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A62962 A plea for the life of dying religion from the word of the Lord in a sermon preached to the General Assembly of the colony of the Massachusets at Boston in New-England, May 16, 1683, being the day of the election there / by Mr. Samuel Torrey ... Torrey, Samuel, 1632-1707. 1683 (1683) Wing T1918; ESTC W27667 39,643 58

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and Reformation And not only so but when God hath given him an opportunity more than once to speak in the Name of the Lord unto this People in respect of the Heads and Representatives thereof he hath delivered his own Soul by giving Warning and what he hath spoken shall turn to him for a Testimony It is an hazardous thing as much as life is worth for men not to comply with the Word of God by whomsoever or to whomsoever spoken If a Josiah regard not the Word of God spoken by a Pharaoh Necho he loses his Life for it and so did Zedekiah because he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. It s true that Ministers in these dayes have no immediate Call or Commission from Heaven yet if they deliver such Messages as are according to the Law and the Testimony it is God that speaketh by them and many times their hearts are inclined to this or that subject by a special operation of the spirit of Christ who is with his Servants to the end of the World Let us then hear that so our souls may live God of his free Grace hath seen meet to dignifie an handful of his People who are separated from their Brethren with the chief and choicest of Blessings It is promised as an high favour Jer. 30.21 Their Nobles shall be of themselves and their Governours shall-proceed from the midst of them We have had these over us who have been as the Expression of the Antient is Nobiles genere Nobiliores sanctitate We cannot be thankful enough for that Blessing Civil Liberty is an invaluable mercy The Jewish Rabbins have a saying that if the Sea were Ink and the Earth Parchment it would not be sufficient to write down the praise due to God for liberty But what then shall be said concerning the Liberties of the Gospel we enjoy all at this day The way to have them continued is for us to approve our selves faithful to the interest of Religion For then God will be for us and if he be for us who can be against us Boston in N. England August 31. 1683. INCREASE MATHER A PLEA FOR THE LIFE OF Dying Religion DEUT. 32.47 Because it is your Life IT hath pleased the great and blessed God in his infinite Soveraignty to transact with Man about the everlasting Concernments of his immortal Soul to dispense both his Mercy and Justice both Life and Death to distribute Eternal Rewards and Punishments and to govern Man unto his Eternal State only in the way of a Covenant All Reprobate Sinners are destroyed and damned under the Curse and Condemnation of the Covenant of Works All God's Elect are saved by and through our Lord Jesus Christ according unto and under the Covenant of Grace God hath constituted the Covenant of Redemption in his own Eternal Counsel before the World was and therein laid the Foundation both of the Constitution and Administration of the Covenant of Grace in by through that one only great and glorious Mediator Jesus Christ whose work it is to bring a certain Elect number of sallen Man unto God concerning whom he saith I will be their God and they shall be my People Hence God ever hath had and ever will have a Covenant-People in the World untill this Dispensation of Grace shall be consummated in Glory And when the most High divided to the nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel For the Lord's Portion is his People and Jacob the Lot of his Inheritance Deut. 32.8 9. This Book it may be in some respects most properly called The Book of the Covenant because it contains not only a more full plain Revelation Exposition of the Covenant it self in the constitution way manner means of the Administration Confirmation of it of the All-Sufficiency of God unto his People therein as their God in Covenant but also a description of that notable Covenant-Transaction wherein all the Duties all the Blessings and all the Curses of the Covenant are expresly and in set form proposed and the people moved unto the most solemn Restipulation of their Souls to God under the most sacred and indispensible Obligations to live to him and walk with him by religious Fear Reverence Faith Love and Obedience as his Covenant-people for ever and this ratified and confirmed by a most awful Contestation whereby Heaven and Earth are called to record Deut. 30.19 20. I call Heaven Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing therefore chuse Life that both thou and thy seed may live And now Moses having thus finished his great and extraordinary Ministry wherein he had been accompanied with an extraordinary presence and power of God and was eminently a Type of Christ he doth prepare himself instantly to take leave of the People of his Work and of the World The people he incourageth by a promise of God's Presence to make their Progress unto and Enterance into and full Possession of the Land of Promise His Office and Work he resigneth unto Joshuah whom he did by divine appointment ordain his Successor charging of him with the Care and Conduct of the People unto their Rest in Canaan and this upon full assurance that God would be with him and that he would never fail him nor forsake him The Law which he had received of the Lord and delivered unto the people containing the whole Word and Worship of God and so their whole Religion together with a prophetical Song shewing the diverse State of that Church and People in succeeding Ages under the successive Dispensation of the Covenant this Law and this Song he delivers to the Priests and People for their improvement charging of them most earnestly and affectionately to set their hearts unto it because it was their Life These words because it is thy Life they are some of the last words of Moses that great Prophet and therefore they contain matter of the greatest Importance to the People of God They are together with the Context his last his farewell and dying Charge whereby he set himself in a sentence or two to speak all at once to deliver unto them the Sum or a System of all that Doctrine and Duty which he had before throughout the whole course of his Ministry been delivering unto them all that they were to know to believe or to practise the whole both of Faith and Obedience that is more plainly their whole Religion And he chargeth them to set their hearts unto it that is to prise it love it keep it cleave to it live and walk in the sincere pure powerfull Profession and Practice of it with all their hearts with all their minds with all their Souls with all their might and with all their strength from Generation unto Generation themselves and
confounding shame and scandal unto this Generation of New-England Christians before the World If having had Religion transmitted to us by our Fathers who through the grace of God upheld it in so much of the power and purity of it while they lived and being still priviledged with all Religious interests and injoyments as the highest advantages and incouragements to preserve the life of Religion we should notwithstanding through our carelessness slothfulness unfaithfulness suffer to decay languish and dye away yea and by our own declensions therein give it a mortal wound Surely if Religion die Christians will in this respect be more inexcusably guilty of the death of it than others O let this be considered and laid to heart The general Exhortation speaks also to Churches as such Religion in the most proper sence of the Text and Doctrine is most properly the life of Churches it is that which gives them being and which is the great end of their being God hath constituted Churches both by Religion and for Religion therefore it is the great design and ought to be the great work of Churches to propagate and preserve the life of it that is recovering and maintaining Holiness Purity in Ecclesiastical constitution union communion administrations both of Doctrine and Worship by religious fear reverence sincerity and solemnity in all Religious Assemblies Attendancies Performances and Churches transactions in the Name of Christ by Zeal Courage Faithfulness in the whole work of Christ and in the management of all the Affairs and the whole interest of Religion Let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit saith to the Churches The Exhortation speaketh also unto Families Parents Masters Heads of Families to move you to keep Religion alive in your Families by being truly Religious your selves in all your Family converses by training up your Children and Servants Religiously unto and for Religion by exercising and upholding the Worship of God in all the wayes of it and in the Life Spirit and Power of it in your Families hereby Religion shall live in Families Thus Abram Gen. 18 19. I know him that he will command his Children and Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. The Exhortation speaketh to all who are the Children of the Covenant and of the Promise though you may at present have no saving Knowledge and Experience of or Interest in Religion and therefore no hearts ingagement to it or hearty care or concernment for it but are in your present state and way Enemies unto it Yet O Remember that Religion is your life also you have been born and bred up under the visible dispensation of the Covenant and Kingdom of God in the House of God for Beligion and therefore if you have any care of your Souls or hope of Salvation if you would not be cast off for ever as a Reprobate Generation a Generation of Gods wrath O apply your selves to Religion approve your selves Religions labour by all means to make Religion your own in a saving work of Conversion prepare your selves to undertake and uphold a pure and sincere Profession and Practice of it that you may not only keep it your selves but transmit it to succeeding Generations then Religion shall be your life also Then the Lord your God will be with you as he was with your Fathers he will not leave you nor forsake you 1 King 8.57 And now O that all who do understand and believe any thing either concerning God or their own Souls concerning good or evil life or death Heaven or Hell may at lest so far take notice of and bare this Exhortation as to suffer themselves to be moved thereby no more to slight or set light by Religion but to have high and appreciating thoughts of Religion most seriously and solemnly to consider of the eternal concernment of your own immortal Souls therein in the Being Life and Continuance of it as that whereby you may live spiritually live eternally and without which you will most certainly perish inevitably utterly and everlastingly May we not ought we not all in the conclusion to reinforce this Exhortation upon our Souls by that vehement contestation whereby Moses doth in a most solemn and awful manner as it were conjure that People unto Faith and Obedience Deut. 30.19 I call Heaven and Earth to Record against you this day that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy Seed may live that thou love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave to him for he is thy life When God doth thus set life and death before his Covenant People and put them to their full Trial as to final choice O then it is their most important Duty and Interest to chuse life that both they and their Seed may live May we not with fear and trembling apprehend our selves even these Churches and this whole People New-England as it were standing before God upon our great Trial for Life and Death O that we understood that the great case of Life and Death is now depending between God and New-England what reason have we to take heed as for our lives how we approve our selves upon this great trial that God hath set Life and Death before us all the World is witness Heaven Earth may be called to record against us that he hath done it God hath set Life before us by setting the whole way of Life before us his Law his Gospel his Covenant his Kingdom all both Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good he hath set Religion before us and exhibited himself unto us through his Son as our life God hath also set Death and Cursing before us by setting all our whole way of Sin and Apostasie before us the whole way of Death and Destruction which we have been walking in as also by setting both Temporal and Eternal Judgement before us in those Threatnings which have been denounced against us This proposal of Life and Death hath been made in an extraordinary way and manner by the concurrent voice and cry of the Ministry more especially by such of the Servants of God whom he had made eminently able and faithful who have finished their Testimony and are removed God hath also made this Discovery and Proposal of Life and Death general to all Sorts Orders and Degrees to all the Churches to all the People in all the Congregations and God continueth thus to set Life and Death before us by all seasons and opportunities but more plainly expresly fully and generally upon such occasions and in such General Assemblies as these and that with extraordinary Solemnity It hath been Gods great work of late to set Life and Death Blessing and Cursing before us by the Ministry of his Word and he is so doing unto this day wherein God is yet in infinite Mercy crying unto us Chuse life that both you and your Seed may live By this Word God is once more calling