Constitution and in the pure and powerful Administration both of Doctrine and Worship and by a powerful and effectual dispensation of his Spirit and Grace to restore and recover them from their present declension and defection He also proposeth it as a work and duty requiring present instant dispatch which must be quickly done and he presseth it upon penalty of Unchurching Judgements and so upon peril of gross open total and final Apostacy implied in the removal of the Candlestick and finally moving of them hereunto by a great and most gracious Promise of perseverance in case of obedience ver 7. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Thus you see how full both the Text and the Context are of this Doctrine And this is also the great work and duty which God did propound and press by all his Prophets upon the Church of old in their declining and decaying state which for many Ages together they were in It was Gods great work by the Ministry of those great Prophets whose Prophesies are recorded in Scripture to convince them of their Back-slidings and Apostacy and to perswade them to return by Repentance and Reformation The general word of the Lord by those Prophets it was Turn O backsliding children Return O backsliding Israil Repent and turn ye Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die c. Jer. 3.12 14 22. 4.1 18.11 Ezek 14.6 33.11 Hos 12.6 14.1 It was the great work of those Prophets to bring back this people unto God 2 Chron. 24.19 Yet he sent Prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord. It was the general cry of all the Prophets Zech. 1.3 4. Turn ye now unto me saith the Lord c. Be not as your fathers unto whom the former Prophets cried Turn ye now Observe Repentance and Reformation it was the general cry of the Prophets to that backsliding people whence it doth appear that it was their great and main work and duty to Repent and Reform I might further demonstrate argue and prove this Doctrine from the suitableness of this work and duty unto a back sliding people it is the proper work of such a people as also from the necessity of it and from the good and benefit of it and from all Topicks of Reasons and Arguments but it being of undeniable and therefore of unquestionable verity I shall take leave for brevity's sake to pretermit what might or ought to be spoken for the more full Proof and Explication thereof and proceed unto Application Wherein I shall apply my self unto the Churches and unto the People of New-England so far at least as they may be spoken unto in one General Assembly and I shall address my self unto You as in the Name so in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ by this threefold Exhortation 1. Remember from whence thou art fallen 2. Repent 3. Do the first works These Epistles and so these Exhortations were directed to the Churches Christ requires and calls for the Attention of the Churches ver 7. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches I am emboldened therefore to propose and press this general Exhortation unto and upon the Churches because the Text the Doctrine the Occasion and the Opportunity do lead me unto it and because I have also thought that God doth call me unto it in the Improvement of such a Text upon such an Occasion in such an Assembly Exhort I. Remember from whence thou art fallen Let this be an Awakening Watch-word from our Lord Jesus Christ unto these slumbering Churches in this Midnight of deep Security wherein the generality both of Christians and Churches are disposing yea composing of themselves to sleep by indulging themselves unto carnal rest and ease shutting their eyes against all awakening discoveries and stopping their ears against all awakening voices yea although it be the voice of their Beloved as the Spouse Cant. 5.2 3. I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Surely an Awakening Watch-word is then most necessary and seasonable and never more then in sleepy and sleeping Times when Judicial Security seemeth to be both one of the greatest Sins and Plagues of the Times when God in just Judgement is pouring out of a spirit of deep sleep and closing the eyes of men as Isa 29.10 and giving a spirit of slumber Rom. 11.8 No doubt but this Church of Ephesus was deeply secure under her deep declension Spiritual declension doth incline both Christians and Churches unto Security whilst the wise Virgins lamps wanted trimming and the foolish Virgins lamps were gone out they all slumbered and slept Mat. 25.5 as Christians or Churches decline so they grow secure and fall asleep The Church of old both Israel and Judah were most prodigiously secure in the depth of their Apostacy the Prophets did prophesie Peace and the people did promise themselves peace untill they had consummated both their Apostacy and Misery Jer. 4.10 6.14 8.11 Ezek. 13.10 16. Truly thus it is too much with us the more sinful we grow the more secure the generality of the Generation growing more and more sensless supine stupid sottish in their security Hence although we hear all kinde of Awakening Voices and see many Awakening Sights though the voice of God doth Cry by his Word as Zech. 1.4 yea though it doth Roar by his Works Amos 3.8 yet we are not awakened Though there be a grievous and general Complaint and Cry of the great Crying sins of the Times yea although our sins do testifie against us unto our very faces Jer. 14.7 Hos 5.5 though our own wickedness doth correct us and our backslidings reprove us that we are forced to see and acknowledge that it is an evil thing and bitter that we have forsaken the Lord our God and that his fear is not in us Jer. 2.19 though we begin to labour and to languish under the sad and lamentable effects and consequences of our sins and are sensible that our transgressions and iniquities are upon us and that we pine away and are likely to perish in them Ezek 33.10 yea although we our selves in our most solemn Addresses unto Heaven do complain and cry out unto God of our sins iniquities Backslidings and Apostacies and verbally and formally express deep Conviction yet we are not awakened nor convinced but sensless and secure still our publick Solemnities performed by many but as Solemn Formalities do lull them to sleep in the deeper Security Isa 58.3 Truly the more means of Conviction the more a secure people are sometimes hardened against Conviction Security it is a great hinderance both unto Repentance and Reformation therefore Christ doth propose this as the first part of the work Remember
will restore health unto thee I will heal thee of thy wounds We must therefore make our Prayer to God Turn thou us and we shall be turned Jer. 31.18 Heal thou us and we shall be healed Jer. 17.14 7. We must labour in this Work by Faith Those who will be at least Publick Reformers must have a mighty power of Faith 2 Chron. 15.8 He took courage and put away the abominable Idols There must be the confidence of Faith Isa 30.15 In returning and in rest shall ye be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength There must be the dependance of Faith Hos 6.1 2 3. Come let us return to the Lord he will heal us he will binde us up he will revive us he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight There must be the hope and expectation of Faith Isa 26.8 in the way of thy judgements have we waited for thee ver 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us There must be the strong and powerful intercessions of Faith Isa 62.6.7 He hath set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem Ye that make mention of the Name of the Lord give him no rest untill he establish and make Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth There must be the wrestlings of Faith whereby we may take hold upon God and not let him go but hold him by Faith as a God in Covenant with us as a God All sufficient unto us as a God who hath engaged himself unto us by his Covenant and by all his Promises to pardon us to purge us to convert us to heal us Thus Moses Exod. 32.11 13 32. Thus also the Church Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father c. Isa 64.8 9. O now if ever is the time for all those who have Faith to improve their Faith unto the utmost for the publick good of this poor people and the prosperity of these Churches Faith will do much in this great work 2 Chron. 20.20 hear me O Judah and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper And now O that we understood that it is God himself our Fathers God yea God even our own God our good gracious merciful faithful and All-sufficient God that God who hath nourished us and brought us up as Children O it is he that is now testifying unto us and pleading with us to return unto him by Repentance and Reformation to speak with reverence of God after the manner of men Gods compassions are moving his bowels are sounding his repentings are kindling his heart is turning within him towards New-England towards this poor Generation though he hath many times and many wayes spoken against us yet he doth earnestly remember us still he remembreth the kindness of our youth when New-England was Holiness to the Lord Jer. 2.2 3. Thus saith the Lord I remember thee or as in the Margin For thy sake I remember though we have forgotten that first love and kindness unto God yet for our sakes God doth remember the love and kindness which our Fathers bare unto him the very remembrance of it doth move him to express some love and kindness unto us their Posterity and the remembrance of it hath hither unto stayed the hand of his divine Justice So that he is even ready to fay of us as of them Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim Surely God sheweth himself even loth to give us up And therefore after all our backslidings unworthy sinful shameful carriages evil requitals high provocations of him whereby we have so much grieved and wearied him yea notwithstanding he hath been entring into Judgement with us and departing from us yet he is after all now at last still calling and crying after us Return ye back-sliding children for I am married unto you Return O back sliding children I will heal your back-slidings Jer. 3.12 22. Yea let me say further It is our Lord Jesus Christ himself that calls it is he that stands at the doors of these Churches and knocks as Rev. 3.20 that he may return come in and replenish these Churches with a fulness of his Presence by his Spirit and Grace It is the voice of our Beloved that knocked saying Open unto me my Love c. as Cant. 5.4 O it is Christ who is solliciting for the renewing of our first love unto him as our Beloved yea our Beloved is yet putting in of his hand by the hole of the door i.e. letting in such Influences and leaving such Impressions of his love upon the Souls of his sincere ones as may move your bowels for him that you may be throughly awakened to arise and open unto him and that after he hath waited without so long untill his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night We are now solemnly put to the question Whether we will yet return to the Lord our God and whether we will yet open unto our Beloved Surely then we have cause most seriously and solemnly to deliberate upon this question Will we repent and do our first works yea or no Will New-England return and Reform yea or no What return shall we make what answer shall we give him what shall we say unto God thus expostulating in a way of grace and mercy with us O shall we be so desperate as to reply with them Jer. 2.25 but thou saidst There is no hope no I have loved strangers and after them I will go Jer. 18.12 And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Is there no hope are we past hope of Reformation Surely then well may God make his Appeal from us unto the Heaven and Earth and enter into a Controversie with us as Isa 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth Micah 6.3 Hear O Mountains the Lords Controversie for the Lord hath a Controversie with his people he will plead with Israel O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me I brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt and Redeemed thee out of the house of Bondage I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam Truly so may God plead with New-England O my people what have I done unto thee Have I been unfaithful insufficient unkinde unrighteous ungracious unmerciful unto you Have I ever failed or frustrated your faith hope or expectations Have I ever left you or forsaken you in any time of necessity extremity or danger Have I ever been in jurious unto you q.d. Charging me charge me if you can What iniquity have you found in me Have not I separated and set apart your Fathers as a peculiar people to my self Have not I nourished You and brought you up as Children brought you under my Covenant setled you in the
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
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
said to their Souls Bow down that we may go over and vvhose present great Interest vvas to carry on Temple work vvhen arrived at the full enjoyment of Peace and Liberty and in many other respects circumstanced as vve are this day soon forgat their main and true Interest being under the powerful and prevailing influence of a Worldly degenerating Spirit and yet they said Wherein shall we return How many vvith us are with the same Spirit making the same enquiry The Reverend Author of this Sermon law it less needful to insist on the Answer to that or to speak much by vvay of Conviction because that vvould have been Actum agere since God did help that Worthy Servant of his vvho Preached the Election-Sermon but the year immediately preceding faithfully fully and convincingly to inlarge on that Argument Moreover though some deny it it is a generall Concession amongst us that vve are in a declining Apostatizing state and therefore that Reformation is necessary Our sins testifie against us and as for our iniquities vve know them And yet vvhen it cometh to particulars vve shall finde those calling that Apostacy and Defection vvhich the Lord Jesus I doubt not will own for Truth and laudable Constancy another day and consequently vvould have that put in practise for Reformation which Christ vvill never own Brownism Libertinism or undue straitning and confining the grace of that Covenant vvhich God hath made vvith our Fathers is far from being the Interest of N. E and most of all from being the Interest of Massachusets Colony Were our now glorified Fathers Winthrope Dudley Cotton Hooker vvith the rest of those blessed Worthies vvho vvere the Instruments under God of laying the Foundation both of our Civil and Ecclesiastical State here amongst us they would say so Let their Manuscripts and printed Books which they have left behind them to succeeding generations come in for Witnesses and witness the Platform of Discipline agreed on by the Elders and Messengers of all the Churches in this Colony yea of all these United Colonies Well did our blessed Mitchell also give in his Testimony when speaking in the Name of the Lord upon the like solemn Occasion as this Sermon was Preached on Do not said he wrong and marre an excellent work and Profession by mixing and weaving in spurious Principles and Practices as those of Separation Anabaptism Morellian Anarchical Confusion and licentious Toleration If any would secretly twist in and espouse such things as these and make these part of our Interest we must needs renounce it as none of our Cause no part of the End and Design of the Lords faithful Servants when they followed him into this land which was not sown Separation and Anabaptism are monted Intruders and seeming Friends but secret fatal Enemies to Reformation as Paul in a case not much unlike 1 Cor. 3.10 15. In this work here on foot there was a good Foundation laid viz. Christ as the onely Law-giver in his Church and Reformation designed according to his Will and Apostolical Pattern If you should build the Hay and Stubble of such things as those then verily though sincere persons will be saved and the main of the work may be saved and revived at last yet sooner or later there will come a fire that will burn up this Stubble and then your poor Leaders that would have led you the right way may be remembred when it is too late Do not under pretence of avoiding Corruption run into sinfull Separation from any of the true Churches of God and what is good therein or from the Children of the Covenant Prize and hold fast the Covenant to you and yours Thus that blessed man It doth then concern us to take heed that we do not mistake as to that Apostacy which is and the Anastacy which ought to be amongst us And surely it is a safe and undoubted Principle which runs through that practical and profitable Discourse to the which these lines are prefixed viz. That the great Apostacy of New-England is in respect of the Spirits of men and general decay as to the power of godliness Were there a thorough Reformation in this matter we need not fear any evil but without this no other Reformation will continue the Lords Presence with us The first Design of New-England was purely Religious but now we begin to espouse and are eagerly pursuing another even a Worldly Interest Is not this the grand Procuring Cause of former and present Blastings on the fruits of the earth And is it not for this sin that the Lord is at this day seeming to speak as if the Trade of this poor Country should be ruined These are folemn humbling Providences which God would have us take notice of Verily the Lord smiteth us in that which hath been our Idol i.e. the World that so he may put us in minde of our first and true Interest yea that we may remember whence we are fallen and repent and do the first works Reader The ensuing Sermon needs no Letters Commendatory especially not from so mean a pen as writeth this The Vote passed in that Honoured Assembly to whom it was preached desiring the Author to print what he had preached is Recommendation sufficient The acceptance also which this Sermon when delivered found with all good men though of different perswasions is an evidence that the Preacher was under a special guidance and influence from the Spirit of Christ the wisdome of God It was the Advice of one of the Ancients that in Reading Books we should regard non scientiam sed saporem if we respect either of these the following Discourse commends it self to the Reader for that a judicious and savoury Spirit doth breathe in it and through it no understanding Christian can deny Now the good Lord who was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first wayes of David his father grant that we may be kept faithful to the first Principles of New-England and that not onely as to our Church state in respect whereof we are engaged to profess and practise the Congregational-way of Church-Government as instituted by Christ and held forth in the Scriptures of Truth but also as to our Civil-state which hath been built upon principles of Righteousness and Sanctity the Laws and people of Christ being especially regarded therein that so Holiness unto the Lord may be upon us in all respects Then may we expect the continuance both of our Civil and Sacred liberties That it may be so is the earnest prayer of him who hath great reason to esteem himself Boston N. E. 26. 5. 1674. Less then the least of all Saints Increase Mather AN Exhortation unto Reformation REV. 2.5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son This Book wherein we finde our Text it
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
holiness of heart in the Worship of God we must be holy pure spiritual Worshippers we must keep up the Worship of God in the internal spiritual power and purity of it in our hearts these pure Churches Worship and Ordinances will not cannot stand without internal spiritual power and purity If we do corrupt the Worship and Ordinances of God by our Carnality Formality Hypocrisie and Spiritual Idolatry and such like spiritual corruptions and heart-abominations in the exercise of it God will take it from us It is our Spiritual and Heart-Apostacy from internal spiritual power and purity of Worship that is the deep and most dangerous defection of these Churches in Worship And although we do yet retain purity of Worship in the external Form of it yet if we do not speedily recover that which we have lost of the internal spiritual power and purity of Worship but persist in our spiritual Apostacy from it whatever our pretended professed zeal for visible and external purity of Worship may be we shall let go lose all pull down all and bury our selves in our own ruines New-England will be no more unto God then any other people Jer. 9.26 Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab for all these Nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart 4. We must labour to recover our first holy Care and Watchfulness against all Will-worship corrupt Worship and Corruptions in Worship Surely it hath been heretofore and almost hereunto the Commendation of these Churches that they have been sincerely fervently stedfastly zealous against all kindes and degrees of Will-worship It was the Commendation of this Church of Ephesus in her declining state Rev. 2.2 6 how thou canst not bear them that are evil Yet this thou hast God grant that these Churches may never lose this part of their Commendation that our Lord Jesus may never have occasion against us to reprove us and threaten us for our carelesness negligence sinful Connivance and Indulgence in this point as he did the Church of Pergamus Rev. 2.14 and of Thyatira ver 20. because thou sufferest It may be we are too secure and not aware of any danger of corrupt Worship let me say The more need we have of this warning for Will-worship doth ordinarily creep into Reformed Churches whilst they are asleep gradually secretly and insensibly and grow up unto a considerable and formidable height and strength before it appears and before Churches are aware thus the Church of Laod cea deeply corrupted with corrup Worship and knew it not Rev. 3.7 O these Churches in this declining scure lukewarm frame are in great danger of it let us therefore remember and receive the Apostles Exhortation Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not again intangled with the yoke of bondage 1. Let us take heed and beware of all dispositions and inclinations unto Will-worship Watch against the spirit of it Corrupt Worship gets in first by the spirit and principles of it and by the spiritual working of it in the heart of a people It gets first into the heart a people may uphold the pure Worship of God in the visible and external Form of it with much seeming love and zeal and yet their heart deeply corrupted with a spirit of Will-worship When the heart of a people is gone from God and his Worship it argues their heart is corrupted with a spirit of Will-worship as in Isa 29.13 there is a whorish heart Ezek. 69. They have broken me with their whorish heart there is a spirit of Whoredome Hos 4.12 How far the heart of New-England is corrupted with this spirit of Will-worship with prae-dispositions and inclinations thereunto would we may fear too soon and sadly appear under a temptation thereunto 2. Let us watch against all the wayes and workings of it even the secret subtile insensible infinuations and intrusions of it against all the depths and devices of Satan working by the darkest and deepest Counsels of Hell to introduce Will-worship into Reformed Churches We may think our selves secure from it unless over-born by the over-powering violence of some external Temptation but believe it Satan hath divers and various Forms of Will-worship suited and accommodated to the divers constitutions conditions of Churches and the diverse spirit and disposition of people that he hath to deal withall he hath many Antichrists 1 Joh. 2.17 there is a divers working of the spirit of Antichrist 1 Joh. 4.3 This spirit worketh by the power of Satan in a Mystery of Iniquity 2 Thess 2.7 And truly we have had many Antichrists It hath been alwayes Satans design to introduce corrupt Worship into these Churches under the most specious and spiritual Forms of it by a direct contrary Extreme unto gross Ceremony and Superstition the more cause we have to be very watchful against all such wayes and workings of it 3. Let us watch against all Temptations unto corrupt Worship whether more secret or more open There are many Temptations thereunto there is the Temptation of false Teachers corrupting the Doctrine of Worship and teaching of Will-worship Mat. 15.9 Teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men Rev. 2.20 to teach and to seduce There is the Temptation of corrupt Communion tempting Communion Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you c. There is the Temptation of Division and Dissention tending to drive dividing Parties into Extremes in those matters of Worship which they contend about 1 Cor. 3.4 17. The Interest of a Party it is a very great and strong Temptation a spirit of Division especially when acting and working with a blinde inordinate preposterous superstitious Zeal in matters of Worship and when it is become judicial and incurable never fails to bring in corrupt Worship at one door or another It is the design of Satan to bring in Will-worship in the smoke and smother of the fire of Contentions Divisions do alwayes corrupt Churches There is also the Temptation of an undue Toleration which doth open a way to all the former and lead into corrupt Compliances in wayes of corrupt Worship Rev. 2.20 There is also the Temptation of Persecution and Tribulation O there are many Temptations unto corrupt Worship and these Churches have not been without some of these Temptations thereunto such Temptations are likely to multiply upon us O what cause have we then to be zealously and wakefully watchful more especially against such Temptations which are instant and most urgent and prevalent and of which we do already begin to see and feel the sad and lamentable effects and that confidering there is such a prae-disposition in the very Spirit and Constitution of the Generation to enter into this Temptation and such a powerful working of a Spirit of Libertinism to make way for and lead into this Temptation and also that men of corrupt Spirits Principles and Practises scandalous corrupters and broachers of corrupt Worship
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
untill the holy Seed will be wholly corrupted and the Purity if not the Constitution of these Churches be greatly endangered if not lost It is sad to consider how much many Churches are already corrupted by the Licentiousness and Profaneness of many if not most of the Children of the Covenant Many if not most of the sins of Youth which are many of them some of the most flagitious sins of the Times are become the sins of Churches and the guilt of them doth lye heavily upon Churches with this heavy aggravation that they are committed through the neglect of duty towards them by the due exercise of Discipline If yet there be any hope in Israel concerning this thing as it is spoken of a very difficult Point of Reformation Ezra 10.2 I say if there be any hope of Reformation in this matter it must be by a holy religious saving Education of the Children of the Covenant and that both in Private and in Publick Doubtless there is an extraordinary obligation upon Covenant-Parents to train up their Children for God and a great motive it is unto all care labour and diligence unto such Religious Family-Education for such Parents to consider that their Children are Children of the Covenant and in this fense Gods Children as Ezek. 16.20 21. and the Children of the Promise Acts 2.39 and so under a special Promise of saving grace and blessing on the one hand it is a very sad and lamentable consideration unto any Religiouâ—â—â—ent to consider that his Children should through his neglect 〈◊〉 â—â—ucation be instrumental by their Profaneness and wickedness 〈◊〉 corrput pollute and defile the Church of God O if ever you would do any thing for the recovery and Propagation of these Churches labour herein The corruption of Churches doth begin in Families and it there be no hope of Family Reformation there is no hope of Church Reformation It is indeed sad to consider how many Families are already grown incorrigible and incurable Labour to imitate faithful Abraham Gen. 18.19 But that which I chiefly intend in this Particular is Publick Eaucation if I may so call it Surely Churches do owe much duty unto the Children of the Covenant commonly styled The Children of the Church they are doubtless the Subject of the especial care and industry of the Presbytery to be watched over warned instructed admonished both Privately and Publickly Churches also are to own them and acknowledge them visibly as they do gradually grow up unto maturity and capacity unto Church-watch and Priviledges If they be in any wise under the Covenant and so of the visible Kingdome of Christ they must needs be under his Rule and Government which is no way rightly administred but by the regular exercise of Discipline in Instituted Churches O they have been very unhappy Controversies to these Churches whereby the vigorous exercise of Discipline unto these hath been so long demurred and delayed that very many of them are grown up unto such an height and strength in Profaneness that they have even broken and cast off the Yoke of Christs Government in his Church and are grown incorrigible and incurable by Discipline And truly this neglect is grown so great and general at least in some Churches that there is very little hope of the recovery of the vigorous effectual exercise of Discipline toward them So that the current of the corruption of the Generation is likely to break in like a flood upon the Churches at this breach and in short time to carry all before it It is one of the most fatal signs which is upon these Churches that this one evil is likely to prove both ruining and remediless and is the more sadly signal because we are no more sensible of it and no more concerned by our Prayers and Endeavours to Reform it Let me say The Progress of the Covenant the Propagation of Churches the Preservation of Churches under their deepest defection in their lowest condition it must be by the succession of an holy Seed Isa 6.13 So the holy Seed shall be the substance thereof If we Vnchurch them either Doctrinally or Practically by the general and total neglect of them and our duty toward them we do thereby lay the foundation of the Apostacy both of these Churches and of the whole Generation 5. Labour unto the promotion and progress of the work of Reformation by a full faithful and religious improvement of your Christian Liberty There is a Spirit and Principle of Liberty in the hearts of all sincere Christians whom Christ hath made free indeed Joh. 8.36 Where the Spirit of God is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 There is a very large and necessary use and exercise of this Spirit and Principle of Liberty in our whole Christian Conversation especially in all our religious converse with God and men Gal. 5.13 For Brethren ye have been called unto liberty Our Christian Liberty is regulated most exactly and strictly by Rules and Precepts in the Word of God there is a compleat directory for the exercise of our Christian Liberty in the Word of God which is the perfect law of liberty Jam. 1.25 Our habitual conformity to this Law of Liberty is the chief Principle of Liberty and our Practical Subjection to the Law of Liberty is the chief Practise or Exercise of our Liberty This Liberty is alwayes acted under the Power and Authority of Divine Truth Joh. 8.22 Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Jam. 2.12 So speak and so do judged by the law of liberty This Christian Liberty doth not give men leave to believe Profess and Practise what they will as Libertines do vainly suppose and from thence plead for a Licentious Liberty of Conscience and a boundless Latitude both of Profession and Practise in matters of Religion True Christian Liberty holdeth Conscience fast bound to the Rule there are Priviledges and Immunities commonly called Christian Liberties in and about which our Christian Liberty is to be exercised as the proper Subject of this Liberty Those we must hold keep and stand fust in Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free And we must be careful to exercise our Christian Liberty in a way of Gospel-order Liberty and Order are inseparable in the conversation of a Christian it is the Liberty of Order our Liberty is laid out and limitted by Order those therefore that do plead for Liberty unto the subversion of Order are Libertines and dangerous Enemies unto Liberty We must also exercise and improve our Christian Liberty in a way of full subjection unto the Power Rule and Government of Christ Ministerially exercised in his Church in the Administration of all his ordinances as the free Subjects of his Spiritual Kingdome Those who rise up in a way of opposition unto or rebellion against the Power of Christ regularly exercised in his Church under pretence of the defence of their Liberty are no true friends to true Liberty VVe
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
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
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
hath this peculiar unto it that it bears the Style and Inscription of this great Prophet the Lord Jesus Christ himself Chap. 1.1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ And indeed it bears a very lively impression of his Image as it were in the Frontispiece of it drawn out to the Life by a twofold description of him in his Person Office and Work Chap. 1. ver 5 6 7 8. ver 13 14 15 16 as also throughout the whole Book respecting both the Matter of it and the Manner of delivery in the Mystery and Majesty of it It hath also this peculiar Eminency and Excellency that it contains a Systeme or the Sum of all Gospel Prophesie It is a Prophetical Revelation of all Mysteries of Divine Dispensation in the whole Series and Succession of it in every Age and Generation and in every state and condition of the Church respecting both the Propagation of his Kingdome and the destruction of his Enemies untill all the whole Mystery of God be finished and Time shall be no longer at least untill the last and utmost Prophetical Period It is the last great and general Prophesie which doth compleat the Canon of Holy Writ intimated Chap. 22.18 Therefore blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie c. Chap. 1.3 John the beloved and bosome Disciple and last Apostle is the Minister of this Revelation Chap. 1. ver 1. therefore the Dedication of it is from John unto the Seven Churches in Asia Chap. 1. v. 4. John to the Seven Churches in Asia This general or indefinite Dedication makes way for the particular Inscription of an Epistle unto the several Angels of those Churches in the 2d and 3d Chapters Our Text lyes in the first of these Epistles inscribed Vnto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus Chap. 2.1 I shall not detain you with any discourse concerning the Scituation of the City or Typical Relation of the Church of Ephesus nor stay upon an Artificial Resolution of the Context by an Analytical Exposition of the Epistle which are vulgar with Expositors The way to our Text is easie and open it lyes in that part of the Epistle which is Narrative The words as to Mode of expression they are Monitory and withall highly Imperative or Commanding The duty commanded it is to labour according to direction given unto a full and through Restitution from that Declension and Defection in Religion which that Church was fallen into In order hereunto three things are proposed in the words as parts of the work and duty commanded to be done 1. An awakening sight and sense of their declension and defection in these words Remember from whence thou art fallen The word Remember here it imports an awakening convincing Remembrance it is often used in Scripture to express a conscience and conviction of sin Ezek. 16.61 63. from whence thou art fallen or elapsed slidden backslidden plainly signifying Backsliding and Apostacy 2. A penitential Confession of and humiliation under the sin of their declension and defection in this word Repent It signifies Repentance in the proper act of it which is a sad and solemn recognition of and reflection upon our past evil actions with Confession and Humiliation 3. Reformation in these words Do the first werks which signifie Reformation in the proper act of it positive practical Reformation Remember from whence thou art fallen repent and do the first works It is as if our Lord Jesus Christ should have said unto this Angel and Church of Ephesus Although thou hast been commendable and I have commended thee for thy strong and stedfast perseverance by the great labour of thy Faith and Patience in the sincere pure and powerful Profession of the Gospel respecting both Doctrine and Worship with extraordinary Zeal against Heresie and Apostacy Hereticks and Apostates and that also with extraordinary Courage and Constancy under many great Temptations and much and great Tribulation and although thou hast been extraordinarily beautified and blessed with my Presence in the exercise of my Kingly and Prophetical Office though thou hast been Eminent yea Excellent among the Churches and although thou dost yet hold up thy Profession in the external Form of it and dost therefore still deserve some Commendation Yet know O Ephesus that thou art fallen thou hast lest thy first love thou hast lost thy first life thou hast deserted thy first works thou art not what thou hast been thou art fallen into a state frame and way of backsliding and Apostacy Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and labour to recover thy self speedily from thy declension and defection and to retrive thy pristine and primitive Profession and practise of Religion unto its former internal and spiritual Life and Power from which it is chiefly that thou art fallen or else I will withdraw my gracious Presence from thee and come unto thee quickly in my wrath and devest thee of all thy Priviledges Church-Order Ordinances and Administrations of the Dignity and Beauty yea of the very Being of a Church by the Amoture of the Candlestick Remember from whence thou art fallen c. The words thus plainly opening themselves unto us afford us this Doctrine Doct. That it is the present and most important Duty and Concernment of any Collapsing or Back-sliding Church or Churches to labour under an Awakening Convincing sight and sense or under an Awakening Conviction of their Declension and Defection unto a full and through Restitution from it by Repentance and Reformation The Text it self is so good a Doctrine it doth seem needless to invert the terms of it It is enough to say That it is the work and duty of any Church or Churches which are in the like declining and decaying estate which this Church of Ephesus was in to Remember from whence they are fallen to repent and to do their first works It is the present instant and most important duty it is indeed all the work and duty which our Lord Jesus Christ doth commend and propound unto and press upon this Church in this whole Epistle and so unto and upon all other Churches in the like state and he doth propose it plainly and fully in all the parts of it that they might have a full and distinct understanding of it and direction unto it that they might be through and effectual in the pursuance and performance of it He proposeth it also as a most important duty and concernment as that upon which depended their very Being and Standing as a Candlestick amongst the Candlesticks as a Church among the Churches He proposeth it as a work and duty which they had yet great advantage and encouragement to labour in under the powerful exercise of his Kingly and Prophetical Office and therefore he represents himself unto this declining Church for their encouragement as walking amidst the golden Candlesticks and bolding the Stars in his right hand that is in his full and whole Sufficiency to uphold his Church in its