1. With one heart No hope of Reformation without Vnion Division hath been one great cause of our-defection and will be a total obstruction unto Reformation if it continue we must unite our hearts our hands our strength O if ever we would unite let it be in and unto the Work of Reformation 2. Set unto it with all your hearts and with all your souls Our very hearts and souls must be engaged unto it and in it we must set to it in good earnest as unto a work that must be done we are now brought unto this Dilemma either a timely speedy thorough Reformation or else there will be a general and total defection either Repent and do the first works or otherwise I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy Candlestick out of its place except thou repent is the voice of Christ unto these Churches O that we understood and seriously and solemnly considered that we are a lost and undone people without Reformation that we are a helpless hopeless people without Reformation that nothing will recover us from our defection and prevent our destruction by the execution of impending Judgements but onely Reformation O then we should stand trembling before God under the apprehension of the instant urgent necessity of Reformation as Ezra 10.9 And all the people sate in the street of the house of God trembling because of this matter ver 12. Then all the Congregation answered and said with a loud voice As thou hast said so must we do Observe they cried out passionately affectionately So must we do q.d. we are a lost undone people there is no hope no help for us without Reformation and then they set to the Work in good earnest O that we could make Reformation our main work and business without delay 3. We must set to it with a right and full understanding of the whole work of Reformation in the parts and progress of it We have been ready to return by way of retortion unto this great Exhortation as that people Mal. 3.7 Even from the dayes of your fathers ye are gone away from mine Ordinances and have not kept them Return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord but ye said Wherein shall we return So 8 13. Though they were guilty of a very great and general defection yet they understood not the Work of Reformation Truly so it is our great unhappiness that we do no better know wherein the Work of Reformation consisteth yea that some of the great things of our peace do seem to be even Judicially or in Judgement hidden from our eyes Luk. 19.42 Deut. 29.4 Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day and that was the reason that their defection was continued Psal 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved with this Generation and said It is a people that do erre in their heart and they have not known my wayes Vnto whom I sware c. They were incurable in their defection because they understood not the Work of Reformation It is observable in all these seven Epistles unto the Churches Christ calls for an understanding attention Let him that hath an ear to hear hear c. There is much wisdome and prudence requisite unto the Work of Reformation Hos 14.9 Who is wise he shall understand these things prudent he shall know them for the wayes of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them O! a want of this wisdome and prudence is one great hinderance we do not we will not understand the way and work of Reformation 4. We must set unto the Work in a way of full and sincere subjection unto Order and carry on the Work according to Rules of Order Breach of Order neglect of Order Non subjection unto Order Disorder and Confusion it hath been one great Cause yea it is a great part of our defection and if ever we do hope or intend to make thorough work in Reformation we must recover Order the Beauty the Harmony the Peace and Tranquility the Regularity the Purity and Simplicity the Power and Efficacy Life and Spirit of Order Gospel-order the Order which Christ hath set and appointed in his Church Although we may have never so good dispositions intentions resolutions and desires unto the Work of Reformation yet if we pursue it not in due Order it will all come to nothing 1 Chron. 15.13 because we sought him not in the due Order Surely there is no case so difficult among us but there is a regular and easie way to an issue if we will acknowledge and apply and follow up Rules of Order in the due improvement of them if we would be set down by Order be ruled and governed by Order but if we will slight neglect reject contemn and despise Order we can expect nothing but Disorder and Confusion and shall be in great danger thereby to run and rush desperately into our own ruine It was the great Expedient which the Apostle proposeth for the Reformation of that distracted Church of Corinth Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.33 40. So 1 Cor. 11.34 5. We must set our selves to the work with a fervent love unto and zeal for the work it self The Cause of God the Kingdome of Christ the Prosperity of these Churches so much concerned in it this is the onely true Principle and Spirit of Reformation O that our first New-England Zeal and Love might be revived and raised under a full clear discovery of the Spiritual Beauty and Glory of that Work and of that Cause that we may labour in it in the heart height and strength of that Zeal and Love This will indeed Spirit the Work and Spirit us unto it It is a sign that there is a glorious work of Reformation near when Gods people do love the stones and favour the dust of Zion Psal 102.14 6. We must labour in it under a sense of our own utter insufficiency to Reform renouncing all our own carnal Confidences and disclaiming our own wisdomes and wills wherein we have too long laboured in vain trust our own hearts no further no longer which have so much so often deceived us but bemoan our selves before God as a hopeless and helpless people as Ephraim did Jer. 31.18 and the Church Jer. 3.22 23 Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills or from the multitude of mountains for shame hath devoured the labours of our hands from our youth We lie dwon in our shame and confusion covereth us then God will work for us Deut. 32.36 For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or lest So Jer. 30.15 17. Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for I
possession of my House Worship and Ordinances protected you in the enjoyment and improvement of all my precious and pleasant things carried you as upon Eagles wings pitied you pardoned you spared you and saved you and superadded Peace Plenty and all temporal mercies O foolish people and unwise will you thus then requite the Lord your God Be astonished O Heavens at this and be horribly afraid and be ye very disolate saith the Lord O how will New-England be able to stand before the Lord when he shall thus contend with us and that in order unto the vindication of his Justice proceeding unto the execution of his destroying and desolating Judgements as Psal 81.12 But my people would not hearken unto my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up O we to New-England when God comes to the parting blow with us But must God and New-England part thus O God for bid Why should we not then now standing in the presence of God in our hearts and with our Souls say Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God and take with us words and say Take away iniquity and receive us graciously for in thee the fatherless finde mercy O with what open out-stretched Arms of mercy would God receive and entertain his poor backfliding people so returning to him and say I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from them O how would God rejoice over poor returning New-England and rest with Divine delight and Complacency in his love unto us O what a blessed glorious Change would such a work of Reformation work in New-England How would these Churches revive and flourish and recover their first Beauty and Glory again be replenished with the gracious Presence of God and of Christ again the Worship and Ordinances of God be restored unto their Spiritual Power and Purity and be accompanied in all Administrations with a plentiful dispensation of Gods Spirit and Grace Sinners be converted Saints edified and comforted in Communion with God and one with another the great and crying sins of the Times suppressed Holiness both in heart and life increased our Controversies issued Contentions ended our Breaches and Losses repaired out Wounds and Sicknesses healed Gods Covenant renewed and confirmed with us and we in all respects made a blessed and happy people in the full enjoyment and improvement of our most precious and pleasant things O then New-England would be New-England again What a rejoicing would this be to the Churches of Christ and what an advantage and advance to the Cause and Kingdome of Christ in the World O if it please God to give us in this our most hopeless and helpless estate the valley of Achor for a door of hope then shall N. E. sing as in the dayes of her youth as in the day when God first brought her forth into this Wilderness as Hos 2.15 Then shall all the lovers of Zion rejoice with us and for us with acclamations of Blessing as Jer. 31.23 The Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness It was a great refreshing to this weary and weeping Prophet to see Visions of peace and prosperity unto the Church and therefore he adds v. 26. Vpon this I awaked and beheld and my sleep was sweet unto me O it is a sweet and pleasant thing by faith and hope to believe and hope for such prosperity unto these Churches Let it ever be our Prayer which was the Prayer of the Church Psa 90.16 17. Let thy work appear unto thy Servants and thy glory unto their Children and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea the work of our hands establish thou it FINIS
Rule and Government of Christ powerfully Administred would soon Reform all O that Discipline might be restored unto the full and effectual exercise of it in the Spirit and Power of it unto all the saving Ends of it in these Churches it would work a great Reformation And O that this poor Generation which is committed Chiefly to the Charge of this Ministry may be generally cared for in all the Churches They are the Generation which you are called to labour with and for amongst whom you hope to have the fruit of your Labours in the Work of the Ministry and whom you are to stand in Judgement with and to give an account of in the day of Account O what Account will be given of them if many or the generality of them should perish under the neglect of the due exercise of the Ministerial Power of Christ towards them in any of the Churches Most of all the Work of Reformation dependeth upon the faithful and successful Labours of this Ministry in the work of Conversion the travail of your Souls in that work your travailing with Souls in that work of Conversion Here lyes the stress and the life and spirit of the Work of Reformation without which all Essayes Endeavours and Labour therein and thereunto will be utterly vain and void If God make this Ministry a Converting Ministry the Work of Reformation will be again revived but if God suffer it to be a Judicial Ministry a Ministry sent in Judgement to make the heart of this people fat then there will be no hope the Generation will grow sick at heart under Spiritual Plagues and Judgements under a savour of death by this Ministry and so die in their sins A Judicial Ministry hath alwayes been the fatall Cause of the finall Ruine of such a people as Isa 6.10 Mat. 13.13 14. Joh. 12.40 Rom. 9.32 And therefore how are all such who have the Charge of Souls in such a dangerous time amongst a declining people concerned to Labour to Pray to Preach to be instant in season out of season in private in publick to spend their Souls to bend the strength of their Ministerial Labours unto the Conversion of Souls How did the Prophets of old labour in like ease with a declining people and dolefully lament the loss of their labour so Isaiah Isa 49.4 Jeremiah Jer. 6.10 yea our Lord Jesus Christ himself Mat. 23.37 O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children Truly it is a most doleful discouragement to the present Ministry in many Congregations to see so many Souls fatting hearts hardning immortal Souls dying and perishing under their hand Care and Charge but yet they must labour and Agonize in Prayer unto God for a dispensation of Converting grace by their Ministry that the Work of Conversion and so the Work of Reformation may be revived for if not it is much to be feared that the Sun will quickly go down over the Prophets I allude unto Mic. 3.6 I mean that our day of grace will expire and the Sun set upon these Churches by the departure of the Ministrv and so our house be left unto us desolate as Mat. 23.38 39. The Prosperity of these Churches dependeth much upon the success of the Labours of this present Ministry and therefore the hopes desires and prayers of all the faithful people of God in these Churches are That you may alwayes remain as Stars in the right hand of Jesus Christ fixed in your Orb full of Light Regular in all your Motions Powerfull in all your Influences shining in all your Appearances with the Splendor and Lustre of his Spirit and Grace in whose hand you are And that there may be no such Wandering Stars spoken of Jude v. 13. whose Erratick Motions should disturb the Coelestial Order and Harmony of our Ecclesiastical Heaven III. I propose this Exhortation also unto All the People of the Land who are present and O that whole New-England might be moved with this word of Exhortation Repent and do the first works O that the heart of this people might be moved as the heart of one man unto the Work of Reformationâ— It is a general work our defection it is general and therefore our Reformation it must be also general Of old the Work of Reformation it was alwayes wrought by all the people as you may reade 2 Kings 23.3 2 Chron. 29.36 34.30 the Text saith there All small and great So Ezra 109. Neh. 8.1 All the the people as one man every one that is able to do any thing must bear his part in the Work of Reformation Every one hath a particular work of Reformation in and for himself to Reform himself his own heart and his own life if every one could Reform one it would be a great and general Reformation Every one that hath a Soul to save or hath any care of his Salvation is concerned in this Work of Reformation of what degree rank or order whatsoever every one must labour in his own person in his proper place by the utmost improvement of his power interest and influence to help forward the work every one must set his hand and heart unto the Work of Reformation in Families Towns Churches throughout the Country The Work of Reformation it must run through all our hearts and wayes in every Station and Relation in every Calling and Imployment through all matters both Civil and Religious in all our converse with God and man There is not one here present in the Congregation but is concerned in this Work of Reformation 1. Let every one be admonished and warned to take heed of hindering the Work of Reformation They are the most dangerous and desperate Enemies unto New-England and unto these Churches who do hinder Reformation so do all Profane persons by their sins of Profaneness whose work it is more and more to corrupt the Generation and to fill and pollute the Land with their Abominations So also do all Worldly and Self-seeking persons by sinking the Interest of Religion and raising a Worldly Interest and so building up their own Self-interests upon the ruines of the Publick So also do all Factious Seditious and Contentious persons who make it their design and work to foment Divisions and to uphold dividing Parties and Interests unto the shaking of very Foundations So also do all corrupt Worshippers and corrupters of the Worship of God In a word so do all Carnal Formal Hypocritical Professors And so do all the Capital leading sinners of the Times and of the Generation These are all publick Enemies unto these Churches more dangerous and destructive Enemies unto this great Work of the Lord then Sanballat and Tobiah and the rest of old were unto the Building of the City or the Temple Wo to those by whom Offences come who are Leaders in our great and general Defection and hinderers of the Work of Reformation As for such who turn aside unto their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth