Word of God do all concur to prove That God at some times and in some cases doth in Sovereign Grace save his Churches both from Sin and Judgment in a more Immediate and Extraordinary Way of working by himself This Doctrine opens it self unto us with a fulness of Scripture Evidence in the several parts of it 1. That all Salvations to the Children of men are from God He who is God alone must needs be the only Saviour therefore he is emphatically styled the Saviour Isa 45.15 O God of Israel the Saviour and verse 21. There is no God else besides me a just God and a Saviour Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour therefore he is styled the God of Salvation Psal 68.20 He that is our God is the God of Salvation hence Salvation belongs only to the Lord Psal 3.8 all who know and believe him to be God must needs acknowledge him to be the only Author of all both Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Salvations to all the Children of men who partake of any Salvations Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be ye Saved all the Ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else 2 That God works divers kinds and degrees of Salvation there are divers wayes of Salvation wherein God works as a Saviour there are external common general Salvations which God works in his common Providence these God works in divers waves and degrees for all the Children of men By these Salvations it is that he moderates all the Evils of the Curse so far as to give man a Being and Subsistence in this world more or less comfortable as seemeth good to him Psal 107. per tot We have an Induction of such kind of Salvations with a reiterated Exhortation To Praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of men Again God works such Salvation in common Providence also but in special Mercy to his Churches and People Deut. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel who is like to thee a People Saved by the Lord. There are also Special Salvations which God worketh for his Churches and People in the way of his Spiritual Providence in Saving Mercy which are the only Saving Salvations and which hold a necessary Connection with Eternal Salvation this is the most glorious Salvation which God works for his People in this World when he Saves his People from their Sins and from all Spiritual Evils and Enemies and to this all Promises of Salvation to the Church in this World do ultimately referr This is and will be the Consummation of all Temporal Salvations to the Church in this World as it will appear gloriously in the last and full Accomplishment complishment of this Promise in our Text when that Acclamation shall be heard Rev. 12.10 Now is come Salvation and Strength the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ 3. That God works all both Temporal and Spiritual Salvations for his Churches and People either more Mediately or more Immediately he works common Salvation in a way of mediate ordinary Providence and so all Gods Propitious Prosperous Providences may be said to be Salvations God works special extraordinary Salvations for his People in a more Immediate Extraordinary way of Providence although it may not be altogether Immediately yet more immediately there may be a more Immediate Influence of Divine Wisdom and Power which may make the Salvation wrought Wonderful if not Miraculous such as God wrought for his Church of Old in Egypt in the Wilderness in the times of the Judges and of some of the Kings and afterwards In this way of working it is that God is said to Save his People by his own Right Hand and by his own Arm Psal 44.3 Psal 77.15 and to Save them with an High Hand and Out stretched Arm Exod. 6.6 and 14.8 When the Lord doth make bare his Arm then all the Ends of the Earth may see his Salvation Isa 52.10 Most immediately God works in working of Spiritual Salvations Now God may be said to work more immediately 1. When he works as a Creator when it is Creating Work and in some respects the most Glorious Creating Work or Work of Greation for God to Create to himself a People a Church Psal 102.18 The People that shall be Created shall Praise the Lord so Isa 41.20 Isa 43.1 Thus saith the Lord that Created thee O Jacob c. ver 7. For I have Created him for my Glory and ver 15. I am the Lord the Creator of Israel your King Surely God will work more gloriously by himself in Creating the New Heavens and the New Earth Isa 65.17 18. For behold I Create New Heavens and a new Earth be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I Create for behold I Create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her People a joy Isa 45.8 Drop down ye Heavens from above and let the Skies pour down Righteousness let the Earth open and let them bring forth Salvation I the Lord have Created it Observe God Createth this most Glorious Spiritual Salvation for his Church 2. God works more immediately by himself in Saving of his People when he works by a more full and glorious exercise of the Power of Christ Mediator God works all Salvations by his Son he is therefore eminently styled the Saviour he hath wrought Spiritual and Eternal Redemption and Salvation and he applies it to all his Elect He is Exalted by Gods own Right-Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 There is Salvation in none other nor any other Name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we can be Saved Acts 4.12 he is therefore called Jesus Because he came to Save his People from their Sins Mat. 1.21 All Temporal Salvations wrought for the Church of Old are attributed unto him Isa 63.10 In all their Afflictions he was Afflicted and the Angel of his Presence saved them God appeared and wrought by him in Saving his People out of Egypt Exod. 3.2 in the Wilderness Exod. 23.20 and in bringing of them into Canaan Josh 5.13 14. and in bringing the Church out of Babilon Zech. 1.12 thus God alwayes Saved his People by the Angel of his Presence and therefore all Salvations which God works for his People in all Ages of the World until the Church Militant become Triumphant are ascribed to him Rev. 7.10 Salvation to our God and the Lamb that is to God working more immediately by Christ Mediator 3 God works more immediately to Save his People by himself that is by his Spirit Zech. 4.6 not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts that is more immediately by myself This is none other than the same Promise with this in our Text renewed just then at the first period of the Signal Accomplishment of it though it may have a more full and notable Accomplishment not only unto them but to the whole Church of God in the
MANS Extremity GODS OPPORTUNITY OR A Display of GODS Sovereign Grace in Saving a PEOPLE whose Recovery as to Men and Means is next to desperate As it was delivered in A SERMON Preached before the Honourable Lieutenant Governour Counsellors and the Assembly of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England On MAY 29. 1695. Which was the Day for ELECTION of Counsellors for that Province By the Reverend Mr. SAMVEL TORREY Pastor of the Church in Weymouth Isa 57.18 I have seen his ways will heal him BOSTON Printed by Bartholomew Green for Michael Perry under the West end of the. Town-house 1695. Published by Order of Authority To the READER Christian Reader HOW Seasonable the following Discourse was and how well accommodated to the Occasion for which it was Levelled and Audience before whom it was Delivered may possibly be questioned by such as either are possessed with an overweening O pinion of a Negative Commendation given us that we are not so bad or so far gone as many other People who make a Profession or are little concerned in observing either Men or Providences and comparing them with Scripture Rules But he that shall seriously ponder how far we are declined from what we sometimes were how many things are Dead among us and how those that Remain are ready to dy how much God hath done for us more than for many others and how we have Requited him how long he hath been dealing with us in a way of Judgments and what means have been used to Reclaim us all which notwithstanding neither are we returned to God nor is his Anger turned away from us cannot but Subscribe to it and say it was a Word upon it's Wheels And truly when we are cast in Common Law what have we to hope in but Prerogative Mercy When Good Men in all Orders find all attempts to recover a Backslidden People awfully to be frustrated needs must they sink in dispondency and lose their Faith and Hope did they not encourage them by this consideration that as God can so he frequently doth take such an Opportunity to make himself known and so have the whole Glory of such a Peoples Salvation ascribed to him The Author of this Sermon is one whose Works Praise him in the Gates and cannot be added to by any commendation of mine He hath lived to see many changes in this Land and being awfully sensible of the decays of Practical Holiness and the solemn Tokens of Divine displeasure at a People who were sometimes highly favoured by their God hath on all Occasions been ready to thrust into the Gap and endeavour the preventing of Ruin by promoting a thorow Reformation but finding how little Success such Essays have had hath thereupon with Eli Sat trembling for the Ark of the God of Israel had fainted but that he believed to see the Salvation of God He hath here told us where he found relief against his sinking and overwhelming thoughts even in him who works for his Great Name when it hath been Profaned by a People of his Covenant and hath recommended it for an excellent help to encourage the Faith and animate the Prayers of the truly Godly unto perseverance in waiting to See Gods Salvations assuring us that neither our Sins nor our present Impenitence can obstruct Gods Grace or prevent his appearing for our help in Subduing our Iniquities and restoring us to his favour that when times are never so black second causes afford little or no relief and there is none shut up or left yet Caelo restat iter and there is THEOS APO MECHANES That the Publication of this Sermon may answer the desires of these who earnestly sought for it and be made profitable as to show us more of our own State so to put us upon greater industry in all present necessary duties and because there is yet hope in Israel to set upon the work so often solemnly pressed upon us hitherto so little pursued shall be the Prayer of One that waits for the Consolation of Israel S. WILLARD MANS EXTREMITY GODS OPPORTVNITY Hosea I. 7. But I will have mercy upon the House of Judah and will Save them by the Lord their God WE find in the Context that the House of Israel that is the ten Tribes having by their Spiritual Whoredoms given not only Conception but Birth both unto Loruhamâ—h and Loammi God in his Holy Jealousie and Righteous Judgment had resolved to cast them off for their Apostacy unto Idolatry as a Reprobate People Wherefore he raised up and sent this Prophet to give them the sad and certain intelligence of that his most dreadful Resolve against them the Prophet having received his doleful Message in a grievous Vision he delivers it in a most direful Threatning at once denouncing the utmost Extremity of all kind of Calamity and Misery in their being given up totally both unto Sin and Judgment this we have in the latter part of the sixth verse I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel but I will utterly take them away And further to Accumulate and Exaggerate this heavy Threathing in the burthen of it upon the House of Israel God doth at the same time and in the very next words propose and proclaim a very gracious and glorious Promise of Mercy and Salvation to the House of Judah verse 7. But I will have mercy upon the House of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God Judah was at this time a very Sinful Backsliding People sinking into a depth of gross Apostacy to Idolatry also which God upbraids them with judging and condemning them as more vile and inexcusable than Israel Jer. 3.11 Yet God in his Sovereign Grace makes a sure Promise of Mercy and Salvation to Judah Buts I will have mercy upon the House of Judah and ingageth himself to perform it by Saving of them in a more immediate and extraordinary way of working by himself and will save them by the Lord their God intimating thereby that Judah also was past hope of Salvation in any ordinary way Whence we have this DOCTRINE That at some times and in some cases God doth in Sovereign Mercy Save his Churches and People both from Sin and Judgment in a more immediate and extraordinary way of working by himself I will have mercy upon the House of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God This great comprehensive Promise contains the Summe of all Promises of Temporal Salvation to the Church both from Sin and Judgment which God hath made or doth accomplish in this world and therefore it hath been and doth remain the foundation of Faith Hope Confidence Comfort to the Church in all Ages in their greatest depths when they have been most ready to perish in their Apostacy Calamity and Misery The Promises of God the Prayers of the Church and all the most Notable Instances of such glorious Salvations which we find recorded in the
Deploring Mournful Penitential Crys of Prayer although there are a Praying People yet left with us those who are Gods Remembrancers who stand before him in the Gap But alas how much of the Spirit Life and Power of Prayer is decayed and wanting among People and Professors in Publick Private Secret and how much we have failed and falsifyed with God in our Prayers We have sad cause to Consider O that there might be such a General Powerful cry of Prayer as sometimes there hath been with us and as God now expects and looks for and which is absolutely necessary as the way and means wherein we are to seek and labour to obtain this Salvation from God God hath therefore promised that his People shall pray Jer. 29.11 12. Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall goe and Pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and yee shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart This is a promise that then they should Pray when the time of Salvation was come God alwayes Saves his People in the way of Prayer Jer. 31.9 They shall come with Weeping and with Supplication will I lead them Oh that God would pour out the Spirit of Grace Supplication upon us But it may be inquired What we are more especially and particularly to Believe and Pray for in order to the Obtainment of such Salvation I Reply It must be for the returns and continuance of the Divine Presence and the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit 1. That God would no further or longer withdraw himself His Spiritual Gracious Saving Presence but return to us in those ways and by those degrees wherein and whereby he hath been departing from us We have yet all the visible signs and means of his presence that ever we had or any People can have But alas how much have we lost of the Spiritual Beauty Glory Power Saving Effects and Blessedness of his presence and of the comfortable Beatifical Apprehensions of his presence in Spiritual Communion with him and communications from him God is much with-drawn from our hearts and from his own House much of the Protecting Directing Prospering Propitious presence of God in the wayes of his Providence gone And truly the Divine presence seems still to be upon its remove from us we our People seem to be very little sensible of it and growing more insensible unconcerned about it surely then it is high time for us to stir up our selves to take hold of God we may complain with the Church Isa 64.7 There is none that call upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord till he come that is till he return Truly Wo will be to us if we suffer God to depart quite away from us Hos 9.12 It was therefore the burthen of the Churches Prayer Psa 80.3.7.19 Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be Saved More plainly Expressed Verse 14. Return O Lord we beseech thee When ever God Saves his People he returns and when ever he returns he brings Salvation with him Zech. 1.16 I am returned to Jerusalem with great Mercies 2. We must believe and pray for the accomplishment of the great Promise of the Spirit It was intimated before that God works more immediately to Save his People by his Spirit they therefore can expect no such Salvation otherwise then by the accomplishment of that Promise of the Spirit which indeed seems to be a Fundamental Article of the Covenant of Grace because it is by the performance of that he brings his People into Covenant with himself and applies all the Saving Grace of the Covenant unto them and so thereby he becomes their God and makes them his People therefore it is so often in express terms given and renewed in the Scripture both of the Old and New Testament as Isa 44.1 6. Isa 59.20 21. Ezek. 36.27 Ezek. 37.14 Ezek. 39.29 Joel 2.28 and elsewhere abundantly which signifies that God hath laid this Promise of his Spirit in the foundation of the Faith Hope and Confidence of his People and that the accomplishment of it is the great thing which they are to believe and pray for in order to their Salvation and therefore he hath directed his Church to wait upon him for Salvation until he pour out his Spirit Isa 32.15 Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the Wilderness become a fruitful field There were gracious Promises of Salvation made to the Church in that Context but they were to wait for it until the Spirit was poured upon them from on high It all depended upon the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit We have it may be sometimes thought and hoped that we had seen God working in the way of his Providence at this time and at that for our Salvation and we have been apt to be much raised in our Spirits with what we have so thought God hath been doing for us and that with very high hopes of being suddenly and perfectly restored to as good and happy condition as ever But alas do we see do we feel God working by the power of his Spirit Truly if not whatever other Signs or Prognosticks of good we may think we see we may assure our selves that all such hopes and confidences will fail us and we shall be left to complain with the Church Jer. 14.19 We looked for peace but no good hath come for a time of healing and behold trouble and as Isa 59.9 11. We wait for light and behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness We looked for Judgment but there is none for Salvation but it is far from us Thus it will be so long as God doth with hold and suspend the Dispensation of the Spirit which is of all other the most humbling consideration of our present state and condition and therefore if we hope that God should ever have mercy upon New-England and Save us by himself we must labour our very Souls must labour by Faith in Prayer for the accomplishment of the Promise of the Spirit It is by the accomplishment of this Promise that God doth accomplish all other Promises and Prophesies also to his Church referring to their Salvation Yea it is by the accomplishment of this Promise of the Spirit that he doth accomplish all his most great and Glorious Works in the World referring more directly to his own Kingdom Name and Glory O may we obtain this Dispensation of the Spirit then his will be filled with his Spirit whereby the Ministry and Ministration of it will be made mighty and powerful as the Rod of Christs Strength sent out of Zion and we shall be made a willing people in such a day of his Power Psal 110.2 3. Then all Ordinances shall be filled with the Spirit and so become
powerful and effectual unto the most full and abundant communication of all saving grace and blessing represented in the Vision of the Candlestick by the two living growing Olive Trees or Branches distilling the Golden Oyl into the Pipes signifying the Spirit powerfully working for the communication of Grace Blessing by the Administration of Ordinances therefore the Vision was expounded by the Promise of the Spirit Zech. 4.6 Also God by filling his Word and Ordinances with his Spirit will fill his Churches with his Spirit then we shall see the Churches spirited unto Church Reformation and so flourishing again with all Spiritual Prosperity the Promise it is primarily made unto the Churches by the accomplishment of which God will also fill all his Servants betrusted with the management of the affairs of his People and Churches with his Spirit Yea all his people will be graciously influenced by his Spirit unto extraordinary Ability and Activity in his Service O that we may thus believe and pray effectually that God would Pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh according to his Promise Joel 2.28 29. Especially respecting the saving gifts graces of it in a general work of Conversion wherein more especially it is that God works more immediately to Save his People by himself and which is the only true and real Salvation And when God thus pours out his Spirit upon his People and Churches he works also in an extraordinary way and manner by his Spirit in the ways and works of his Providence especially with reference to his Church which is held forth to us in that Visional Scheme of Divine Providence Ezek. 1. By the Spirit of the Living Creatures and the Wheeles and the Throne and the appearance of a man upon it signifying our Lord Christ in the Administration of his Providential Kingdom by the working of his Spirit in the Dispensations of Providence a more glorious appearance of which will be seen in approaching accomplishments Hence we proceed to the 2 Exhortation Which is to Excite us to believe apply and improve this great Promise that God will have mercy upon New-England and Save us by himself Not by might nor by power but by his Spirit and that in a way of Sovereign Grace this seems to be the only hopeful way that we have left wherein God calls us to wait upon him for Salvation O therefore that we may obtain grace so to believe apply and improve this Promise and thereby enter into this most sure and happy way of Salvation Therefore 1. I take leave humbly to propose this Exhortation unto those who are or may be our Rulers together with the Representatives of the Perple in this General Assembly Right Honourable much Honoured and Respected Suffer your selves to be intreated in the Name of the Lord and by this Word of the Lord to undertake and carry on your whole work in the Administration of Government both by Legislation and Execution and in the management of all the great Affairs of the Publick Weal of this People of God which you are by him betrusted withal by a very powerful exercise of Faith in this great Promise that God will have mercy upon this his People and Save them by the Lord their God This is the Word of the Lord to you as it was to Zerubbabel the Governour of Judah Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts It remains as sure a foundation of Faith to you as it was to him Those whom God made Rulers and Deliverers of his People especially in times and cases of Difficulty and Danger they are Chronicled in Holy Writ for mighty men of Faith according to the Apostles Induction Heb. 11. Moses Gideon Barak Sampson Jeptha David Samuel to whom we may add Joshua Ezra Nehemiah Zerubbabel These all carried on their mighty works for the Salvation of Gods People by Faith and therefore were styled Saviours Neh. 9.7 According to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them Saviours who Saved them If God shall so spirit You unto believing we shall be comfortably perswaded if not assured that he will make you such Saviours and Save us by your means The present State of our People in this difficult distressing conjuncture of time and affairs doth require the extraordinary exercise and improvement of your Faith in God according to this promise nothing can be done effectually by you for our Salvation without it every thing will be savingly performed by it May you by the Exercise of Faith in Prayer obtain the accomplishment of this Promise to your selves you shall by an inexpressible Experiment feel the Spirit of God coming upon you moving and actuating of you by the more immediate influences of his Divine Wisdom Power and Grace in all Service unto God and his People in your several places and that with a sincere and single respect to his Glory and our good which is the highest good and end of all Government And then you shall be stirred up strengthened to set your selves with an high and holy zeal and courage in the Strength and Power of the Spirit of God against all the most powerful dangerous and destructive Sins and Evils of the Times The Spirit of God shall by you Lift up a Standard against them now they are breaking in upon us like a Flood It appears by Scripture Instances that it is Gods way to Save his People from their Sins by the power and working of his Spirit in and by Religious Rulers as well as in and by his Word seldome otherwise In the power of the Spirit also you shall labour effectually to recover uphold and advance Religion by promoting Holiness and Righteousness in all the wayes of it that so we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty Much Honoured I do with all humble Importunity Pray Beseech you to suffer this word of Exhortation It will be your highest honour as well as happiness in your Station to Subserve so immediately by the Spirit unto God himself when he comes to Saves his People by himself The first New England Magistracy under whose Conduct God led his People into this Land by Faith obtained this Promise of the Spirit and being extraordinarily even divinely Spirited both in the undertaking and progress of that glorious work unto an happy consummation in Setting up Churches Worship Ordinances and the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ here May it therefore be your highest and very holy ambition to be through the power and assistance of the Spirit Repairers and Restorers of that work and of these Churches thereby unto their primitive beauty and holiness that more especially at such a time wherein God seems to be arisen unto an extraordinary way of working in preparation unto great Accomplishments for his Churches and People in the World Herein you shall not only be graciously accepted but gloriously Rewarded for if God thus improve you and you thus approve your selves unto God he
World at the time appointed and truly this great Promise of the Spirit so often renewed in the Scripture it hath been and ever will be in successive Accomplishment to the Church it is that whereby the Church hath lived and been upheld in all Ages as the soundation of their Faith Confidence and Perseverance 4. God works more immediately by his Word when he make it mighty and powerful to all the saving Effects and Ends of it especially in the Conversion Reformation of his People he works all saving work all Spiritual Salvation for his Church by the means of the Ministry of his word that is he works more immediately by this means it being the highest means of the working of Divine Wisdom and Power especially upon the Souls of men the Church in their return out of Babylon could not recover themselves nor be recovered by any through Reformation unto Salvation until God wrought more immediately by the Ministry of his Word in the Prophesying of Haggai and Zechary Ezra 6.14 as we read more at large Hag. 1.12 13 14. Then Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel and Joshua the High Priest with all the remnant of the people did obey the voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai the Prophet and they did fear the Lord then spake Haggai the Lords Messenger in the Lords Message to the People saying I am with you saith the Lord Observe when the Word works then God is with a people to Save them therefore it follows and the Lord stirred up the Spirit of Zernbbabel Nothing could be done until God himself wrought by himself in the Ministry of his Word and then all Saving Work went on powerfully and prosperously Thus we may understand how God Saves his People by the Lord their God which was the main thing to be opened and proved But 4. There are certain times and extraordinary cases wherein God thus Saves his People by himself that is in general when their Condition in it self and as to them is altogether hopeless and helpless either respecting their Sins growing more and more general powerful incorrigible poenal judicial past any ordinary hope of Reformation their Defection and Apostacy in the Life and Power of Religion so deep that there is no ordinary hope of recovery All both Spiritual and Political Wounds Sicknesses so immedicable incurable that they are past ordinary hope of healing so when a people are in extream inevitable danger of perishing in their own sins under Gods Judgments both Temporal and Spiritual Judgments unless God in Sovereign Mercy appear and work Salvation for them by himself When all things are past man past means when the Wisdom the Power the Heart the Spirit the Prayers Enleavours and Labours of man fail then it is time for the Church to cry out as Psal 119.126 It is time for thee Lord to work More particularly 1. When a People are fallen into such a depth of Spiritual Heart Apostacy as that they are thereby become not only secure but utterly senseless sottish stupid supine and so altogether ignorant careless regardless of the greatest Concernments of their own Good and Welfare and of their own Salvation either from Sin or Judgment as being senseless of both not minding nor caring which way things go nor what doth become of themselves or of the main interest of God of Christ or of the Churches ready to speak as they Ezek. 33.10 If our Transgressions and Iniquities be upon us and we pine away in them how then can we Live as if they should have said there is no hope we shall perish in our sins and thus they conclude carelesly and desperately and as they Isa 3.6 In that day shall he swear saying I will not be a Healer make me not a Ruler of the People It follows verse 8. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen Thus they gave up themselves as desperate 2. When those who are sincerely concerned for the Welfare and Salvation of the People and Churches are altogether dispirited and succumb under sinking discouragements Hearts fainting Spirits failing have no heart left in them to make any further essay or to do any thing but to sit down Mourn Weep and Lament as the Prophet Jer. 8.18 When I would comfort my self against sorrow my heart is faint in me the Har west is past the Summer is ended and we are not healed for the hurt of the Daughte of my People I am hurt I am black Astonishment hath taken hold upon me Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there so Jer. 9.1 O that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night c. so Mic. 7.1 Wo is me When it is thus it is time to cry Help Lord Psal 12.15 3. When God seems to have wrought and done for a people all that can ordinarily be done by the improvement of means to Save them from all destroying Evils especially from their Sins and to reclaim and reduce them to himself and to secure and advance both their Temporal and Spiritual Welfare When God speaks after the manner of men as it were Complaining Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it so Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them for what shall I do for the daughter of my People Hos 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee God speaketh here as men do when they know not what to do more 4. When hereupon God doth cease to work in an ordinary way by ordinary means and leaves a people to themselves withdraws his Spirit his Presence his Power his Counsel his Conduct his Protection and Benediction and gives them up to their own wills and wayes Counsels and Courses to do what they will with themselves When God deserts his own work among a people suffers his own Worship and Ordinances to be ineffectual if not judicial When God saith of a People as of them Deut. 32.20 I will hide my face from them I will see what their end will be what lamentable evil end they will bring themselves unto and as Hos 4.16 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone When God appears only as a Stranger in the Land as a man astonied a mighty man that cannot Save Jer. 14.8 Surely then there is no hope unless God magnifie his Sovereign Grace in Saving such a People by himself 5. When the Interest of the World is Espoused and Exalted and the Interest of Religion is thereby enposed deposed and depressed When the Spirit of Worldliness grows exceeding high and strong and the Spirit of Religion grows low and weak weaker and weaker languishing even unto death when the World prevails against and over Religion to strike it past ordinary hope of a Resurrection When the Spirit of the World is the reigning governing spirit and carrys all before it nothing can be done but in subserviency