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 MASSACHVSETS at Boston in New-England, May 16. 1683. Being the Day of ELECTION there. By Mr. Samuel Torrey Pastor of the Church of Christ at Waymouth.  
Rev. 3.1. I know thy works that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, which are ready to die.  
Deut. 30.19. I call heaven and earth to Record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave to him, for he is thy life.  
Hosea 6.1. Come let us return to the lord— 2 After two days he will revive us, and in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.  
BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND Printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Sewall. 1683.   

TO THE READER.  
IT was the Importunate Solicitation of many, and more especially of them whose Request caused the Sermon emitted herewith to be Preached, that prevailed with the Reverend and Worthy Author, so far to gratify their desires, as to let others have a Copy of what he delivered on so Solemn an Occasion; leaving it with them to dispose of, as they should see cause. I have perused it with great satisfaction, finding it to be not only an affectionate and awakening, but a rational and judicious Discourse, and than which nothing can be more seasonable.  
It hath often been affirmed (and truly) that the distinguishing Character whereby New-England is differenced from other Out-going of the English Nation, is, in that the great motive inducing the first Planters, to remove themselves and theirs into a waist and howling Wilderness, was (like that of the Children of Israel of old) the Interest of Religion, which their Souls were concerned for. And whilst Men continued faithful to that blessed design (as the Prophet said to Jehojakim) it was well with them. They that sought first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, had other things added to them which they never thought, nor could in reason hope to enjoy. Nor did any Weapon form against us in those days prosper. The Lord hath caused us, and all the World about us, to see that Religion is our life. That this Interest, without which we ourselves cannot live, hath been for many years languishing and dying, is the observation of all men that have their hearts exercised in discerning things of this nature.  
The complaint is, that N-England is not to be found in N-England, but we are become like the rest of the Nations, being grown into the same conformity to the World, with other Plantations, whose Interest and profession never was, as ours hath been. There is a woeful decay as to externals and the Form of Religion amongst the Professors of it. Hearing the Word as to the public dispensation thereof, Prayer with Fasting, and other religious Exercises (which reach no further than the Form of Godliness) are not so frequent as in former days; and that is a most certain sign that the power of Godliness is much more in a bleeding and dying state. It is not then to be wondered at, if the tenor of divine Dispensation hath of later times been changed towards us: The hand of God hath been heavy upon many places in the Land, he hath smitten us with a deadly destruction. The kill Sword, a mortal Contagion, and other judgements have threatened life itself. And since we have let Religion die, we have been in greater danger than ever of being deprived both of our Political and Ecclesiastical life. Let us not be highminded but fear. If we do not in this our Day know the things of our peace, so as to recover the life of Religion, the consideration of God's holy severity towards others, may cause trembling of heart; lest at last the Lord do unto us as he hath done unto them. Are we better than Shiloh, where the House of God continued almost four hundred Years? Are we better than Jerusalem, the perfection of Beauty and Joy of the whole Earth? Are we better than the Churches in Asia, planted by the Apostles themselves, and amongst whom there was once a gracious and glorious presence of the Son of God? But those Candlesticks are long ago removed out of their Places, not so much as one of them remaining. Because they have lost their Religion they have lost their lives and beings. A late Historian, who about twelve years ago was in those parts, saith, that horror took hold upon him as he was viewing the doleful Ruins of those once Glorious Churches, fearing lest the sins of other places, which as yet enjoy the Gospel, might in time expose them to the like miseries. He saith, that in Ephesus, there are now only a few Cottages, and not so much as one Christian dwelling there. Smyrna, is at this day a considerable place in respect of Trade, but no settled Inhabitants there, to uphold so much as the Name of Christians, excepting a few Superstitious Greeks. In Pergamus, there are but fifteen Families of Christians, and those in a state most miserable, both as to Spirituals and Temporals. In Thyarira the Turks have eight Mosches, but very few Christians now residing there. Sardis, which was once the Metropolis of Lydia, is now a beggarly Village, Earthquakes and Wars having brought that famous City under horrid desolations. There is nothing like a Church there. In Philadelphia, there is a greater number of Men calling themselves Christians, than in any of those Asiatic Churches, excepting Smyrna. For in that City are two hundred Families of those who are called Christians, but they are Idolaters, and in miserable slavery to the cruel Turks. As for Laodicea, which was once a rich and populous place; and the Buildings in it exceeding magnificent, it is now utterly desolated, not so much as one Inhabitant there, excepting Wolves and doleful Creatures. Thus did all these famous Places, and Churches, by losing Religion lose their own Lives and Being's. Time was when in Africa, there were many thousands of Churches, but the true Religion being gone out of that vast Continent (thrice as big as Europe) what but Death is to be seen there? Let us look nearer home: In the Land of our Father's Sepulchers, there were Churches amongst the ancient Britain's, but when those sins of Pride Drunkenness, Contention, Worldliness, notwithstanding Gildas and other faithful Ministers did zealously testify against them, became common and prevailing Evils: God first sent a sweeping Plague amongst them; and when that Besom of Destruction could not Reform them, the Lord brought the Saxons upon them, who rooted them out of their Land. And if we consider the dispensations of God since the Reformation successfully begun by the Ministry of Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, and other great Champions for the Truth; how many Protestant Churches in Saxony, Bohemia, Hungaria, Poland, France, and other places have been dissipated and unchurched, and that because of their decay, either as to the profession or practice of Religion? If the Professors thereof be generally grown Formal and Lifeless, it is a sad prognostic that a terrible Persecution is near at hand. Upon which account, wise men do with some dread, behold the present state of the Protestant Interest in the World, the names of those that are indeed alive being so very few.  
As for the Churches in this Wilderness; I am persuaded Christ will not suffer them to be made a Desolation as yet. Though Israel was deeply revolted from the holy ways of God in the days of Jehoahaz, it is said, 2 King. 13.23. And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor cast he them from his presence as yet. Nevertheless, shaking Trials may come. We have reason to expect them, and God prepare us for them. For great Sins are now common in New-England, which were rarely (if at all) heard of but thirty years ago, Profaneness groweth bold, and is not easily suppressed. There is much Hypocrisy and Formality amongst Professors: nay, and wise Virgins are asleep too. It is beyond controversy, that the late Judgements which New-England hath been bleeding under, were an effect of Divine anger, provoked by the sins of Men. But since God hath mercifully removed his hand, those very sins the Lord hath been contending for, are committed as much, nay more than ever before, It is a most awful and trembling consideration, that the Holy Lord God almighty (who though he may bear long will not suffer himself to be abused always) hath been mocked and dallied with more than once. In the day of our late trouble, several things were acknowledged to be Provoking Evils, and Reformation in respect of them confessed to be necessary; which since are made light of Austin did in his time, wish that there might be a Synod called to consider of some effectual course for the suppression of that sin of Drunkenness amongst men in those days. These Churches, have in a very solemn manner met together by their Representatives, to inquire into the causes of the Lords displeasure; and the expedients for Reformation. There was a gracious presence of Christ guiding his Servants in those Inquiries. But what doth it all come to, more than to leave the present Generation inexcusable before the World, and before Posterity, and before God in the day of his pleading with those that have known their Master's Will, but have not done it? The infinitely patiented God hath waited for fruit three years since that endeavour and pretence to Reformation was published. Our English Historians have Recorded, that when the sins of the times brought heavy Judgements upon our forefather's, above nine hundred years ago; a Synod did convene in order to the redressing of those evils. There were thirty Ministers then found faithful, who gave their Testimony: but it would not be harkened to; so that God quickly sent the cruel Danes, who for a long time brought the Land into miserable Bondage and Slavery. What hours of Temptation may come upon us, we know not: Our case is the more dangerous, and the Judgements impending like to be the more dreadful when (if Repentance prevent not) at last they shall fall down; in that God hath stirred up the spirits of his Servants in the Ministry full many a time, and with great earnestness to protest against the Sins and Apostasies of the times; and to press for Reformation before the Decree bring forth: but Alas! hitherto with little success. The words of that honourable Man of God, Dr. Owen (in his late Sermons in Luk. 13.1, 2, 3. Page 77.) have a great deal of truth and weight in them. Let us not (saith he) pretend that the Repentance and Reformation called for, respects the public enormous sins of the Nation, in Atheism, Profaneness, Sensuality, Luxury, Pride, Oppression, Hatred of the Truth, Contempt of the Ministry of the Gospel, and the like; they do so indeed, but not only, they respect also the Decays in Faith, Love, Zeal, with love of the World, Conformity unto it, Lukewarmness, that are found amongst the most eminent Professors of Religion. This is our present wound; here lies our weakness; namely, in the want of a quick, active, zealous Ministry, to call and stir up Magistrates and People to effectual Repentance and turning to God. Unless this be given unto us, I fear we cannot be saved. If it be otherwise, if we have a Ministry that really do attend unto their Duty in this matter, than I shall think it the most pregnant sign of approaching Destruction: Seeing it is apparent unto all, that their Endeavours have neither Fruit nor Success? Truly with us it hath been so: They that have approved themselves faithful unto Christ and their own Consciences in this matter, have indeed inward peace. Yet they cannot but be sensible that they lose the good Word and good Will of some Men; and are exposed to obloquy and reproaches. For as the Excellent Person but now mentioned saith, (Page 90.91.) The hardest and most difficult service that ever God called any of his Ministers unto, excepting only Jesus Christ and his Apostles, hath been in the endeavouring the Reformation of backsliding or spiritually decayed Churches. These are the two Witnesses which in all ages have prophesied in Sackcloth. Such was the Ministry of Elijah, which brought him unto that Conclusion, and an earnest longing to be delivered by Death from his Work and Ministry, 2 King. 19.4. So was that of Jeremiah, in the like season, whereof he complains, Chap. 15.10. John the Baptist in the same work lost first his liberty, than his life, And in after Ages Chrysostom, for the same cause was hated by the Clergy, persecuted by the Court, and at length driven into Banishment, where he died. Most men care not how little a share they have in such a work as this, whose reward will reach them according to the proportion of their engagement in it. All Churches, all Persons almost, would willingly be let alone in the condition wherein they are: They that would press them unto due Reformation, ever were, and ever will be looked on as their Troublers.  
Nevertheless, God hath given a spirit of Courage, Zeal and Faithfulness unto several of his Ambassadors to discharge their Duty in bearing their Testimony, and so to leave the success, and their own Names also, with that God whose they are, and whom they serve. And in special this Worthy Minister of Christ, whose eminent Accomplishments are known unto all unto whom he himself is known, hath a long time approved himself singularly Faithful unto God and the Souls of Men herein. The strain of his Ministry, in that Congregation, where He that holds the Stars hath seen meet to place him, hath been to urge Conversion 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 days, 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 dignify 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 Governors' shall-proceed from the midst of them. We have had these over us, who have been (as the Expression of the Ancient 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 ourselves 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 Sovereignty, 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, until 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 itself, 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 expressly 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 choose 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 encourageth, by a promise of God's Presence, to make their Progress unto, and Entrance 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, showing the divers 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 prize it, love it, keep it, cleave to it, live and walk in the sincere, pure, powerful 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 their Children, for ever. And thus he moves them to set their hearts unto Religion; Because it is their Life. Whence we have this  DOCT. That Religion it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God. 
Our Text and Doctrine deliver the great and universal Reason of the Profession and Practice of our Religion; Viz! Because it is our Life. Religion, in the most full and comprehensive notion of it, It is that whereby Man is qualified, and capacitated to live unto God, to live with God, to live upon God, to see and to enjoy God in Christ, as the Only and All-sufficient Author of Life, and Object of Blessedness, and Happiness, as his last End, and chief Good. Religion comprehends Man's Deliverance from all, both moral and miserable Evil; both Sin, Death, and Hell: as also all, both moral and beatifical Good; Holiness, Happiness, Grace and Glory. And it is consummated in a perfection of Beatifical Vision, and Fruition, by the Light and Life of Heaven. In the Explication I am to show 

1. That Religion is Life.  
2. That it is the Life of the Covenant-people of God.  
1. Religion it is Life; that is,    
1. The true and pure Religion; It is originally, and only from God, the living God, the God of all Life, who is Life itself in the abstract, and the Fountain of Life to all living: Religion it ariseth from, and is founded in the very Being and Nature of the blessed God. If there were no such God, there could be no such Religion. Religion it is of God, both in a way of divine Revelation, and in a way of divine Operation. It is purely of divine Revelation, respecting both the Doctrine of it, & the spiritual supernatural and saving Knowledge of it. It is that whereby God hath revealed himself unto man, and whereby man hath that saving Knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ his Son which is Life eternal. Joh. 17.3. It is that whereby God hath commanded Light to shine out of Darkness; and (by the enlightening power of his Spirit) shined into our hearts, and given us the light of the knowledge of his Glory, in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4.6. It his marvellous Light. 1 Pet. 2.9. Religion, it is also from God in a way of divine Operation: It is the most powerful Effect of the quickening power and operation of the Spirit of God as a Spirit of Life upon the creature: hence it is phrased the Life of God. Eph. 4.8. Religion, it is the most glorious created Emanation of spiritual, heavenly, and divine Light and Life from God, as the fountain of both. Psal. 36.9. For with thee is the Fountain of Life; in thy Light shall we see Light.  
2. Religion it is also from Christ the Mediator: It is founded in the Person, Office, and Work of Christ. The being of Religion, the light, life, good, blessedness, and happiness of it, it is all from the Merit, Satisfaction and Intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the power and operation of his Spirit. Religion, it consisteth in our Faith in Christ, and Obedience unto Him; and in our practical, and experimental Union, & Communion with his Person, and the Application of all his Benefits, even eternal Life. Thus Religion it is our Life, because thereby we are made partakers of Christ, who is the Resurrection, and the Life. Joh. 11.25. The Way, the Truth, and the Life. Joh. 14.6. By having of whom, we have Life. 1 Joh. 5.12. & who is our Life. Colos. 3.4. Christ is the great PATRON and PROFESSOR of our Religion. He hath confirmed it by his own personal Profession and Practice, when on earth; and is himself the great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession. Heb. 3.1. Whence it is most properly called the Christian Religion.  
3. Religion, it is, respecting the Principles of it, Life. The Principles of it are living Principles, Principles of Life. Religion, it is wrought into the hearts of men, by the quickening power of the Spirit, in that saving work of Grace, wherein we are raised from Death unto Life; wherein we are passed from Death unto Life. 1 Joh. 3.14. Religion, it is our spiritual Resurrection, and so it is our spiritual Life.  
4. Religion in the practice of it, it is the only way of Life. It is by the performance of Religious Duties, that men walk in the way of Life. Practical Religion, it is the narrow way which leadeth to Life. Mat. 7.14. It is that way of Life which is above to the wise, to departed from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24. It is the Everlasting Way. Psal. 139.24.  
5. Religion, in the visible external Forms of it, in all the religious Institutions, Constitutions, and Administrations, which are of divine Appointment, so it is the only Means of Life, that whereby God gives Life, or works Life, In which sense it is said, Salvation is of the Jews. Joh. 4.22. Religion, it is the living Waters, the Waters of Life, the Tree of Life: which gives Life to the Nations. Ezek. 47.8, 9 Zech. 14.8. Rev. 22.1, 2. Where Religion is, there are all the Means of Life, and the saving Improvement of those Means. Where Religion is not, there is no Day of Grace, no Means of Grace, no Life, no Salvation.  
6. Religion, it is that wherein and whereby man is brought to God, to Christ, to God in Christ. It is that whereby we do know God, acknowledge him, fear him, believe, hope, and trust in him, love, serve, worship, and glorify God; and whereby we come to God, converse with God, have Communion with God, and receive all saving Communications from God, through Jesus Christ: It is that whereby men move and act towards, and upon God; in and by which God dwells with men on earth; it is that whereby we do apprehend, cleave unto, and live upon God, as our Life. Deut. 30.20. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God— and cleave to him: for He is thy Life. Thus Religion, in the Principles of it, it is Life; in the Practice of it, is the Way of Life; in the visible and external Forms and Institutions of it, it is the Means of Life; and respecting the original Object, and Ends of it, it comes from, and leads and brings us up unto God in Christ, who is our Life. Thus it is demonstrated that Religion is Life.  
Secondly, That Religion is Life to the Covenant-People of God: that is,  
1. It is their spiritual Life, that whereby they live spiritually. It is that whereby every single Saint lives the Life of Grace, and Holiness; the Life of Faith, and New Obedience. The spirit and power of Religion in the heart, it is Life to the Soul, and gives being to the New Creature. Rom. 8.6. To be spiritually minded, it is Life. Hence Religion, it is that which makes the People of God a Living People. God's People must be a living People. Whenever God takes a People to be his People, He quickens them with spiritual Life, and makes them a Living People. Ezek. 37.6.— And ye shall live ' and ye shall know that I am the Lord. & V 14. And shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live. Hence Religion, it is Life from the dead to any People. Rom. 11.25.— What shall the Receiving of them be, but Life from the dead? The Conversion of the Jews shall be Life from the dead to the World, by a general and glorious resurrection of Religion.  
2. Religion, it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God; i. e. It gives them their spiritual Being, and Constitution under Covenant-Relation unto God. It gives a People their spiritual Standing before God as his People, his Covenant-People. It is the essence and substance of the Covenant. Heb. 8.10. For this is the Covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days: I will put my Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a People. taken from Jer. 31.33. Religion in this sense constitutes the Covenant, and is the spiritual Constitution of the Covenant-People of God. 1 Pet. 2.9. But ye are a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a peculior People. It follows V 10th Which in time past were not a People; but now are the People of God. Without Religion, they were no People: but Religion made them the People of God.  
3. Religion, it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God, as to their Political Constitution in visible Church-state and Order, under the Administration of all Ordinances. Religion gives a People their visible Standing under the visible Dispensation of God's Covenant, and Administration of his Kingdom; as in our Text. For it is your Life; and by this thing ye shall prolong your days in the Land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. It was their Religion, which gave them a Standing and Settlement in that Land, the land of Promise, in the full possession of their visible Covenant Interests and Enjoyments, as the Covenant-people of God. So that it remains a manifest plain Truth from the Word of God, that Religion is the Life of the Covenant-people of God. The Application follows.  
USE. I. It is for our Information and Instruction in divers Particulars.  
1. That there is, there can be but One only, true, real Religion, and no more. Religion hath been, is, and ever will be One & the same unchangeably. And because there is but One God, but One Lord Jesus Christ, One Spirit, One work of Redemption, One way of Application, One Doctrine of Godliness, One Faith, One Obedience, One and the same moral Worship, One Covenant of Grace, One Covenant-people of God, One Family and Household of God, One State both of Grace and Glory, One Life, One Heaven; therefore consequently but One Religion. All the sincere People of God in the World ever have been, and ever shall be One in the Profession, and Practice of this One Religion; whereby all God's Elect are gathered together in One, in Christ, and perfected both in Grace and Glory, unto the completion and perfection of the mystical Body of Christ which is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. Eph. 1.10, & 23. True it is, the Apostle grants (1 Cor. 8.5.) that there are which are called gods— as there be gods many, and lords many. So there be that are called religions, such religions many: But as the Apostle concludes, V 6. but to us there is but One God— and One Lord Jesus Christ: So ought we to conclude, that to us there is but One Religion; which is the pure Religion, and undefiled before God, and the Father. Jam. 1.27. This is the Religion, without which there is, there can be no Life, or Salvation.  
2. That this Religion, it is the Supreme thing in this lower World; viz. because it is, in all respects, our Life, and that nothing else is so. Religion, in the full and whole nature and notion of it, is the most glorious effect and product of divine Wisdom, Power, Grace, Mercy, Goodness, Truth, and Faithfulness; yea, of the whole divine Sufficiency, and Efficiency, in the accomplishment of all God's eternal Counsels concerning his own Glory, in the Salvation of his Elect. Religion, it comprehends all the whole Interest of God, of Christ, and of his Church and People in this World; all that is heavenly, spiritual, and divine; all that is of Heaven upon Earth, respecting both State, Interest, and Enjoyment. It gives a Being & Standing to all Saints, both in Grace, and in Glory. Oh! Religion it is a marvellous high, and heavenly thing! All the real worth and excellency that is in the World, it is from Religion. There would be nothing of God, that is, of the knowledge of God, of the spiritual, gracious, and saving Presence of God, were it not for Religion. Those who are without Religion, are without God in the World. Eph. 2.12. We have no more of God, than we have of Religion. Again, there could have been no Good, or Goodness in the World; had it not been for Religion. The World would have been a mere Vacuum of all good, nothing else but a receptacle of desperate Sinners; a very Hell of Sin, and Misery; there could have been nothing of Light, or Life, or Grace, Holiness, or Happiness; there would have been nothing but Darkness, and Death, and all kind of woe; no news of Heaven, no hope of Heaven; yea, there could have been no Heaven unto fallen Man, without Religion. Religion doth in a sense, give being unto Heaven: There had not been such Place or State of Blessedness unto Man; neither had Man ever been capacitated to live in Heaven, otherwise than by this Religion. No wonder then, that God by his Word, doth extol it, and advance it, as the most excellent, inestimable, invaluable, incomparable thing. Prov. 3.15. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire, are not to be compared to her. And it is advanced, because it is our Life. Prov. 4.13.— Keep her, for she is thy Life. V 21, 22.— Keep them in the midst of thy heart, for they are thy Life. It is Religion, that doth make the poor despised Saints of God the Excellent Ones of the Earth. Psal. 16.3. Prov. 12.26. It is Religion, that doth make the Church of God beautiful, the perfection of Beauty, the Joy of the whole Earth. Psal. 48.2. Lam. 2.15. Yea, an Eternal Excellency. Isa. 60.15.  
3. That it is the Infinite Grace, Mercy, and Goodness of God to any People, that He doth give them Religion. The greatest part of the World, and of the Nations of the World are most miserable without it, all the Pagan, and Popish World. O that so great, so much the greater part of Mankind, should so lie buried in gross Ignorance, and Atheism, without God, and Religion. 1 Joh. 5.19. The whole World lieth in Wickedness. So much the more is the Mercy of God magnified to such People and Nations, unto whom He hath granted Religion, in the light, life, and power of it. It is the happiness, honour, and glory of any Nation, or People. It was so of the People of Israel. It made them great and glorious above all other Nations. Deut. 33.29. Happy art thou O Israel:— A People saved by the Lord! And great above all Nations it also made them. Deut 4.7. For what Nation so great, that hath God so nigh unto them? High also it made them above the Nations, in praise, in name, and in honour. Deut. 26.19. It made them a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal Diadem in the hand of their God. Isa. 62.3. That God hath made our People and Nations (at least in these latter Ages) so much a Glory among the Nations; and so much the Bulwark and Defence of Religion in the World, it ought to be acknowledged with Doxology. That God hath blessed poor New-England with so much of Religion; planted these Heavens, and laid the foundations of this Earth in such an happy subserviency thereunto, this we ought to commemorate with Thankfulness; yet not without some, yea much diminution of our joy and comfort, under a sorrowful sense of our present Defection therein.  
USE. II. It ought to be for Admonition. If we are a People of Religion, if Religion be our Life, O let us then be Admonished to take heed that we do not destroy our Religion, and so destroy our own Life, destroy ourselves utterly and most miserably, by destroying our Religion. And we are the more concerned to give most diligent and earnest heed to such an Admonition and Warning; because our Lord Jesus seems to speak to these Churches, as to the Church of Sardis. Rev. 3.1. I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. That there hath been a vital decay, a decay upon the very Vitals of Religion, by a deep declension in the Life, and Power of it; that there is already a great Death upon Religion, little more left than a name to live; that the things which remain, are ready to die; and that we are in great danger of dying together with it; This is one of the most awakening, & humbling Considerations of our present State and Condition. Oh! the many deadly Symptoms, Symptoms of Death, that are upon our Religion! Consider we then how much it is dying respecting the very Being of it, by the general failure of the work of Conversion; whereby only it is that Religion is propagated, continued, and upheld in being among any People. As converting work doth cease, so Religion doth die away; though more insensibly, yet most irrecoverably. How much Religion is dying in the very Hearts of sincere Christians, by their Declensions in Grace, Holiness, and the Power of Godliness! How much it is dying, respecting the visible Profession, and Practice of it: partly by the Formality of Churches; but more by the Hypocrisy, and Apostasy of formal, hypocritical Professors! How much it is dying under the prevailing power of those Sins and Evils, which are utterly inconsistent with, and destructive of the Life of it! Those Sins continuing, and prevailing, Religion cannot live, it must needs die. Such as are the deep, and general Degeneracy of the Generations; Unprofitableness under all means of Grace, Unbelief, & Disobedience to the Gospel; Formality, Hypocrisy, and spiritual Idolatry in the Worship of God; Profanation, and Pollutions of the House of God; Slighting and Neglect of Holy Things, Interests, and Enjoyments thereof; Worldliness, Profaneness, Sensuality. All these Sins, more especially when they are become the very Spirit of the Times, and Generation; when they are penal, and judicial, than they will certainly issue in general, and total Apostasy; and so will destroy, not only the life, and power, but the external Form, Order, and Interest of Religion also. Hence how is Religion dying in Churches! Churches, which are constituted on purpose for the propagation, and preservation of the Life of Religion; that live, and have their being, only by the life of Religion, how little is there of the life of Religion left in them! and how are Churches themselves languishing and dying together with Religion! How is Religion dying in Families! through the neglect of the religious Service and Worship of God, and of the religious Education of Children and Youth in Families. Truly, here, and hereby Religion first received its death's wound. Hence Religion is dying in all other Societies, among all Orders and Degrees of men, in all ways of Converse, both Civil, and Ecclesiastical. O there is little, or nothing of the Life of Religion to be seen, or appearing either in the Frame, or Way; Hearts, or Lives of the generality of the Professors of it. And that which remains thereof, ready to die! How much and great cause have we then to take heed, that we do not quite destroy it. That is,  
1. Take heed that we do not exchange our Religion for the World; that we do not commit that Heaven-astonishing Sin, which God charged his People with. Jer. 2.11, 12, 13.— But my people have changed their Glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, & be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They had exchanged their God, and their Religion for the World; they had advanced the Interest of the World above the Interest of Religion: and thereby Enslaved themselves. V 14. Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born Slave? why is he spoiled? God destroyed them by that worldly Interest, whereby they had destroyed their Religion. If once a People do set their hearts upon the World, so as to make it their highest and heart-interest, their preponderating, ruling Interest, which doth sway all, and carry all before it; when the Spirits, Principles, Counsels, and Designs of a People are all for the World, set for the promotion, and advancement of their worldly Interest; when the Interest and Concernments of Religion, yea even Religion itself, is made subordinate, and subservient to the World; yea prostituted by worldly men to worldly Lusts, and thereby exposed to all kind of abuse, scandal, shame, reproach, and made an Opprobrium; when the visible Professors of Religion are, not only in heart alienated from; but are become secret Enemies to it; when Religion is oppressed, and depressed; when it is made, not only to serve, but also to suffer under the rising, ruling Interest of the World: woe than will be to such a People: for they have exchanged their Religion for the World: therefore their Religion will die. The spirit of the World, and of Worldliness hath been, is, and is like to be the most general, and powerful Principle of Apostasy to the professing people of God: and it is often, yea ordinarily, the death of Religion: It is always so, when, & where it prevails.  
2. We are admonished to take heed that we do not desert Religion. If we desert it, it will certainly die; die without remedy. That we do not desert it by withdrawing our hearts from it; or by an Heart-apostacy from God. Religion always dies by the People's Heart-apostacy. They set not their Heart aright— Their Heart was not right with Him. Psal. 78.8, 37. Their Heart was removed far from Him. Isa. 29.13. Hence God complains so much, every where, of their evil Heart; their hard, impenitent, unbelieving, stubborn, rebellious, backsliding, revolting, whorish Heart; whereby they had quite destroyed the life of their Religion. Again, that we do not desert Religion by slighting, neglecting, and exposing the visible, external Interest and Concernments of it; and so not only withdrawing our hearts, but our heads and hands also; I mean our labours and endeavours in whatsoever ought, and is absolutely necessary to be done and performed, for the support, upholding and maintaining of the visible Interest of Religion. Thus the People of old, in their Apostasy forsook the Temple, and the visible Worship of God, and suffered all to fall into a ruin and desolation. They deserted the whole Interest of Religion, and so destroyed it. How much the Spirit, the Sins, and the Temptations of the Times do incline unto such a deserting, or forsaking of Religion, we may consider, and lay to heart with deep Humiliation. For the more close Application of this Admonition, let it be considered.  
1. That when Religion is once decaying and dying, is near death, even at the point, or ready to die, (as Rev. 3.2.) It is then high time for Professors, and a professing People to take heed to themselves, that they be no further Accessary to the death of it. When the Interest of the World riseth higher and higher, & all the Sins of the Times grow stronger and stronger; and Religion is growing weaker and weaker; is already grown so weak, that it hath not life, strength, or power enough left, to recover itself: It is a fearful question to such a People, whether Religion be not gone past hope of Recovery, at least in the ordinary way of the improvement of Means. Whether ever that Church of Sardis, and those other declined Churches were recovered, or no, by a resurrection of Religion, is more uncertain. Sure we are, they afterward died, and were buried, (together with their Religion) in their own ruins.  
2. When Religion dies, all dies with such a People. The death of Religion destroys all kind of Life; both the Spiritual, and Political Life: It destroys Church-constitution, Order, Administrations; yea it destroys the being and standing of a People before God under his Covenant. When Religion dies, then Lo-ammi, and Lo-ruhamah are born; then God saith, Ye are not my People, and I will not be your God: And He will no more have mercy— but that He will utterly take away. Hose. 1.6, 8. Thus that People destroyed themselves by destroying of their Religion; and remain dead and buried in their Graves unto this day. Ezek. 37.1— 14. If we should destroy our Religion, we should destroy all our Public Weal; all that wherein we have been peculiarly happy, as the People of God. If once Religion die, there will be nothing but Death; Death in our Hearts, Death in all our ways of Converse: we shall be a dead People. Sin and Death do always reign, when and where Religion dies and is destroyed.  
3. When a People destroy themselves by destroying Religion, they perish inevitably, utterly, & most miserably. When God doth leave a People to destroy Religion, than He hath no Salvation for them. By destroying Religion, a People do put away Salvation from them, and render themselves utterly uncapable thereof. If God lot such a Peope alone; and execute no outward, temporal Judgement upon them, they will soon make a miserable end of themselves: for they will abuse all their Peace, Prosperity, Means, Mercies, Interests, & Enjoyments, unto their own Ruin; and incur all kind of destroying Evils; make themselves a Shame, a Reproach, a Taunt, a Curse, an Execration, and an Astonishment to all People. So did that People of old. Jer. 24.9. Jer. 25.18. And so they continue to be unto this day. No such vile, refuse People under heaven, as they who have destroyed Religion: Such a People must needs perish most hopelessly. Ezek. 33.10.— If our Transgressions and our Sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live! Observe, Religion being dead and gone, they cast away all hope of Salvation, and give up themselves desperately unto Destruction, saying, How should we then live! It is hard to produce an Instance of any People recovered, when they have destroyed Religion by a general, and total Apostasy from it: For it is the utmost height of all Sin, Transgression, and Provocation, which moveth the Wrath of God to arise. 2 Chron. 36.16.— Until the Wrath of the Lord arose against his People, till there was no Remedy; or no Healing. By destroying of Religion, a People do fill up their Sin always, till Wrath cometh upon them to the utmost. 1 Thes. 2.16.— To fill up their Sins always: for the Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. Furthermore, to destroy Religion, it is a sin most directly against our Lord Jesus Christ; because Religion, it is more peculiarly His; His Work, His Cause, and Interest: Therefore to destroy it, is a sin which doth expose a People more directly to the dreadful Wrath and Displeasure of Christ. It is the greatest Injury that can be offered or done to Him; and therefore He will avenge it. We know it was the Lord Jesus who did denounce so dreadfully against all the Churches. Rev. 2.5. Else will I come unto thee quickly, and remove thy Candlestick. & V 16. Else will I come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them— V. 23. I will kill her Children with death, and all the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. The condition of a People or Churches is become unspeakably woeful and lamentable when Christ, who is the only Mediator and Intercessor with God to procure all, both temporal, and eternal Deliverance, and Salvation, is turned against them, and become their Enemy: for He is the most dreadful Enemy; concerning whom it is written (Exod. 23.21.) Beware of Him, and obey his Voice, provoke Him not: for He will not pardon— & Psal. 2.12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his Wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all they that put their Trust in Him. Well then may any People or Churches who have any care or concernment for their own Salvation, be surprised with Astonishment unto some degree of Horror, under an apprehension of any danger of the death of Religion. It is the Infinite Mercy of God to New-England, that althô Religion doth languish; yet if we be admonished, and take warning, there is still hope, that it may Revive and Live. Hence the  
III. USE Wherein the Doctrine is to be improved, and applied in a way of Exhortation. If Religion be our life, and if there be so much danger of the Death of Religion. O then let all who love, and desire life; both temporal, spiritual, and eternal life, and who fear death, so great a death; be moved to labour with all our hearts, minds, souls, might and strength, by all ways and means, to recover, and save the life of Religion which is our own life. This Exhortation proposeth and presseth all the great and general Duties of the Covenant People of God, at such a time, and in such a case as we are. Moses applied all the whole Word of God at once, to the People by this one Word of Exhortation. Set your hearts unto all the Words, etc. because it is your life. It is also the sum of all which our Lord Jesus, propounds to the declining Churches, Rev. 3.2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. I am (though most unworthy) called forth this day, and set in this General Assembly, to speak for the life of Religion, to plead in the Name of the Lord, and by the Word of the Lord, for the life of Religion, to plead for the life of dying Religion. Oh! were the heart of N-Engl. rightly and fully prepared, resolved, and set for the recovery and safety of the life of Religion: God would then most graciously make clear and full discoveries of our whole way and work therein, and of all the means thereunto: Yea, God himself would soon bring all to pass for us. To this end we ought to be throughly convinced of, and deeply humbled (even unto shame and confusion of Face) under the sense of the decaying, dying state of Religion; and withal charge, judge, condemn, loath and abhor ourselves for all that Sin and Apostasy, whereby we have brought Religion into such a state. Under such Conviction and Humiliation, we must set ourselves to labour, unto the resurrection of Religion, and that with extraordinary Zeal, Courage, Faith-fulness, and Resolution, in the improvement of all means, with one heart, and one soul, as one man, even as for our lives, and more than for our lives; still acknowledging, that when we have done all that we can, Religion must be revived, not without the greatest Miracle of Divine Power, Grace and Mercy by God himself, Ezek. 37.12. O my People, I will open your Graves. That we may obtain the accomplishment of this great promise, it will be necessary;  
1. That we do under an humbling, heart-breaking sense of our present, absolute and extreme necessity of the mighty power and working of the Spirit of God, in a way of Sovereign Grace and Mercy, for the recovery of the Life of Religion, labour unto an extraordinary exercise of Faith and Hope in God for it. Plead, and improve his Covenant, and all his Promises to that end. We have great encouragement from the Word of God so to do., Hos. 6.1, 2. Come let us return unto the Lord— After two days he will revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. If we could thus come unto God by Faith he would revive us: there is nothing more dangerously Symptomatical, than when a People grow senseless, secure, stupid, sottishly supine in the depth of Apostasy. None of the declining Churches, so irrecoverably gone, as that of Laodicea; and that because, utterly senseless and secure, Rev. 3.17.— Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with Goods, and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. So the People of Israel; I mean the ten Tribes, when they were sunk in their Apostasy, past recovery, God by the Prophet Elijah, put them upon the utmost trial, by that great proposal, 1 King. 18.21.— How long halt ye between two Opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; if Baal, then follow him; and the People answered him nor a word: Observe, the People answered him not a Word, which signifies plainly, that although they were fully convinced of their Apostasy, and manifested by their silence, that they were judged, and self-condemned; yet they were so stupid, and sottish under it, that they were not at all careful nor concerned about it; nor willing to trouble themselves, their minds, or thoughts with it. God grant it may not be so with us.  
2. That we do carefully and very curiously observe and labour to understand; the Time, the Way, the Work of the Lord, when and wherein, he is graciously willing, and working to revive and raise up; yielding up ourselves unto him, as the Subject of so great a Work. It is the greatunhappiness and misery of any declining People, not to understand when, and how God is labouring with them to revive and raise them, Hos. 11.3. I taught Ephraim also to go; taking them by their Arms: but they knew not that I healed them. Hence it was, they abused all, both ordinary and extraordinary means and mercies, unto their own deeper defection, and utter destruction, as Hos. 7.1.— When I would have healed Israel, than the Iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the Sin of Samaria; the more God laboured with them to heal them, the worse they were; until (at last) they became wilfully unwilling to be healed; and even desperately resolute in their Apostasy: Jer. 2.25.— But thou saidst, there is no hope, no, for I have loved Strangers, and after them I will go. So Jer. 18.12. Isai. 30.15.— This made the Prophet to lament to dolefully, without hope, Jer. 8.18, 20. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me; the Harvest is past, the Summer ended, and we are not healed, for the hurt of the Daughter of my People I am hurt, I am black, astonishment hath taken hold upon me: That which broke the heart of his hope, was, they had not known, nor improved the time, and means of their healing and salvation, and therefore now their case was hopeless and remediless: this made our Blessed Lord Jesus to weep out the Bowels of his Compassion over Jerusalem, in that doleful lamentation, Luk. 19.41, 42.— And when he was come near, he beheld the City, & wept over it; if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy Day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hidden from thine eyes. Verse 44.— Because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation: So Mat. 23.37.— O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, etc. How often would I have gathered thy Children, etc. and ye would not, behold your house is left unto you desolate. When a People do not, will not observe nor understand the time, way, and work of the Lord, and so refuse to be healed, and saved, God doth then give them up as a reprobate People, Jer. 6.29.30.— The Bellows are burnt, the Lead is consumed of the fire, the Founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away; reprobate Silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. Ezek. 24.13.— Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged any more from thy filthiness, until I have caused my fury to rest upon thee; I the Lord have spoken it, I will do it, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. If a People will not be healed and saved, they must be, they shall be destroyed: O that we understood how much we are concerned to discern, know, and improve the present time; lest the Harvest should be passed, and the Summer ended, and the things of our peace, of our temporal, spiritual and eternal welfare should be hidden from our eyes.  
3. That we do wait earnestly upon God, in an extraordinary way of Humiliation and Supplication, under the Administration of his Word and Worship, for the dispensation of his Spirit, and of Converting Grace. No hope, no possibility of the Resurrection of Religion otherwise than by such a dispensation of the Spirit and Grace of God, until God shall pour out his Spirit from on High, Isai. 32.15.— Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on High, and the Wilderness be a fruitful Field; that De structions and Desolations were to remain upon them, until God should work a general work of Conversion, and the Resurrection of Religion thereby. They were to remain dead and buried in their Graves, until God should accomplish that great Fundam ental Covenant Promise, Ezek. 36.26, 27.— A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will put my Spirit within you. So Ezek. 37.13, 14.— When I have opened your Graves, and brought you up out of your Graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live. Therefore it is high time for us to seek the Lord until he rain Righteousness, Hos. 10.12. Of if God shall please to pour out his Spirit upon our Seed, and his Blessing upon our Offspring; then there will be a glorious Resurrection of Religion with the rising Generation; They shall spring up as amongst the Grass, and as Willows by the Watercourses, Isai. 44.34. O that we could approve ourselves an Humble, Penitential, Prayerful People; prepared for such a dispensation of the Spirit, and waiting upon God under the promise of it.  
4. That we strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. This is our Lord Jesus his Direction, in terms, Rev. 3.2. keep alive and cherish that of the life of Religion which is left, the remains of it: O Christians, let dying Religion have a Reviving and a Resurrection in your hearts and lives; live it up to life again; there is, there can be nothing more of the life of Religion kept in the World, than what is preserved and upheld in the heart of a few, (and they are comparatively but a very few) living and lively Christians, there never hath been, nor ever is but a little of Religion in the life, spirit and power of it in this lower World; it is a very choice, rare thing in the best of times; but there is never less of it than when sincere Christians are fallen into a frame and way of Declension; nothing more deadly to Religion than the declension of Christians, which strikes at the very heart and life of it; so much the more should you labour to rise to the utmost height of attainment in Grace and Holiness, even unto a conspicuous eminency therein; that Religion may not only live, but shine in all your Converses, throughout your whole Conversations; that you may shine as Lights in the World, Phil. 2.15, 16. Christians, if you do not thus revive, and raise Religion in your hearts and lives before you die, you may not expect that it will long survive you: though Religion cannot die so long as you live, yet if you suffer Religion to live a dying Life in you, you may fear, that (though it cannot die in you) it may notwithstanding die with you.  
5. That we set our hearts unto and upon Religion. Make it our highest, our dearest, even our heart-interest; our whole, our all, as to Interest and Enjoyment in this World; that which we live for, that which we live by, that which is our Life (viz.) because it is that whereby we live to, with, and upon God in Christ: let our Souls therefore be drawn forth after, and engaged unto Religion, in esteem, love, zeal, desire, delight; that our minds may be so exercised unto the Doctrinal, Practical, and experimental Knowledge of it; as that we may be raised to real, spiritual discoveries, and apprehensions of the excellency, glory and perfection of it, with a transcendency above all the glories and perfections of this lower World: That we may account all Worldly Interests and Enjoyments but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of it, as the Holy Apostle did, Phil. 3.8. And may by Faith also apprehend our own Interest in it, with most certain assurance that it is ours, our own, and that nothing is so, or so much ours, our own, as our Religion, that is our God, our Christ, and our Religion, as it is, and because it is our life. O if we could thus devote ourselves to Religion, become true, real Votaries to Religion, Religion would then revive and live.  
6. That we set ourselves in whatsoever we have, are, or can do, in a full, and direct Subserviency to the Propagation and advancement of Religion. Lay out ourselves, improve all time, strength and gifts, grace and estate, power, Authority, interest, influence, unto our utmost capacity and possibility for Religion; and that with utmost Care, Conscience, Zeal, Courage, Faithfulness; in a way of steadfast perseverance through all encounters and conflicts to the last; making of it our main design, our whole work and business, in all our transactions, both with God and Man: That we therefore labour servently, and instantly with God in Prayer; That for Zions' sake we do not hold our peace, and for Jerusalem's sake we do not rest;— that we never hold our peace day nor night, give him no rest until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth, Isai. 62.1, 6, 7. That we henceforth transact with God, and one with another; with religious sincerity, in truth and faithfulness, in and about that great and most important business of Reformation; in suppressing all the great and general Sins? and performing the great and general Duties of the times? that we trifle, dissemble, falsify no more therein, as heretofore we have too much done; and as the People of old did to their own ruin and destruction, Jer. 3.10. Nothing hastened their utter defection and destruction more than their formal, hypocritical Reformations. That we also labour to retrieve and raise the visible Interest of Religion, and advance it above the head of our chief joy, Psal. 137.6. That we do cleave by an Heart-Engagement to the Word, Worship, Ordinances, Administrations, Ministry, Order, Rule and Government of Christ in his Church, to the whole Cause, Interest and Kingdom of Christ. That we keep the Word of his Patience, and do not deny His Name, but hold fast that which we have, which was the Commendation and Direction given to the Church of Philadelphia, Rev. 3.8, 10, 11. If thus we live and labour for Religion, than Religion will revive and live.  
7. That we stir up ourselves to take hold of God, who hath hid his face from us, that is to recover and retain the presence of God, the grace and favour of God. If we suffer God to departed, Religion will die: If God depart the Glory will be removed, but if God return, Religion will live; for God is our life, Deut. 30.20. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave to him, for he is thy life. O if all those who have a real interest in God, and who have power with God, would stir up themselves, and set themselves by Faith in Prayer, to take hold upon him, we might, we should certainly prevail with him to return to us, to abide and continue with us, as our God and Saviour, for he delights to return and meet his People in such a way, Isai. 64.5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways, behold thou art wroth, for we have sinned, in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. Our returning unto God, and Gods returning unto us, will infer a blessed Resurrection of Religion.  
That we may labour effectually in all these ways to recover and preserve the life of Religion; It is necessary:  
1. That we do and perform all with Mourning, and deep Humiliation: Mourning for and over ourselves, mourning for and over sinners, mourning over our Families, mourning over our Churches, mourning over the rising Generations, and over this whole People; mourning under the sense of our own Sins, and the Sins of others; all the Sins of the times; mourning under the sense of the dying state of Religion, mourning under the sense of God's displeasure, of his departure, and the woeful effects of both; mourning after God, after the Lord Jesus Christ, after the returns of his presence, after his pardoning, purging, reconciling, saving grace, and mercy, and all the effects thereof: O that we could do all that we have to do, even our whole work, mourning in a frame and way of mourning, with a spirit of mourning; To that end we should set ourselves apart, retire ourselves unto mourning, as that mourning Prophet did, Jer. 9.1 2. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day & night, Oh that I had in the Wilderness the lodging-place of a way-faring man; that I might leave my People & go from them; Mourn alone in secret places, Jer. 13.17. My soul shall weep in secret places. We should be mourning, and always without ceasing, without intermission, Jer. 14.17.— Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, let them not cease, Lam. 3.49.— Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without intermission, Mourning with a deep and bitter mourning and lamentation; sighing, and crying bitterly unto the breaking of our loins, Ezek. 9.4. Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry, Ezek, 21.6. Sigh therefore thou Son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes; With an inward spiritual mourning, with contrition, humiliation, and much soul-affliction, admitting no comfort, no common or carnal comfort, Isai. 22.4. Look away from me I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me; Mourning in a way of Prayer and Supplication; Pray and Mourn, and Mourn and Pray; So Nehemiah, he wept, and mourned, fasted and prayed, Neh. 1.4. So Daniel, Dan. 9.3. We must Sigh and Cry; sighing and crying, to God is the true voice of mourning and of mourners: Our Prayers must be the voice of weeping, Psal. 6.8, 9 The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping, we must mourn unto God; So Nehemiah wept and mourned before the God of Heaven, Nehem. 1.4. So bemoan ourselves to him in our mourning, that he may earnestly remember us still and that his bowels may be troubled for us, and his compassions moved towards us, Jer. 31.18, 20. So mourn unto him, as that our tears may drop into his Bottle, and be written in his Book, Psal. 56.8. We must follow God mourning, seek him mourning, turn unto him mourning, Jer. 31.9. They shall come with weeping, and with supplication will I lead them; Observe, this is the way wherein God promiseth to revive his People, and to raise them up by a Resurrection of Religion, out of their deepest defection, Jere. 50.4. In those days, and at the time saith the Lord, the Children of Israel shall come, they and the Children of Judah together, going, and weeping as they go; they shall seek the Lord their God; they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward: Such a Mourning is the certain effect of the saving dispensation of the Spirit and converting Grace; and is the only way of turning to God in a saving work of Conversion and reformation, Zech. 12.10, 11, 12. And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of Grace and Supplication,— and they shall mourn,— in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem,— And the Land shall mourn every Family apart, etc. Without such mourning, there is no hope or possibility of any deliverance or salvation, either from sin or judgement: if we will not mourn we shall perish in our Apostasy, Ezek. 24.23. Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities: it is most fearfully signal to a People, when God leaves a People without a spirit of mourning; and takes away his Mourners, Jer. 16.5. Thus saith the Lord, enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this People, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies. O if God shall please to frame us to such a mourning, than he will most certainly save us from our Sin and Apostasy, and turn us unto himself; then he will prepare, dispose and spirit us unto all his work: we shall go on, and go through with the work of God (which now we can do nothing in) when we come to labour in it mourning, God will do all by his Mourners, Isai. 57.18. I have seen his way and I will heal him, I will restore comfort to him and his Mourners. O that we could mourn after this spirit of Mourners; God is speaking mournfully to us by his Word, he is mourning to us by his Ministry, Mat. 11.7. God sets matter and cause of Mourning before us; the ways and works of God towards us call for Mourning; Our Land gins to mourn under the sins of the times; God is many ways calling to weeping and mourning, and baldness, and girding Sackcloth, Isai. 22.12. O that sincere Christians, who have through Grace received the spirit and principle of mourning, would stir up themselves thereunto, and beg this Grace of God; it is your Calling as Christians to mourn to be God's mourners, Zions Mourners: O how much might you do for God and these Churches, in this frame and way of mourning. More especially, if those of the Servants of God, who are betrusted with the work of God, and the public weal of the People, and these Churches, were such Mourners, and did labour in their work mourning; Ezra, Nehemiah were great Mourners, and the work of the Lord prospered in their hands, whilst they carried it on mourning, Nehem. 1.4. Ezra 10.1, 6. & Joel 2.17. Let the Priests the Lords Ministers weep between the Porch and the Altar, and say spare thy People O Lord,— Then the Lord will be jealous for his Land and pity his People.  
2. We must do what we do for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion, believing and obeying the Word of God, I mean the Word of God, as it hath been Preached and Delivered unto us by his Servants in the Ministry.  
Those particular and extraordinary Messages which God hath sent to us by his Messengers; those full and general Testimonies which God hath given by them against all the Sins of the times, and unto all the duties of the times, amplified in the delivery of them from the Word of God, by so many solemn Words for Conversion, whereby God hath charged us plainly, expressly and fully with all our Sin and Apostasy judged and condemned us for it; declared and denounced wrath and judgement against us, in case of impenitency. Yet withal most graciously calling of us unto Repentance and Reformation, by many general Instructions, Exhortations, Directions, Motives, and Arguments, proposed and pressed by Promises, and Threaten applied with much instancy and importunity, and set home in the Application of them, with very severe Admonitions and Warnings for our awakening: Yea God hath made Application of his Word unto us in an extraordinary way and manner, viz. In that great Ordinance, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ was extraordinarily present to discover and to declare the sum of all that hath been spoken to us by the Ministry: And whereby all the Churches have declared their conviction, and published their confession and acknowledgement thereof: Thus God hath spoken to us all that can be spoken, suitable and proper to our state and condition; we cannot tell what God can say more to us by the Ministry of his Word; than he hath done; but alas! we have not harkened, nor believed, nor obeyed those words of the Lord which have been sent unto us; so that God may justly complain of us as of them, Jer. 7.25, 26. Since the day that your Fathers came out of the Land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my Servants the Prophets, daily rising early, and sending them, yet they harkened not unto me, nor incleaned their ear; and this God chargeth upon them every where as the great cause both of their utter defection from Religion and of their Destruction; viz. because they would not hearken unto the Words of the Lord, So 2 Chron. 36.16. Jer. 25.8, 4. & 35.15. Zech. 7.12, 13. Yea God tells them plainly, after their return from Captivity, that it would never be well with them until they had harkened unto the words of the former Prophets, Zech. 7.7. Religion was never revived and raised, they were never able to do any thing effectually in the work of Reformation; neither did God work savingly for them by his Spirit, until they had so done: Neither may we expect any recovery of Religion or Salvation from Sin and Apostasy, until we have harkened to (that is) believed and obeyed that word. Those Words of the Lord which he sent to us, and which he is still sending unto us by his Servants: And therefore O that Unconverted ones would hearken to the Words of the Lord, which he hath sent to them for their awakening, conviction, humiliation, and conversion, believe and obey the Gospel? that the work of Conversion might have a general and prosperous progress, than Religion would revive and live: And that those who are the sincere People of God would also hearken to the Word of the Lord, which hath been spoken unto you; to awaken and convince you, to bring you to an humbling sight and sense of your own Sins, and of the Sins of the times, and of the wrath of God against yourselves, and against this People and these Churches; as also to move and stir you up, to quicken and strengthen you unto duty, the duty of the times, the work of Christ's Churches, you see all the general Sins and evils of the times growing and prevailing; you see Religion decaying and dying; You see this People and these Churches sinking and in great danger of perishing in this defection and apostasy; you hear God threatening dreadfully, and have seen his hand lifted up to Execution; and you sit still do nothing, are able to do nothing; you are unable, weak and feeble as other men, unto and in the work of Reformation; you fail utterly in all your essays to it, and the reason is, because you do not hear and obey the Word of God: Believe it Christians, you will never be able to exercise your Faith, Hope, or Confidence in God, or to pray to God in good earnest, you will never be able to engage your hearts in the work of Reformation, you will never find yourselves quickened, sanctified, and strengthened thereunto; and assisted therein, until you have obeyed, and subjected your very souls to the Word of God; and so do engage and labour in his work, under the power of his Word; there are none fit to intermeddle in Religious Reformation but those who tremble at the Word of God; Ezra 9.4. Then were assembled unto me, every one that trembled at the Word of the Lord, Ezra. 10.3. Now therefore let us make a Covenant with our God— according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the Commandment of God: O Christians, did you but once tremble at the Word of God, you would find your Souls wonderfully raised in love, zeal and courage unto, and for his work; more especially such of the Servants of the Lord, who have any peculiar betrustments for others, and for the Public, are more than others concerned, to subject their Souls to the power of the Word of God: Then they will find themselves extraordinarily spirited to their work, and assisted by the Spirit of God: Then they would prosper in their work, Ezra 6.14. And the Elders of the Jews builded and prospered, through the Prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah, Hag. 1.12. Then Zerubbabel, and Joshua, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the Prophet, Ver. 14. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, etc.— O that we generally and fully understood how much we are concerned thus to hearken to the Word of God; God hath magnified his Word to New-England, he hath wrought powerfully and gloriously for this People by his Word; as for his People of old, Hos. 12.13. Truly God hath done all in New-England by his Word: as long as we harkened to the Word of God, we prospered; if we would now hearken all would be well, 2 Chron. 20.20.  
3. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion; with holy, religious, lively, spiritual Devotion to God in his Worship, more especially in his House. The loss of which hath been, and is one great, if not the greatest cause of the decay of Religion: for Religion lives much by such Devotion to God in his Worship, and is kept alive by it. Religious Devotion it is much of the life of Religion; if we would then recover and preserve the life of Religion; we must labour to have our Souls raised unto a very high and dear esteem of, and love unto a most sincere and fervent Zeal for the House of God, and all the interests and enjoyments thereof: We must labour to understand, the excellency of the Worship of God, and of the House of God, and the blessedness and happiness of those who have (not only) visible but a real spiritual interest and standing therein; we must give up and devote ourselves, our very souls unto God, in a way of holy Fellowship and Communion with him, in his House in all the ways of his Worship, and uphold the Worship of God, in the life, spirit, and power of it; we must have our hearts enlarged to take in a fullness of the spiritual and gracious presence of God, and raised unto living apprehensions of that presence, with spiritual pleasure, delight, Soul-solace and satisfaction therein. That our Souls may be drawn forth more & more after it, with longing desires, & earnest Prayer, as the Souls of Saints of old were, Psal. 27.4. & 36.7. & 42.1, 2. & 63.1, 2. & 84.1, 2, 10. We must labour to keep the House of God pure, and holy, and all the services and administrations of it, and to obtain a spiritual Soul-settlement therein, Psal. 92.13. Those that are planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God. If we would have Religion live, we must really dwell in the House; for there and therein Religion lives, by nothing have we more endangered and destroyed the life of Religion, than by withdrawing our hearts from God in his Worship in his House, by our formality, hypocrisy and spiritual Idolatry therein, by slighting, neglecting, profaning, and polluting thereof, and by sinning away the presence of God from it; these evils are deadly, they are death to Religion: so long as these evils remain, and so long as we remain so estranged to the House and Worship of God, there will be no hope of the life of Religion; neither shall we be able to do any thing effectually for the recovery and preservation of it.  
4. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion, with the special presence, and under the power of our Lord Jesus Christ: Religion lives only by the presence and power of Christ, who is our life, and therefore is the life of our Religion. That we have by our sins and miscarriages moved our Lord Jesus to withdraw and withhold so much of his presence and power from us; thence it is that we suffer such a privation of the life of Religion; and unless we obtain a return thereof, Religion will die quite away. That we may obtain the return of the presence and power of Christ, we must be sensible of, and humbled for those sins and evils whereby we have grieved and provoked him; Our unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel, not subjecting to his spiritual rule and government, and to the ministerial exercise of his power therein; unfaithfulness to his cause, interest and work, dissension, disorder and confusion in Churches; the loss of our first love and life, and the great dishonour to his holy Name: These evils must be repent of, and removed. Unconverted Sinners must receive him, and give themselves to him by Faith, in a way of Gospel-Obedience: Christians must awake and rouse up their sleepy Souls out of carnal ease and rest; follow him, and seek him until you have found him, and repossessed your Souls of him, with a fullness of spiritual joy, pleasure and delight, in your enjoyments of him, as the Spouse, Cant. 3.4. The Churches must give him free, full and open entrance and entertainment, in the greatest fullness of his presence and power, recovering their first life, and love, doing their first works; in maintaining, integrity of love, peace, union, purity of communion, regularity and tranquillity of order within themselves, cleaving to his cause, interest and work, fully, steadfastly and faithfully; managing all the affairs of his Kingdom, in a way of sincere soul-subjection to him, for the advancement of his Name and Glory. O if Christians and Churches could thus prepare and dispose themselves unto the return of the presence and power of Christ, they would soon feel themselves enabled thereby, to perform all that is necessary for the recovery and preservation of Religion; the sad cause why we have hitherto Failed in all our undertake, is the want of the presence and power of Christ: O there is woeful evidence of the want of it, until Christ return it, nothing will or can be done; the return of the presence and power of Christ will instantly infer an happy Resurrection of Religion; O let us seek it, pray and cry for it, under a deep sense of our extreme necessity of it, and of our woeful condition without it; let us be moved hereunto from the consideration of the gracious disposition of our Lord Jesus to return; it is yet his voice to these, as it was to those declining Churches, after he had reproved, charged, threatened them very sharply and severely; he concludes all, Rev. 3.20. Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open unto me, I will come in; by opening to Christ we shall do all, and obtain all salvation.  
5. That we do what is necessary for the recovery and preservation of the life of Religion quickly, there must be a sudden, quick dispatch, of all that is to be done for the life of Religion. It must be done presently, instantly, without delay, as we would do any thing for our life, when in utmost and extremest danger; if we do not do what we have to do quickly, it may be quickly too late, and truly it will be Gods infinite mercy, if it be not already too late, as it was to them, Luk. 19.42. Mat. 23.37. O we have lingered and delayed upon utmost peril already; it is now high time, more than time, if we mean to do any thing, Hos. 10.12. It is time to seek the Lord till he come, God is now crying to day, whilst it is called to day, after so long a time, Psal. 95.7. Heb. 4.7. God calls for present haste, he is every way hastening of us; the dying state of Religion, and the dangerous state of this People, and of these Churches thereby, will admit of no further delay; God is hastening in his way and work, Zeph. 1.14. The day of the Lord is near, it hasteth greatly. Christ hath threatened to come against us quickly, except we repent, and do the first works quickly, Rev, 2.5, 16. In such a case a People must be quick, Numb. 16.46, 47. And Moses said unto Aaron, take a Censer and go quickly to the Congregation, and make an Atonement for them; and Aaron took as Moses commanded him, and ran: O it was well for the poor People of Israel, in that instant of their extreme and distressing danger, that Moses and Aaron, who had the care and charge of their public Weal, were so quick in doing what was to be done for their public safety and salvation. Wherefore:  
Let the general Exhortation be humbly proposed to the Servants of God in the Magistracy; Much Honoured, It doth in the Name of the Lord, by the Word of the Lord in most solemn manner bespeak your utmost help, and your very hearts and souls therein, for the recovery and preservation of the life of dying Religion; It is your greatest Honour that you are betrusted with so much of the care and charge of Religion, in the civil concerns of it. It will be both your and our Happiness, if God shall make you instrumental Saviour's of the life of Religion, and so of the life of this People; and these Churches: It is your highest work, and (although the heaviest) yet the happiest part thereof, wherein you serve and subserve more directly, to the honour and glory of God, and highest good of his People: and which being fully and faithfully performed, will turn to your highest account in the day of Account, and add much weight and splendour unto your Crown of glory.  
The General Exhortation, It is also proposed to the Servants of Christ in the Ministry; the whole Order and Office & work of the Ministry it is Religious: Ordained by Christ as the great Ordinance, for the Ministerial Exercise of his Power, for the propagation and preservation of the life of Religion, by the progress of the work of Conversion and Edification among men; and that in a more direct subordinacy to himself, and subserviency to his Name and Glory in the World: who is himself the Shepherd and Bishop of Souls; it is cause of deep Humiliation unto his Servants, that they have been called forth to labour under the sinking discouragement of the decaying state of Religion; that Religion should be dying under their hand, and they lament, lest they should be called to minister under that woeful commission given to the Prophet, Isai. 6.10. Go, tell this People, hear ye indeed but understand not,— Make the heart of the People fat,— lest their Ministry should in just judgement be made penal and judicial, and so become a savour of death unto death, and so that they should Preach Religion to Death, and Preach this People to death, Hos. 6.5. Therefore I have hewed them by the Prophets, and slain them by the words of my mouth. The fearful apprehensions of such a danger may move them to labour (though lamenting as God's Servants of old) yet with so much the more care, love, zeal, even unto the spending and consumption of their very souls, by fervency, instancy and constancy in all their prayers and soul-labours, throughout their whole work; more especially in travelling in birth with Souls until Christ be form in them; until they are born and brought forth to God in a saving work of Regeneration; which will be the most certain way and means, unto a general Resurrection of Religion in these Churches. O how should they then make full proof of their Ministry, and approve themselves throughly, in their life, in their labour, in all their ministrations, in their whole ministerial Conversations, as those who are more than any other Order of Men in the World, directly charged and betrusted; yea set for the life of Religion, and the salvation of Souls.  
The Exhortation it is further proposed, as in our Text and Context unto all Israel, and Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel. It was his final farewell Exhortation to all the whole Covenant People of God; The People of these Churches, both the passing, standing, and rising Generations, are all the visible Covenant people of God; and therefore Religion it is our life,: we ought generally to care, labour, pray, cry to God for the recovery, preservation and continuance of it, as for our life. You who are sincere Christians are here again moved by this Exhortation; (not only (as before) to keep Religion alive in your own hearts) but also to discharge yourselves fully and faithfully, in whatsoever duty or service, you may, can, or aught to labour for the general Resurrection of Religion in these Churches: More especially wherein you may be (any of you) betrusted with any of the concerns of it, either Civil or Ecclesiastical; Truly Christians, the great incumbency, the burden of the work it is upon you, the work it is most properly yours; Because Religion it is peculiarly yours; you are under the most sacred and indispensible obligations, both unto God, and one unto another to uphold it; it is the most general duty of that high, holy and heavenly Calling, wherewith you are called to be Saints, and wherein you are to approve yourselves eminently the Servants of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the defence and advancement of his Cause, Interest, Kingdom, Name and Glory, wherein we shall live and die as Saints, obtaining those glorious promises which Christ made to those who laboured faithfully for the recovery of Religion in those declining Churches of Asia, Rev. 2.7. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God: and ver. 10. And I will give thee a Crown of life: ver. 17. To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the hidden Manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new Name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it, Rev. 3.5. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white Raiment. Ver. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God, Ver. 21. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me on my Throne, etc. that is in Heaven: O what exceeding great and precious Promises hath our Lord Jesus made for the encouragement of those who are his Sincere Servants, to labour to uphold Religion in declining times and Churches; we believe and are upon good grounds persuaded that there are many, that there are enough Sincere Christians yet remaining in these Churches, to do and perform whatsoever is necessary for the recovery and preservation of Religion; and that if you would do what you might and ought, Religion would not die but live, and flourish with much spiritual prosperity. Will it not then be a 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 privileged with all Religious interests and enjoyments, as the highest advantages and encouragements, to preserve the life of Religion; we should notwithstanding, through our carelessness, slothfulness, unfaithfulness; suffer to decay, languish, and die 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 sense 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 aught 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 yourselves, 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 ways 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 Household 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 engagement 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 God's wrath; O apply yourselves to Religion, approve yourselves Religions, labour by all means to make Religion your own, in a saving work of Conversion; prepare yourselves to undertake and uphold a pure and sincere Profession and Practice of it, that you may not only keep it yourselves, 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 bore 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 choose 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 choose life, that both they and their Seed may live; May we not with fear and trembling apprehend ourselves: 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 ourselves 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 Apostasy 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 Threaten 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, expressly, fully, and generally, upon such occasions, and in such General Assemblies as these, and that with extraordinary Solemnity: It hath been God's 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; Choose life that both you and your Seed may live.  
By this Word, God is once more calling after this Generation of unconverted Sinners. You who are yet in your sins, in a state and way of Sin and Death, remaining secure and senseless therein; who have heretofore, and hitherunto slighted, neglected, and rejected all the Calls of the Gospel, and all the Ministerial offers of eternal life, through Jesus Christ: After all the proposals of life, after all the calls, commands, and persuasions that you have been under, to move you to choose Life. You are now, this day, once more called, commanded, persuaded; yea entreated, beseeched and prayed, in the Name of the Lord, and by the Word of the Lord to choose Life. Our Lord Jesus is most graciously pleased by the Ministry of this Word, to exhibit himself, in all his fullness and sufficiency, of Grace and Life, all, an Alsufficient Saviour, and is crying in this General Assembly, unto New-England Sinners; to choose him, to come to him, that they may have life: as once he did by his own personal Ministry, in a General Assembly of that People, far greater than this, John 7.37.— In the last and great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me, etc.— You have been set, and have been continued under an extraordinary improvement of all means, in this your day of Grace, which is continued, and protracted, beyond the ordinary date of divine patience, by an extraordinary protraction of long-suffering, in a way of probation and trial; God hath been trying, and proving of you, and waiting upon you a great while: But know that his Spirit shall not always strive, Gen. 6.3.— He hath limited a certain day, beyond which he will not wait, Heb. 4.7. and upon a supposition, that God hath so limited a certain day, whereby he hath dated his patience and long-suffering, and the period of the present day of Grace, unto this Generation of Sinners; you may sadly conclude, that you live under the latest and last, the final and farewell calls and cries of Mercy, by the Ministry of the Word, that God will not much longer call and cry after you, nor strive with you, therefore you are warned to flee from the wrath which is to come, Mat. 3.7, 12. And now also the Axe is laid to the root of the Tree, therefore every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. You are in extreme danger, under the power and working of that spirit of unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel, which is the Spirit of the times and whereby the Generation that is the generality of Sinners are so strongly inclined and carried out to refuse Life and choose Death. It is much to be feared that many, if not the most, have already so done, and are accordingly in dreadful judgement, given up by God unto that fatal choice, Psal. 81.12. So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts, etc. O it is high time then; now, now if ever (because you may fear now or never) to choose life, to choose Spiritual, Temporal, and Eternal Life; to make that great, comprehensive, unchangeable, eternal Choice, upon which depends not only the Salvation of your own Souls, but even the deliverance and salvation of this People, and these Churches: If you do thus choose Life, all will be well with New-England, but if you should refuse generally to choose Life, you will be likely, not only to destroy yourselves; but all posterity: it would be fearfully signal if any sinners should be so prodigiously hardened, and heightened in their impenitency and unbelief, as to be raised unto that presumptuous and desperate resolution with those in the Prophet Isai. 22.13, 14.— Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die; I have no other word to leave upon such but that which follows in the next verse; And it was revealed in mine ear by the Lord of Hosts, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till you die.  
God is also by this word calling upon his own Servants to choose Life; though you have already made the great and most happy choice of Life for your own Souls, last spoken of; yet you are further to choose life, that is, all the ways and means of life, whatsoever may any way conduce unto the furtherance of the work of Conversion, and the progress of Reformation, the recovery of the life of Religion: Choose indeed, that is, choose it practically, make a practical choice of it, that is, choose it so, as to make it your work: You are in this respect, not only to choose life for yourselves, but for others, choose life for your Families, for your Children and Servants, Josh. 24.15. Choose you this day whom ye will serve— But as for me, and my House we will serve the Lord. It was a time wherein all the People were put to their choice; and Joshuah chose for himself and his House: Again, choose life for the Churches; It is with a few of the sincere Servants of God to choose life for the, Churches; O choose the way and work of Church Reformation, and all means and helps thereunto; Life and Death is in this respect set before Churches; if the Servants of God, in them choose life for them, the Churches will choose life: Finally choose life for the People; the Servants of God in their several places and stations, according to their betrustments, aught to choose life for the People; choose all things that do conduce to the preservation of the life of this People, in all the forementioned respects: O it is a great thing to be charged and betrusted with the life of a People, the visible People of God; the public weal, the life of a People hath great dependence upon the Wisdom and Faithfulness of those who are, and aught to choose life and blessing for them.  
Thus God hath set New-England between Ebal & Gerazim, he hath life and blessing on the one hand, death and cursing on the other hand & brought us to a Trial what we will choose; it is God's way and work with us so to do by all his dispensations; what the issue will be, what exit we shall make upon this trial, is awful, considerable. O that it might be the holy will of the blessed God to choose life and blessing for us, and enable us by his spirit and grace to choose it for ourselves; and not suffer us to run upon our own ruin, by the fatel, woeful choice of death.  
Wherein we shall make ourselves most inexcusably both sinful and miserable; because we have been warned, according to the charge that God hath given unto his Watchmen, Ezek. 33.3,— 8. The Trumpet hath been blown, and the People have been warned: It hath been the greatest care and concernment of those of God's faithful Watchmen, who have had fullest discoveries of our extremest dangers, both by sin and judgement, so to discharge themselves as to deliver their own Souls, that they might themselves be clear from the blood of all men: Hence all sorts of People and Persons have been warned, unconverted Sinners have been warned of their danger of perishing in unregeneracy; Common Professors have been warned of their danger of perishing in Hypocrisy and Apostasy; Worldly People have been warned of their danger of perishing in their Worldliness and Sensuality; Profane Persons have been warned of their fearful danger of being cut off in their high-handed and presumptuous Wickedness, and that with more signal instance of the dread and terror of God's avenging justice both in their temporal and eternal destruction: Christians also have been warned of the dangerous effects and consequents of their declensions, and of their security therein: All Orders and Degrees of Persons have been warned; Families have been warned, Churches have been warned, all other Societies have been warned; consequently all New-England hath been warned: warned of all Sins, of all Duty of all Danger; we have had full, plain Warning, many warnings, all kind of warnings; particular, personal, and private warnings, general and public warnings; warnings from the Word of God, warnings from the Works of God; some dreadful and terrible warnings God hath given us from Heaven, and in all these ways we have had long warning, many years warning. The Lord is now by his Word testifying on the behalf of his Watchmen (more especially those who have finished their Testimony, by faithful warning given, and have thereby delivered their Souls, and are at rest) that they have warned us and we have been warned; Yea, God is calling Heaven and Earth to Record for himself against us, that he hath warned us: and therefore if we will not take warning; to repent, reform, and turn to God, but perish in our Sins and Apostasy, Our blood will be upon our own heads, the Lord and his Throne will be clear, and his Servants guiltless, Ezek. 33.4. Then whosoever heareth the sound of the Trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the Sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head— He heard the sound of the Trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him— So thou O Son of Man, I have set thee a Watchman to the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the Word at my mouth, and shalt warn them from me, ver. 9— If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy Soul; This God will have declared for the vindication of his Justice, in the execution of his Judgements, and that if we are destroyed by and in our sins, we may be forced to acknowledge, that God is holy, righteous and just, and that our destruction is of ourselves; wherefore it follows, ver. 11. Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way & live; turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O House of Israel.  
Whence in the close of all, we have comfort and encouragement, in hope that if yet we will take warning, God is and will be most graciously disposed, in a way of sovereign and prerogative mercy, to revive, raise us up, and cause us to live in his sight.  
Notwithstanding all that hath been spoken concerning the death of Religion: we must understand, that Religion, it is in itself an immortal thing; it cannot die nor be destroyed: all the powers of darkness cannot destroy Religion; although this or that people may lose the life and being of it, and destroy themselves by Apostasy from it. Yet notwithstanding Religion shall live, & have its being in the World; & there will be a general and glorious Resurrection of it, in the successive accomplishment of those Promises & Prophecies which the people of God in all ages have believed & hoped for: & God brought forth our Fathers with a gracious design, to give Religion a being in this Land of Darkness, which was then none other than the Region of the shadow of Death. We have been Originally a People separated and set apart unto and for Religion; we have seen as much of the beauty and glory of it, experienced as much of the light, life, power, grace and blessing of it, enjoyed as much tranquillity, prosperity, and felicity, in the profession and practice of it, as ordinarily hath been or can be: we may therefore comfortably and confidently believe and pray, that God will keep Religion alive with us, and not suffer it to be totally extinguished in these ends of the Earth; which we believe God hath given to his Son for an Inheritance, and for a firm Possession. We are a People who have yet a Covenant Right unto and Interest in Religion; yea, God hath yet a sincere, faithful People in New-England, who have a spiritual heart-Interest in Religion; and some among them who are his Mourners: whose very Souls are labouring by Faith and Prayer, in a way of deep humiliation and mourning before God for the life of Religion. And therefore (although (we being deeply and generally declined) God may cause us to pass under purging and refining dispensations: and be unto us like a Refiners fire, and like Fuller's Soap, Mal. 3.2. Turn his hand upon us, purely purge away all our Dross, and take away all our Tyn, Isai, 1.25. Though God may visit our transgression with a rod, and our iniquity with stripes, nevertheless his lovingkindness he will not utterly take from us, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, his Covenant he will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his Lips, Psal. 89.32, 33, 34. Although God doth sometimes save his People in such a way, yet such Salvation will be wrought out by the Resurrection of Religion; which is the most great and glorious Salvation, which God works for his People in this World; and wherein he is most exalted, magnified and glorified: O why may not we then have and profess our Faith, Hope and Confidence in God for such Salvation, as the Church, Micah 7.7, 8. Therefore I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my Salvation, my God will hear me, rejoice not against me O mine Enemy, when I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me; I will bare the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, etc. We have great encouragement thus to wait for God; because God is waiting, that he may be gracious unto us, Isai. 30.18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of Judgement, and blessed are all those that wait for him: O when God thus saves New-England by the resurrection of Religion, we shall rejoice and triumph in his Salvation; as the Church, Isai. 25.9. And it shall be said in that day, lo this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us, this is the Lord we have waited for him, we will rejoice and be glad in his Salvation; For than we shall sing as heretofore in the height of Zion, and flow together unto the goodness of the Lord, Jer. 31.12. Then will be (in a measure) fulfilled in us, and for us what is prophesied and promised, Zeph. 3. 12-17. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor People, and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord; the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speaklies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid: Sing O Daughter of Zion, shout O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all thy heart O Daughter of Jerusalem, the Lord hath taken away thy judgements, he hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee, thou shalt see evil no more— the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing, and Hos. 14.4. etc. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him; I will be as the dew unto Israel, he shall grow as the Lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon:— They that dwell under his shadow shall return, they shall revive as the Corn, and grow as the Vine, the sent thereof shall be as the Wine of Lebanon: Ephraim shall say, what have I any more to do with Idols. I have heard him, and observed him; I am like a green Firtree, from me is thy fruit found: Who is wise and he shall understand these things, prudent and he shall know them, for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein.  
FINIS.   

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