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
from whence thou art fallen So to the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.18 Anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see that is See and be sensible of thy defection God hath made it the work of divers of his faithful Servants whom he hath of late sent and set to speak upon this Occasion in this general Assembly to Awaken and to Couvince to Plead with us in a way of Conviction to Cry aloud not to spare to lift their voices like a Trumpet to shew New-England their transgressions and this people their sins Isa 58.2 and surely untill we are thus awakened and convinced there will be no hope of Reformation Exhort II. Repent So remember from whence thou art fallen as to Repent It must be a Penitential Remembrance such a remembrance as doth both move and lead to Repentance Ezek. 16.61 Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed ver 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame so Ezek. 6.9 20 43. When and where there is such an awakening convincing Remembrance there will be Repentance Surely God expects and calls for a deep thorough general Repentance Repentance in all the parts of it the full exercise of it the whole work of it unto all the fruits effects and ends of it expressed in Confession Contrition Humiliation Supplication from a right Spirit of Repentance God calls for heart-breaking heart-rending Repentance Jol 2.12 Rend your hearts and not your garments God expects to hear New-England as Ephraim bemoaning himself Jer. 31.19 Surely after I was turned I repented after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded It is impossible that we should Reform except we thus Repent for the foundation of the whole work of Reformation is laid in Repentance the work of Reformation is wrought in Repentance and therefore our Lord Jesus Christ layes the burthen of all the work upon Repentance in the Text Except thou repent Exhort III. Do the first works So remember from whence thou art fallen and repent as to do the first works that is Reform And here chiefly lyes my present business viz. in pressing this part of the Exhortation And the rather I shall take leave to insist a while upon it as a suitable and seasonable word because we have been Originally a Reforming and a Reformed people a people separated and set apart by God to be the Subject of a very great and glorious Work of Reformation Reformation hath been the design of New-England and therefore Reformation it is the Profession of New-England This work of Reformation it hath been especially by this Generation not onely much neglected but even almost utterly deserted by a general defection and declension which we are fallen into so that we are now become a declining and declined people There hath been and there is a general Complaint and Cry for want of Reformation it is generally confessed and acknowledged that there is an absolute necessity of a speedy thorough Reformation and that without it we are an undone people We have in our publick Solemnities made many solemn Vows and Promises of Reformation unto God wherein we have too much flattered him with our lips and lied unto him with our tongues whilst our hearts have not been stedfast with him there is yet therefore an utter total neglect and defect of Reformation no kinde no degree of Reformation as little and in some respects less hope and probability thereof then ever before and truly without speedy Reformation our defection is likely to prove irreparable and irrecoverable sin and sinners growing every day more and more incorrigible and incurable and the heart of the Generation more and more corrupted with a Spirit of Profaneness and Apostacy and so bent to back sliding Hos 11.7 insomuch that it is too likely to be a perpetual backsliding And that which is yet more then all and most of all pressing it is the danger that we are in of being given up justly and judicially by God unto a spirit frame and way of Back-sliding and Apostacy if we do not speedly reform Has 4.16 Ephraine back slideth like a back-sliding-heifer Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Psal 81.11 So be gave them up to their own harts lusts Deut. 32.20 I will hide my face from them I will see what their end will be q.d. I will have no more to do with them in a way of grace and mercy I will leave them to themselves to finish their Apostacy to fill up the measure of their iniquity I will see what miserable lamentable end they will bring themselves unto and truly if so then wo unto us we shall soon destroy our selves But yet God is in mercy waiting that he may be gracious Isa 30.13 and therefore that which God is yet calling for looking for yea to speak after the manner of men that which God is longing for it is out Reformation as Jer. 13.27 O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be These Considerations may move our Attention unto this Exhortation And here I shall take leave to speak unto Reformation in general and so not onely unto a restitution from our defection but the progress of the Work of Reformation God expects not onely that we should do our first works but that our last works should be more then our first which was the Commendation of the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2.19 I shall therefore propose some general duties to be laboured in in order unto Reformation and endeavour as God shall help to suit my Discourse herein unto the present condition of this people and these Churches First It should be our labour to get a new Heart and new Spirit This is the life and spirit of the work of Reformation Ezek. 18.30 31. Repent and turn your selves from your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O horse of Israel When God doth work reforming grace and renew his Covenant with his people upon terms of Reformation he doth first take away the corrupt hard impenitent unbelieving backsliding apostatizing heart and gives them a new heart and a new spirit Jer. 31.33 32.39 Ezek. 11.19 36.26 The foundation of the work of Reformation it must be laid in a new heart because the original of our defection and Apostacy it is in the heart and therefore God every-where complaineth of that backsliding people that they had an uncircumcised heart Jer. 9.26 a whorish heart Ezek. 6.9 that their heart was set upon their iniquity Hos 4.8 Truly so it is the very heart of New-England is changed and exceedingly corrupted with the sins of the Times there is a Spirit of Profaneness a Spirit of Pride a Spirit of Worldliness a Spirit of Sensuality a Spirit of Gainsaying and Rebellion a Spirit of Libertinism a Spirit of Carnality Formality Hypocrisie and Spiritual
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
God Yea how do they profane poliute neglect reject contemn Gods holy Covenant as profane Esau did Gen. 25.32 What profit shall this Birthright do me Thus Esau despised his Birthright Know then all you who are the Children of the Govenant that it is by your taking hold upon the Covenant that the Covenant is established and confirmed unto you as your Covenant and your Interest in the Covenant asserted For whatever your visible right and interest unto and in the Covenant may be and whatever your Confidences may be yet if you do pollute profane neglect reject despise contemn Gods Covenant and not lay hold upon it God will certainly take away his Covenant from you Gods Covenant will certainly fail unto such a Generation and then these Churches will fall to the ground If you should so reject Gods Covenant and cast off Gods Covenant God would reject and cast off you as altogether unworthy of his Covenant and of the blessings of it and say of you as in Psal 50.16 What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant into thy mouth You ought highly to prize and esteem your visible right and interest unto and in the Covenant hold it assert it as an inestimable Priviledge but O take heed of abusing of it unto carnal Confidence and of resting in it and take heed of slighting and neglecting of it You are the Children of the Covenant but yet think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our father for God is able of the very stones to raise up Children unto Abraham And the Ax will be laid to the root of the tree and every tree c. Mat. 3.9 10. You are the Children of the Kingdome but remember that the Children of the Kingdome may be cast out and that will cause weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 8.12 It is by laying hold upon Gods Covenant that we do lay hold upon God himself We may fear and that justly that God will depart from us and the great enquiry is How we may keep God with us Surely it lyes much yea most and almost onely in you to retain the gracious Presence of God in these Churches by taking hold upon him by his Covenant If you reject the Covenant you reject God and put him away from you God will be gone and testifie against you as in Psal 81.11 but my people would have none of me And truly if God depart from and reject you there will be no place found for Repentance though you may seek it carefully with tears as Esau did when it was too late Heb. 12.17 If you should go on generally and totally to neglect and reject Gods Covenant God will at last break the staves of Beauty and Bands that is break his Covenant and remove it utterly from us as Zech. 11.10.11 God hath not yet done it he hath not yet disowned us but yet let me say God hath not yet visibly and signally owned us by renewing and confirming his Covenant with us in such a way of special grace and favour as he did with our Fathers because we have not so owned him we are not yet so established in our standing under the Covenant as they were It is yet doubtful what God will do with this poor Generation onely God is yet waiting upon us and proving and trying of us to see whether we will take hold upon his Covenant and upon himself by his Covenant yea or no and upon this Point will turn the weal or wo of this present and of succeeding Generations O that we understood how much we are concerned thus to renew our Covenant with God! Thirdly Do the first works in all things pertaining to the Worship of God After we have made us a new Heart and renewed our Covenant our next great work in a way of Reformation it is to recover the Worship of God from those decayes which it is fallen into The great work of Reformation in the Church of old it was much and most about the Worship of God which is most properly Church-Reformation and here our main work is to recover our selves from that decay which we are fallen into respecting the internal spiritual power and purity of Worship 1. We must labour to recover our first love to the Worship of God both Moral and Instituted Worship all duties of Worship and all Wayes Means Ordinances of Worship It was a very high esteem of and dear love unto and delight in the Worship and Ordinances of God whereby our Fathers were first allured and moved to follow God into this Wilderness O the first love of New-Englands first Espousals the kindness of her youth when she first followed God into this Land meerly and onely out of love unto and delight in his Worship and Ordinances God remembers it as Jer. 2.2 And truly we ought to remember it also with shame and confusion of face under a sense of our loss of that love and our too much slighting neglecting and despising the Worship and Ordinances of God O this is the original of all our decayes in the Worship of God the heart of the Generation the heart of New-England is much gone from the Worship and Ordinances of God though we pretend and profess much zeal and love yet our heart begins to be far removed from them Isa 29 13. Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth and do honour me with their lips but have removed their heart far from me Ezek. 33.31 For with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness O the heart of New-England is gone much from the Worship of God after the World yea truly Christians themselves are much fallen in their love esteem and delight of and in the Worship of God O then let us labour to recover our first love and to set our hearts to the Worship and Ordinances of God Deut. 32.46 Set your hearts unto all these things which I command you for it is not a vain thing for you for it is your life Our very hearts and Souls must be set upon and engaged unto the Worship of God as a very dear and precious Interest so as to prefer it above our chief joy Psal 137.6 O the luke-warmness of the love of the generality of Worshippers to the Worship of God is an evident sign of our declension therein 2. We must labour to recover our first Zeal for the House of God in keeping upholding and maintaining the Worship and Ordinances of God Cleave to them and keep them up by a lively constant stedfast sincere and holy Profession by an humble professed practical subjection of your very Souls unto them by a constant diligent religious and profitable Attention upon them and improvement of them with intire love peace and union in a way of pure and holy Communion Labour also to uphold the Worship and Ordinances of God by teaching of them diligently to your Children Deut. 6.7
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
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