Eye-Salve

IEREMIAH. 2.31. O generation, see ye the Word of the Lord: have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are Lord's, we will come no more unto thee.

_FOr the time of Jeremiah's prophesying it is declared in Chap. 1.2, 3. Commencing in a manner with the time of that happy reformation of God's worship, begun by good Josiah ▪ from the Idolatry and abominations found then in the Church of God: which will appear by comparing that key of the whole prophesy with 2 Chron. 34.3. that holy and blessed King being (it is like) encouraged thereunto in a degree, by this great prophet of the Lord. Thus is Religion ever best established, and flourisheth when there is a concurrence of the Magistracy and Ministry together to promote the true worship of God, and to suppress what is contrary thereunto.

These words contain the Lord's solemn and affectionate expostulation with his people, both as to the equity and goodness of his way toward them, and the Iniquity and Perverseness of their ways toward himself; wherein the Lord labors to recover the degenerating backsliding people, showing, (1) What he had been to them, viz. not a Wilderness, nor a Land of darkness. (2) What returns they had made unto the Lord, viz. Wherefore say my People , &c. Particularly observe: 1. The Compellation which is used, i. e. [O Generation. ] 2. The attention which the Lord calls for from them, to what he had to propound to them, i. e. [Se 〈…〉 e the Word of the Lord ] 3. Parts of God's Expostulation, or the thing which the Lord▪ would Expostulate with them about, viz. Have I been a Wilderness , &c. and wherefore do my People say ▪ &c. wherein we may take notice of these two things:

1. The Lord's Vindication and Acquittance of himself from all blame [ Have I been a Wilderness , &c.] q. d. I have not been so unto them.

2. The Lord's Crimination of Israel , or his Expostulatory Indictment and Charge drawn up against this People by the Lord himself, propounded by way of Query, i. e. wherefore say my People , &c.

Explication.

[ O Generation ] This word is sometimes taken for some certain sort or company of men whatsoever, Prov. 30.11, 12, 13. sometimes it hath respect to a Nation springing from such and such Ancestors, Judge. 2.10. and so in our Text; it betokens the persons in such an age succeeding their Fathers, who were in Jeremiah's time upon the stage of Action, Eccles. 1.4. One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh , but the Earth (the great stage of Action, upon which all Generations are to act their part) abideth forever: and so these in our Text were to endure and continue so long as until they had done the work of their Generations: and it is here also a degenerating Generation that is taxed (as Calvin notes) q. d. into what times are we fallen! what an age is this we live in! well, be it what it will be, yet O Generation hear ! it was a strange generation that he is sent to speak unto, however he hath something to say to them.

See the Word of the Lord, [DO YOU SEE] Emphatically doth the Lord (as it were) point to them so and so circumstanced, as springing from such and such Ancestors do you see? q. d. you yourselves being Judges may consider this matter: See ye the Word of the Lord , or this Matter (for so the Nown is sometimes rendered) that which the Lord had to propound to them for their Observation, and the word for [ Seeing ] imports plain discerning, clearly, curiously, and exactly to see and regard a thing: it is rendered to regard, Psal. 66.18. and to consider, Eccles. 7.14. so verba sensús , &c. and see the Word of the Lord, as he had spoken by his Servants, viz. That if his People would but cleave to him, O how he would bless them ! thus see how the Lord hath made that good, fulfilling with his hand what he spoke with his mouth, 1 King. 8. and not one thing hath failed saith Joshua , Chap. 23.14. of all the good the which the Lord your God spake concerning you, see this Word of the Lord in our Text, consider it, and remember what I say, do but open your eyes and you may behold the truth of what I am now putting you in mind of: q. d. look over your experiences; mark the many signal, undeniable demonstrations of my being to you not a wilderness, nor &c.

[ Have I been a wilderness to Israel? ] by Israel is meant the People of God in Covenant with him, his peculiar people: and this Question is to be understood in way of a strong Negation: the Lord had not been so to them , and the Lord so speaks as putting it to them themselves to be judge in the case: have I been so? do you consult your own experience, and let that make the answer, and the true answer must be, that assuredly I have not been a Wilderness to Israel; yet the expression doth imply or import at least their tacit and practical accusation of the Lord that he had been so to them; and if they speak not so in Words, yet the Language of their hearts (which the Lord knew) and of their way (which others might observe) did betoken as much, and therefore the Lord here goes about to vindicate himself from such charge of any ungodly, unthankful murmurers in the Congregation of Israel: the Words are Metaphorical; Have I been a wilderness to Israel? i. e. have I been that to my People which a Wilderness is unto men that are made to wilder therein, where they meet with nothing but wants, and terror, and woe, &c. and it may seem to allude to the state and condition of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness, of which there is speech, Deut. 8.2, 15. where the Lord led them forty years to humble them and to prove them, &c called the great and terrible wilderness, where were fiery Serpents, and Scorpions, and Drought, &c. called moreover, a waste howling wilderness . chap. 32.10▪ & Jer. 2.6. described to be, a Land of Desarts, and Pits, a Land of Drought and of the Shadow of Death, a Land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, and contradistinguished from the Land spoken of , ver. 7. a pleasant and a fruitful Land : There are these five things which we may consider of in a Wilderness,

1. A Wilderness notes a desolate, solitary place, without Inhabitant, and where there is nothing but confusion and disorder, Ier. 12 10. they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness : there's no man passing through, no man dwelling there, but it's deserted and forsaken of men, without that society and communion there that might elsewhere be comfortably enjoyed: thus said the Lord, have I been so to you? • ave I left you alone without granting to you the beauties of holiness, and that comely order of thy Tents O Israel, and of thy Tabernacles O Jacob! have you not had my presence with you, and my company that might be instead of all to you?

2. A Wilderness speaks a place uncultivated, a condition destitute of many necessary comforts, as aforesaid, there • s suffering hunger and thirst, Psal. 107.4, 5. the Wilderness is not only a solitary way where no City is to dwell in, but they want meat and drink, and their soul faints within them, now have I been so to you, said the Lord! have I suffered you to want? as to outward bodily • ood? have not I provided for you? the Lord fed his people in the Wilderness with Manna, bread from Heaven; and so likewise as to spiritual provision, and refreshing, have you found me straight-handed to you therein? when Judah is removed away for their incorrigibleness in their sin to Babylon from the Sanctuary of God, because of their Sanctuary sins, we find that called a Wilderness, Ezek. 19.13 Now she is planted in the Wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground ; so was Babylon to the People of Judah , without spiritual food for their souls, and they otherwise in great straits: Have I then (said the Lord) been as a barren Land to you, as an until • d and a fruitless soil, that brings fo • th nothing to those that come there for satisfaction or for their refreshing? have I been such, and so as that you could not find a living with me? or as though it were more profitable to have served other God's?

3. In a Wilderness there is not a beaten path; whence it is that men there are in danger to be lost, and are made to wander about for want of a way before them wherein they might travail: context , v. 6. it is said to be a Land that no man passed through, and so here was no beaten road or plain path before them; have I been thus to you said the Lord? have I not made your way plain before you at all times, and passable, so that you have had direction and conduct from me? have not I led you in the right way? Psal. 107.7. have you been at a loss at any time, and I not near at hand to direct and counsel you? &c. have you not heard a voice, as Ier. 30.21. saying, this is the way, when you have been ready to turn aside to the right hand or to the left?

4. Again, in a wilderness there is not only want of many comforts, but there is danger as to many positive evils which such are exposed unto: Hence in the Scriptures before mentioned, the wilderness is said to be a land of pits & fiery serpents; when Christ is in the wilderness he is among the wild beasts . Mark 1.13. and there 〈…〉 of the wilderness , Judges 8.7. they that are in a wilderness 〈◊〉 may look to suffer much: and thus it becomes a place of temptation▪ Christ is therefore led into the wilderness to be tempted : Math. 4.1. thus (may the Lord say) have I been as a wilderness, to sting and vex you? to entrap you, to terrify you and tear you in pieces? Have not I rather freed you from many temptations, and delivered you from the snares that many times have been laid for you by others? have I been as a waste howling wilderness, or as a devouring grave and pit of destruction to you ?

5. A wilderness is not hedged in, nor fenced about ; what is in the wilderness hath no defense, but lies open to the injury of those that will break in to Bark the Trees thereof, and root up the same; the wilderness is no Inclosure, have I then been so to you ? have I left you without defense, without an hedge of protection? have you not been as an enclosed garden to me, and I a wall of fire round about you ? have not I given you those walls, such Defenders, Leaders, Instruments of safety, whereby you have been hedged about, walled in, and secured?

In sum, have I been unto you as such a place of terrors, and sorrows, and misery? a place which all men would fly from and deprecate? no, the Lord had not been so to them: yea, per Meiosin , hereby is meant that the Lord had been their glory by his presence, and a fountain of living waters to them▪ and their salvation , however they had forsaken him:

A land of darkness ] darkness betokens the privation of light: it is divers times in Scripture taken for trouble, ignorance, sorrow, and (in a word) all woeful evil , Joel 2.2. a day of darkness and gloominess , which latter word is of the same derivation with this in our text: so, Eccles. 11.8. and see Matth. 4.16. the word in our text according to the notation of it is thought to signify strictly such darkness as is in an immediate and extraordinary manner sent from God, even most horrid darkness ( terra caliginis maximae, compositum cum nomine divino [Jah] augendae significationis causa . Buxtorf. in nomen ipsum [maph • ljah ,] such darkness as was that plague of darkness to Egypt, Exod. 10.22. when as the children of Israel had light in their dwellings ver. 23. where the noun of the same Original (and the same in a manner with this in our text) is used [ there was thick darkness in the land of Egypt three days ] strictly [ the darkness of darkness ] which latter word there used is also of the same original with that in Josh. 24.7. rendered [darkness] and being a rehearsal of that other darkness which God did put between the Israelites, and the Egyptians at the red Sea, on the night of their redemption from thence, the story whereof we have set down in Exod. 14.20. the same pillar of providence is a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians, but a beam of light unto Israel for their direction, guidance, protection and refreshing, or the phrase [ a land of darkness ] in our text, may allude to places where the light of the Sun, and the sweet influences thereof come not to warm, and cherish, & sweeten, & fructify the soil, but it remains cold, & damp, & sour & barren, and unfit for habitation for man: and so is the grave set forth, Job 10. ult. said to be a land of darkn • ss as [ Darkness] itself , &c. and where the light is as [darkness :] Thus here might the Lord say, have I been a land of darkness ? i. e. as such a land of darkness aforesaid would be to a people coming thereinto, where there's nothing but terror, and sorrow and horror, and woe? no light of comfort, and refreshing? without the shining influences of blessing and favor? But therefore (on the other side) the Lord had been to them as a land of light, as a Goshen to them; he gave them fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness : granting them also spiritual light, and the means thereof in one respect and in the other; prophets, and the schools of the prophets, &c. and as darkness is used metaphorically (as above said) so is light put for joy, and prosperity, Est. 8.16. the Jews had light, and gladness, & joy, & honor. Psa. 97.11. light is sown for the righteous, & gladness for the upright in heart : the Lord had not locked up his beams the heavenly influences of his bounty and goodwill to them: and it is as if the Lord had said; look back, and observe the way you have been by me led in; it hath not been my delight to see you under any cloud of trouble and fear, &c. while you have hearkened to me it hath been well with you: and your troubles and darkness, &c. have met you when you have gone out of the way, and left the good old paths , &c So is the Lord to his people, and hath been to us in this wilderness, he hath not been a wilderness to us, or a land of darkness , but hath granted to us light and salvation: there hath been the light of the Gospel, the light of the ministry of the word: the light of his countenance hath been shining upon his people, respecting Leaders in the Common-wealth that have been guides, and eyes, and light to us in this good land: & there hath been the light of Schools set up for the instruction of the rising generation, Am. 2.10.11. &c. and therefore in these respects we may say the Lord hath not been a land of darkness to us : the College (that School of the prophets) hath been a means unde • God to continue the lamps l • ghted among us, even the 〈◊〉 for the Sanctuary, and that not here only but also in other parts of the world.

[ Wherefore say my people we are Lord's ] here in these words the defection and revolt of the people of God, from the Lord is described: the word in the Hebrew for [ therefore ] comes from a verb which signifies [ to know ] and 'tis as if the Lord should say, I would fain know what the reason is: let me know the cause why my people say thus! [ we are Lord's ] in the Margent 'tis we have Dominion ; so is the word also rendered in Gen. 27.40. i. e. after thou hast dominion, thou wilt break his yoke from off thy neck : & truly thus was it with this people, when they gat power, having dominion over these and those, now they break off the Lord, yoke, and revolt from him , and therefore say (as it follows) we will come no more at thee : [RUD] [ firmus fuit, innixut est firmiter, vires acquisivit, firmatus est, dominatus est] Avenarius ) they thought they had strength, and were so firmly settled with a Rod or Scepter of power and sovereignty, that they needed not the Lord anymore: though indeed they had received all from God: he had put upon them their ornaments, Ezek. 16.11, 12, 13. yet as if they had not received any such thing from th • hand of God, they now despise the Lord, and in the pride and height of their spirits swell, and grow secure and lofty, and cast off the fear of God: We have Kings and Princes, and Civil power and dignity, and therefore have no need of thee to be our Lord any longer, to be under his command, and so as to observe his order, and keep the old Rode; but as 1 Sam 8.7. Ier. 6.16. And we have power, and the Kingdom is settled in our hands: and we have things at command, we have peace and liberty, and are full, and in prosperity; and thus through their self-confidence and carnal Interests they are ready to look at themselves as absolute Lord's, and so Independent: and we are from under thy authority; and are at our liberty: and we will have our liberty, are Lord's of our own actions: and who may call us to an account; and we have dominion, and power as to others also our allies, in league and covenant with others, so that we are strong enough, &c. And this question implies the unreasonableness of their Revolt from the Lord: wherefore &c. q. d. there can be no reason rendered for it, why they should thus forsake the Lord, and the good way which he hath led them in, and choose any other way; Context ver. 33. and 36.

[ We will come no more unto thee ] they had made a defection from God, and now would not return to him: q. d. we have such strength, and 〈◊〉 Government so well settled in our hand that their's no danger, and we need not anything that the Lord can do or say in 〈◊〉 case: as though they might now choose what God they would, a spirit of whoredom in them in revolting from the Lord: they thought they could stand alone, and subsist of themselves; and they are unwilling to return to the Lord, but keep their distance from him: so unreasonably bent were they to fall off from the Lord, as the Question implies, and this after trial had of the Lord who had not been a wilderness , or &c. but the contrary; this greatly aggravates the sin, and so will increase the judgment of such a people as that was.

Doct. That the undeniable experience which the Covenant-people of God have had of the Lord's being to them not a wilderness nor a land of Darkness, but the contrary, should caution them never to incur the guilt of so unreasonable a sin and dangerous folly, and provocation as to revolt from under the Lord, or to be unwilling to return again in case they have begun to decline from him. Mi. 6.3, 4. Isa. 1, 2,—5. Ier. 2.2,—13. a people once glad to enjoy God, though in a Wilderness state, yet it's oft seen that their affections towards God alter with the change of their Wilderness into a fruitful Field, Deut. 32.10—15. Jesurun waxing fat with the Wine, and the Milk, and Honey , &c. kicketh against God, forsakes him , &c. and becomes a very froward Generation , ver. 20. Jer. 8.4, 5, 6, 7 The Lord's acquitting himself (therefore) in his Expostulations with his Covenant people, and that according to their unquestionable experience of his being unto them not a Wilderness, &c. should caution them from revolting from under the Lord (from casting off their subjection to the Government of God as their Lord & King) from declining unto the affecting of a self-sufficiency, and a self-sovereignty,

R. 1. I might Argue by an Induction of Particulars, whereby the eminency of the Lord's being such an one as the Doctrine speaks him to be unto his People will appear, whereby our minds may be induced to assent unto that general truth propounded in the Doctrine: but, see Psal. 68.78.81, 105, 106, &c. Deut. 8.2. &c.

R. 2. From the nature of this experience, being a collection and improvement of many Observations whereby the Lord hath been sensibly discovering and clearing up his all sufficiency unto his people in order to their happiness: he hath not left himself without witness, but given them many Examples, and such instances of his being All in All to his people, as whence they must needs (except they go 〈◊〉 all sense and reason) cleave to him, and judge it a great wickedness to depart from him; the Scripture is furnished with many Histories of the observation of God's People in their time this way, and the changes of providence in our own Generation will supply us with more, so that now if experience, which is wont to be the Mistress even of Fools, will not teach and caution these we are speaking of, it argues wonderful sottishness indeed; and for such a People to cast off the Lord, to say [ we are Lord's and will come no more at thee ] after that they have tried him (and so which this experience speaks, that they have found upon trial the Lord to be a most blessed God to them: if now) they reject him, they do him double dishonor, and an unspeakable vileness it is, which they should tremble at the thought of incurring the guilt of.

R. 3 From the excellency of Israel's God above all other God's of the Nations, which gods yet these Nations will not ordinarily reject: so that thus to cast off the Lord is that which is condemned by the very common Principles of such Nations in their way, though erring in respect of the right object of their devotion, Context ver. 10, 11. the Nations change not their Religion received from their Fathers, they will not part with their God's though they be such as cannot save them in the day of their distress, they being Dunghil God's; but the God of Israel is the true God, and our Fathers God (as the Covenant Relation speaks) and therefore we should never cast him off, Prov. 27.10. our Fathers Friend, &c. Hence Micah 4, 5.

R. 4. From the Covenant Relation and Obligation of such a People unto God, to cleave forever unto him: as the Lord on his part by performing his promise, fulfils his Covenant relation to them, and so gives them experience of his being no Wilderness or Land of Darkness to his People, so the consideration of the Covenant on their part super-added to that experience of the Lord's faithfulness and goodness to them, which they have had, should be such a caution to them as the Doctrine intimates: Hence we are to put an Emphasis upon those words in the Text [ My People ] wherefore say my People, &c. q. d. this will be contrary to those solemn engagements whereby they have bound themselves to me forever to fear me and love me, &c. therefore in context, ver. 2. the Lord puts them in mind of their espousals to him: and hence also vide Calvinum in ver. 20. & c.

R. 5. From the certainty and extremity of the woe of such a People as shall so east off the Lord: wrath comes on them to the uttermost: there's no hiding their sin from God, Ier 2.22. nor any avoiding the Judgment of God, whatever ca • nal confidences they have for their immunity therefrom, Ier. 2. ult. the Lord will reject all such confidences: & v. 35, 36 so v. 14, 15. q. d. you were not in such a slavish condition under my Government, but had liberty, & honor, & prosperity, &c. but now, O, &c and whence is that? see ver. 17 so Deut 28.15. , & Levite: 26.13. &c.

R. 6. (And in special referring to the last branch of the Doctrine) Because of the wonderful unparalel grace of God to re-entertain unto favor penitent ones that do return to him, notwithstanding their greatest backslidings: this is abundantly discovered in the third Chapter of this Prophesy, ver. 1, 4, 12, 14, 19.22. &c.

Use. 1. Hence the People of God should not suffer their Experiences of the Lord's being to them not a Wilderness or a Land of Darkness in this good Land which he hath given them to die and perish with them, but ought to preserve and improve them for this end, that they might be kept thereby from casting off their subjection and obedience unto the Lord their God ; Psal 106.12, 13. they did not so religiously retain the memorial of the Lord's doings as they should: and as Mat. 16.9. so are we apt to forget wonders of mercy. Hence the Lord appointed those Stones and Pillars of memorial, Josh. 4.7. &c. consider we then the Lord's doings, respecting the way, and means, and instruments, and method of Providence, &c. according to which the Lord hath acquitted himself, as in our Text, to have been unto us, even unto us not a Wilderness, nor, &c

And here I may improve those particulars mentioned in the Explication:

1. As to the Lord's establishing his People in a way of Order and Communion
• Civil by
  • Charter.
  • Laws and Constitutions.
• Ecclesiastical as to Churches
  • singly in each congregation,
  • jointly in Council

the Lord hath herein molded and formed us to such a consistency therein, as both friends and enemies have wondered at. The Lord hath not left things to a Wilderness confusion, but there hath been that beauty of order which he hath stamped on this People respecting the Doctrine, and way of Worship here professed, and in the due subordination of Superiors, and Inferiors, and fellowship of the servants of God together in the Lord: That order and fellowship in the Gospel, and communion, both with the Lord and one another; O how sweet hath that Communion of Saints been! the Lord hath made his People to be as a 〈◊〉 that is compact together, as Psal. 122.3, 4. and so have not been left to be as a Wilderness wherein no man dwells, or as the Land of Darkness, Job. 10. ult. where no order is ; but here the Lord hath set up his Tabernacle, and that where the Devil hath been sometime openly and publicly worshipped &c, he hath spirited his Servants here to associate together according to his order, with a desire to observe all the Ordinances of the Lord Jesus, and to reject the mixtures of human inventions in the Worship of God, contrary to the second Commandment: the Lord filled his Servants with a zeal for the House of God (in all the forms and ordinances thereof, as Ezek. 43.10, 11, 12.) such a zeal had Christ, John. 2.17. the zeal whereof did even eat him up; and it was Phineas his zeal which did quench the fire of God's wrath that began to burn against Israel, and so, on the contrary, our coldness, our luke-warmness, will kindle the fire of his displeasure. Hence also was it the care which God put into the hearts of the first Generation that planted this Wilderness (that so this land might not be a land of darkness and wilderness, as aforesaid) to p • ovide Nurseries for Church and Common-wealth, in their ordering Schools of Learning, and in particular the College; whence it may be said of our New-England Cambridge also, as of old, Hinc lucem, & p • cula sacra ! whereby light and refreshing (as from a Fountain of Blessing) might be communicated to the whole land, by a constant supply of a godly, learned Magistracy and Ministry (persons fitted for public service both in Church and Common-wealth) and we have had experience of the blessing of God upon that endeavor: and O let no hand therefore be suffered to lay the Axe of destruction to the root of that Tree, by any direct or indirect means, or to draw away those influences from above or beneath, which tend to its flourishing and increasing!

2. As to the Provision which the Lord hath made for his People of Food and Comforts for Soul and Body; he hath turned a Wilderness into a fruitful field, which we have admirable experience of also: hath he not liberally provided for us, to encourage us in his service? the Lord hath opened his good hand, and given us bountifully as to outward blessings, in so much that we have been able to relieve and support other Plantations of the English in other parts of the World, and have had the blessings of peace, while others have been wasted with War; & liberty to be holy without restraint from man, and as 2 Sam 7.9, 10. so may I turn it as to New-England , God hath given it a name like the name of the great Nations of the Earth; and hath planted his people in a place of their own, and in the place which he hath chosen for them, to set his name in: and though some came hither but with their staff as Jacob, yet are they now become many bands ; and God hath sown the land up and down abundantly with the seed of man and beast: he hath blessed the bread and water of his people, and hath unto wonderment divers times cast in supplies of food and clothing, in the first planting of this wilderness by his people, which things are not to be forgotten; the Lord hath not left himself without witness, but hath given us rain from Heaven , &c. as Acts 14.17.

3. As to Direction; making the way of his people plain before them: they have not been left to such a wilderness state as wherein to find no path beaten out for them, but the Lord himself hath been leading them in a plain path when they have had many observers; being to them for a glorious conduct, even as by a Pillar of fire and cloud hath he shown them the way: Hence it is that God also hath given to his people those that might be as eyes to them in the wilderness. Numb. 10.31. persons eminently furnished with his spirit, to be instrumental of the prosperity of this place respecting the civil and Church-state: not only Artificers mechannical (and it is well if their skill die not with them, for want of those that should have been instructed as apprentices under them) the Lord sowed this land at first with such precious seed-corn, as was picked out of our whole Nation: and not only so, but also men that have been accomplished to move in an higher sphere, in whom much of the spirit of God hath dwelt, wise-hearted for the erecting of the Tabernacle of God. Exod. 31.3, 4, 5, 6. filled with wisdom and heavenly skill for government, &c. such holy ones as have had an excellent portion of that divine Vrim and Thummim ; whereby this land hath been preserved from being turned again to a land of darkness : 'twas part of Hezekiah's complaint in 2 Chron. 29.7. that in the time of Ahaz his Father they had put out the Lamps of the Sanctuary (and what follows but darkness in the Sanctuary when the lamps are put out ) but the Lord hath lighted them and set them up here with us: the Lord hath gloriously cleared up his will and counsel to his people, respecting the doctrine and worship of the Gospel, whereof they have given that Testimony in the Platform of Discipline, declaring therein their hearty assent and attestation to the Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster in matters of Doctrine ; only in some few points of controversy in Church Discipline referring themselves to that Platform of Discipline aforesaid, which for the substance thereof will be found to be a good confession: in this respect therefore have we experienced the Lord's being to us not a Wilderness, nor a Land of darkness.

4. As to the Lord's delivering his people from snares laid for them, pits which they have been in danger to fall into, and might have perished in, and wild beastly men that would have devoured them; the Bear that would have rooted up this Vineyard of the Lord , as Psal 80.13. and from such that as ravening Wolves, but in Sheeps clothing, would have wurried or scattered the Lord's flock, if himself had not wrought for us : some as Foxes which the Lord hath ordered to be taken that they might not eat up the Vine and the tender Grapes, Cant. 2.15. when as his people have been tender and weak, and might have been easily crushed, peeled, laid waste, &c. then did the Lord stir up a spirit of courage, and wisdom, and zeal, and faithfulness in our godly Leaders to take those Foxes so full of subtlety and mischief, that would else have destroyed his Vineyard, and that by plucking off its buds and tender Grapes; the Lord hath not suffered that brood of the Serpent to increase here, as otherwise would have been: we should have been filled with poisonful, fiery, stinging Serpents, if the Lord had not seasonably prevented the same, by the effectual crushing the same in the very Egg: hath not the Lord blessed the coercive power of the Civil Magistrate for that end? let our experience give in evidence: In the case of the Heresy of the Familists , which brake out of old among us; and O to what a height they suddenly grew! working at length woeful disturbance in the C • vil State as well as in the Churches, this is not to be forgotten; as tame as Error for a time pretended to be, yet at length it could gird itself with a Sword, but the Lord would not suffer it to be drawn. So likewise after this, with reference to the Gortonists , &c. which things should be remembered forever, and the mercy of the Lord acknowledged, in that he preserved us from those Hornets also, and that Ministerially by our Rulers spirited by himself thereunto.

And it is to be hoped, that this coercive power of a godly Magistracy, which we have experienced the benefit of so many ways, being duly managed, shall not be abandoned (distinguishing alwayet notwithstanding between the Magistrates

• Coersive power regularly put forth.
• Abuse of his Power one way or other.

In matters of Religion; any other power among men may as much be denied as that) nor therefore a Repealing of any wholesome Law about Religion for the defense and maintaining the Gospel among us; or that liberty shall be proclaimed to men of any Religion to come and set up Shops or Schools of Seduction among us; or to those of such a persuasion, and way of false worship, as in the general experience of the Churches of Christ since the reformation, hath proved, where ever their Opinions have prevailed, ruinous to the Churches of Christ, and destructive to the Souls of men, to draw them from the acknowledgement of the Covenant of God, and so of the truth and order of the Gospel: Hence therefore, as when a man is overtaken with an Highway Robber, and for a time holds some discourse with him, if he find him to be such an one as hath robbed others, he is very unwise that will throw away his Sword, though at present he hath no occasion to make use of it: there may be a connivance for a time, in case of necessity (which yet I hope, is not our own case) when notwithstanding there's no need of an open, public, professed Declaration, that Error shall be tolerated: To tolerate all things, and to tolerate nothing (it's an old and true Maxim) both are intolerable: but 'tis Satan's policy, to plead for an indefinite and boundless toleration, as Chemnitz excellently shows from those Words, Mark 1.24 [Let us alone] Harmon , chap. 37. pag. 388, 389 he calls it Diabolica Machinatio in conciliationibus Religionum, i. e. Christ may have his Kingdom, if he will let Satan alone with his, and so both of them live lovingly and quietly together.

5. As to Protection, that wall of defense that God hath granted to his People; God himself hath been a Wall of fire to us, and hath wrought wonderfully for us in the years of the right hand of the most High that are past, our very Enemies being Judges: the Lord hath enclosed us, set an hedge about his people as about Job , and all that he had, he hath fenced us , Isai. 5.2. and walled us about, as his peculiar garden of pleasure, wherein he hath retired himself from the noise, and tumults, and disturbance of the World, &c. And though this place (as a Wilderness) hath been a place at times, of some temptation as that Wilderness, Mat. 4.1. to Christ, and that his People have tempted the Lord, saying, Can the Lord provide Bread for us here ? there have been the Massahs and Meribahs: (O that they had never been heard of in this Wilderness! and that it might not have been told in Gath, &c ! and the Lord hath proved and tried his People above forty years together, yet (blessed be his Name!) they have had his gracious presence as a Pillar of Protection with them; not only for a guid, but a guard also to them: and as to Trials by Sea and Land, by Seducers, and Underminers, and bold Demanders, &c. we may say as Paul , 2 Tim. 3.11. But out of them all the Lord delivered us ! the Lord hath had pity on his people's weakness, and notwithstanding frowardness in his Children when they have been sometimes under temptation, yet hath he shown himself a patient and good God, Act. 13.18. [ 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 ] vide Marginem , as a Nurse beareth, or feedeth her Child, so the Lord hath graciously born our manners, &c.

And so as to all that light, and glory, and distinguishing goodness, favor and blessing which the Lord hath vouchsafed unto his People, together with his blessing those means of his appointment, wherewith he hath crowned us, blessing the Ministry of the Word, the Administration of the Keys and of the Seals of the Kingdom of Heaven for the salvation of his People; blessing the order of Councils, and Synods as there hath been occasion: I say we have found the Lord (experimentally) blessing his People in this way: hath it not been so? will not our experience witness for God? and give in abundant evidence of these things? in the Time of the Opinions, so called ? O call to remembrance those times, you 〈◊〉 the old Generation; how notably did the Lord, in the way of Council of Churches , by that famous Synod then met at Cambridge , free this wilderness from being a land of darkness by seasonably dispelling that hellish damp, and mist of errors and heresy! Again, when these Churches lay under the reproach of Schism, or rigid separation from the Churches in England , &c▪ as is to be seen in the preface to the platform of Discipline: and when some great ones there had said, fieri non posse ut Zealots isti in unam eeclesiastica politias formam (ne si optio quidem daretur) communi inter se consensu unquam conspirare velint . &c: this ( as Reverend and worthy Mr. Cotton of blessed memory speaks in his Epistle before Mr. Norton's answer to Apollonius ) was presently removed also by means of another Synod, which did from the word of God draw up the platform of Discipline, Characteristicall of the way of these Churches, with admirable consent and Harmony: other experiences I might instance of the singular smiles of God upon that ordinance of Council; Honoured, and beloved in the Lord, let none baffle you out of your experiences had of these things: and accordingly O that still we may, as there is need, experience the like benediction!

And should there not then be a Book of Records touching all these things? you have your Court-Books of Record: should there not be something published as a further Memorial this way? Ahasuerus hath his Book of Records, Esther 6.1. and so, as to David's acts first and last, they are written in the Book of Samuel the Seer , and of Nathan the Prophet , &c. much of which had reference to the Church of God, for which David's heart was full of care , 1▪ Chron. 29.29, 30. and again, in Exod. 17.14. Write this saith God for a Memoriall in a Book : And so the Decree of Esther , confirming the matters of Purim, are written in a Book , Esther 9. vlt. and what is the Reason thereof? see ver. 28. that the memorial thereof might not perish from their seed : thus Numb. 21.14. Written in the Book of the wars of the Lord , Josh. 10.13. written in the book of Jasher. Records of God's dealings with his Church and People this way, should be kept; The First Plantation of New England hath begun with their printed Memorial ; I wish the Second Colony thereof, ( i. e , this we are in) might be awakened further to take their turn also: and O that it might be said concerning this and that of the mercies, judgments, and great Acts of the Lord, never to be forgotten by us, [ as it is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Governors of the MASSACHVSETS: ]

Use 2. 'It is matter of Lamentation and reproof for the too great proneness that is to be found among too many among us, unto a revolt from under the Lord: that are ready to say to God, we are Lord's, and will come no more at thee : such as are meditating a renunciation of the Lord from being their King; and are ready to say as Psal. 12.4. who is Lord • ver •• ? to forget the Lord's wonderful working for us • ud. 2.10. To go back from former acknowledgements of our Fathers God, whom they should exalt, having been their Song as , Exod. 15.2. To refuse further, and be weary of that divine Conduct which they have had such notable experience of: To devise some other way than that which is by the direction of the Pillar of fire, and cloud in the Wilderness : To reject the government of the Lord by unruliness under their Governors ruling for God and under God, in his stead: To set up a self sovereignty and as 1 Cor. 4 8. to be, and reign as Lord's and Kings without the Lord: men miscount themselves for more then they are, they say in our Text [ we are Lord's ] but▪ alas) they are only servants, and should be in subjection to the Lord. This is an horrible absurdity for such so to do. Ier. 2.10. with 18.14. and see what the Lord threatens to those that refused the waters of Shiloah, being weary thereof, &c. Isa 8.6, 7. alas, alas! they that followed the Lord with a love of espousals from a pleasant land into a land of scarcity , &c. will (if left to themselves) forsake him, when the Lord hath turned it into a land of plenty ! To prevent this, Consider▪

1. It is unreasonale wickedness, folly and madness so to do, Isai. 1.2, 3 'tis to cross our own experiences, and so Hos. 2.7, 8.

2. It will be a dangerous provocation of God against such: to revolt from the Lord is greater injury done the Lord then is by those that were never brought near the Lord; for it brings up an evil report upon the Lord, as that upon experience, such had found him to be a Wilderness, and a Land of darkness to them, a land that eateth up the Inhabitants thereof , as they spake, Numb. 13.32. but see their punishment, Chap. 14.36, 37. they died by the Plague before the Lord: such do as it were, proclaim that they have (upon experience) found the Lord false, and unfaithful, unrighteous, and ungracious, and ungodly: Hence is the Lord's Expostulation, Ier. 2.5. q. d. they that hear of your departing from me, will think that there hath been some iniquity that you have found in me, and your way speaks as much: Hence we have for our admonition, those Examples upon Record of the Lord's wrath upon those that have forsaken him, whom the Lord hath therefore destroyed in the story of the Kings of Israel , and other Ecclesiastical Histories: when they choose new God's there was war in the Gates, Judge. 5.8. &c. But have we any cause to complain against the Lord? will not our experience witness against us, and for God, and that as to the experienced way of his leading of us in this Wilderness? for instance, i e. in way of improvement of what hath been already hinted. Are there those that say, that for the Magistrate to meddle in matters of Religion, or to punish men if they do but plead conscience for their sin, good will never come of it, and this is but persecution, and better let all alone, these things will die of themselves: &c. But let such consider, hath not this Magistracy from the very first, been directed by the Lord in such a way of witness-bearing for God, and against ungodliness, as that through the blessing of God upon the same) his people here hitherto have lived a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty ? were there not wholesome Laws made by the Fathers of this Common wealth ( eminent for wisdom, faithfulness, piety, zeal for God, tender compassion, a spirit of Government, &c. as true nursing Fathers to this people) to punish the disturbers of Christ's order among us? The Antichristian state cast out a flood of Heresy after the Woman when first fled into this Wilderness, but hath not the Leaders of this people appearing by Synods, and the power of the civil Sword in conjunction therewith, been found upon experience the way whereby the Lord hath dispelled those clouds of the darkness of Hell, that threatened both the Church and Civil state at once with confusion?

Thereby they prevented the further spreading of that spiritual infection: In this way hath the Lord saved these Churches, and curbed the spirit of error and profaneness in Doctrine, and viciousness in life: & shall any now begin to insinuate that all this hath been but a delusion, and fancy? or that it hath been but by chance, that we have been in this way secured? or that that way of our godly Leaders aforesaid was but a way of persecution? or shall any such be suffered so to reproach the footsteps of the Lord's anointed? will any among us begin to meditate a Revolt from God, and his ways which we have found to be ways of Truth, and ways of Faithfulness, and Blessing, and Salvation?

O Generation, See the Word of the Lord ! is there any new way more eligible then that good old way (for the substance of it I mean) which the Lord's People have already tried, and have experimentally found to be the way of blessing from God? shall we seek and inquire after any new-found out way? as the Lord speaks of new God's as they are called, Deut. 32.17. Vpstart God's, which our Fathers knew not : should some of our Fathers that are now asleep in Jesus, and that have with so many Prayers and Tears, hazards, and labors, and watchings, and studies, night and day to lay a sound and sure, and happy Foundation of prosperity for this people, arise out of their Graves, and hear the discourses of some, and observe the endeavors of others, as Edomites against their Brother Jacob, Psal. 137.7. crying Rase it, rase it, even to the Foundation ! by plucking up if they could, that Hedge that hath been here set to fence our All; would they not even rent their garments, and weep over this Generation ? And are there any that think to mend themselves by going back to Leeks and Onions ? yea to that very vomit of the Dragon , to lick up that vomit which he hath formerly cast out of his mouth, whereby to cause this poor Woman in this Wilderness also (if I may so far allude at least to that expression in Rev. 12.15. ) to be carried away therewith even as by a flood? I hope the good People of the Lord in this Wilderness will not do it, for the generality of them: and I trust the Lord will steel the hearts of our godly Leaders with courage & holy zeal against all such abominations. And assuredly a fundamental change of the way of Worship from the good ways of the Lord, will cause an alteration and change of affection also in this People, that they will not stand so affected as formerly to their civil Rulers, or their very civil state and constitution: 1 King 12.27. if this People go up to do Sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this People turn again unto their Lord, even to Rehoboam ; Hence ver. 28. &c. And therefore beware of such changes , Prov. 24.21. My Son, fear thou the Lord, and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change. Corruption in God's Worship, and corruption in manners are wont to go together; as there are instances thereof abundant to be given in the story of the Judges, and of the Reign of the superstious Kings of Israel or Judah casting off the true Worship of God, O what profaneness there was in other respects! profaneness in Judgment will be accompanied with profaneness in life; for surely men will (if they are but able) practice at length their Judgment, if they are but conscientious therein; & hence it is, that a conscientious Papist use to be accounted more dangerous then a State Papist only: and if corruption in the matters of God's fear (I mean of his Worship) be not reformed, no wonder if unrighteousness and iniquity of every kind abound; for he that hath once cast off the fear of God, will soon cast off the fear of man: and hence the Commandments of the first Table are called the great Commandments Mat. 22.37. and love to God, and fear of him is the true and best foundation of all true love and fear, honor and reverence unto man; I say it is the Basis or Foundation of all the other; and therefore the light of nature directed the Heathen (that reverence might be had to their Rulers and Laws) to signify to the People in some places, that they received their Laws from their gods: and what ground is there of obedience to man in any Law of the second Table but which hath its foundation laid in the first Table of the Law by God himself? and therefore it is and should be our great care to secure Religion, and to prefer the interest of God and his worship, before, and above all our own worldly concernments whatsoever; and while we so do, the Lord will not forsake this People, though the whole Earth should be gathered against us , as is said of Jerusalem , Zech. 12.3. Exhortations to this end have been inculcated upon such days as this, in which respect I may say (and as to the concurrence of the generality of the People of God therewith) as Joshua Chap. 24.27. Behold this stone shall be a witn • ss for it hath heard, &c. So let me say unto you all, Behold this House, this Pulpit, these Seats, &c. are a witn • ss, for they have heard all the Words which the Lord hath upon such occasions spoken to us by his faithful Servants ; Lament then any tendency toward a revolt from God!

Quest. Who are those that so revolt? are there any so foolish or vile that will so do? wherein doth it appear?

Ans. It is threatened and appears, 1. When the Sovereignty of God in the matters of Instituted worship according to the 2 d. Commandment is despised and rejected, by setting up some false way of worship; Posts by God's posts: (Text) [ we are Lord's ] arguing a self-sovereignty: and the Lord by this Prophet both in our Context , and else where taxeth them for their great sin in this, even the Idolatry against (not the first, but) the second Commandment; herein Christ's lordship is highly opposed. You need not (said Jeroboam , 1 Kin. 12.28, 31. It is too much for you) to go up to Jerusalem, &c. q. d. there is no such necessary Institution Divine as that of the Ministry, and Ordinances: the Priests do but deceive you; sacrifice may as well be done here as at Jerusalem , 'tis but a Circumstantial difference (the circumstance of place only) and it may be offered up by others as well as by them that are Priests, they take too much upon them, and that is but a circumstance of the person, and so that the thing be done it matters not by whom, and hence the lowest of the people will serve the turn well enough; yea, but that Jeroboam is by the Lord branded for it to all generations with that Character of being the man that made Israel to sin , &c. and we read how Uzziah smarted for his boldness in vying with the Lordship of God herein, though he were a King, yet the Lord would not bear with him, 2 Chron. 26. when as he would rise up against God's order to burn incense , which pertained not to him but to the Priest, he is smitten with the leprousie : and it is observed, ver. 16. (as the cause of his errors therein) that his heart was lifted up , i. e. through pride; proud hearts will sometimes adventure desperately this way, but it will finally prove a loosing cast to throw out thus against the Lord's appointment, and this was Corah's sin, All the Lord's People are Holy , and why may not all take their turns publicly to Preach and rule? and why should there be such a distinction of persons, &c? O take heed of this, for this is to say, as in our Text they did [ We are Lord's. ]

2. In not subjecting to the Lord's Authority, and Government, and Order once established, but where there is an affection of Belialism : O take heed of a Belial like spirit, that would have no restraint! we • ead of such in Deut. 13.13. They are for worship, but it is false worship , but the Magistrate we there see, is not to suffer such Belialists , but is to remember that when such arise, pleading perhaps liberty for any Religion, God doth it to try him, even to try Magistrates as well as People, to try the Master of restraint as well as others, whether he love the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength , yea or no? ver. 3, 4, 5. O there is a dissolute spirit in many Christians, they cannot tell how to bear any Yoke! dissolute Professors they would walk, and live as they list; and say, as Psal. 12.4. with our tongues we will prevail (get the Government as the word [ Gabar ] signifies: not first try what the Sword, but what the tongue can do) Our Tongues are our own , and who is Lord over us ? i. e. (as in our Text) We are Lord's, &c. A loose Generation! that would be under no Lord, nor Bonds, &c. the Psalmist describes such, Psal. 2.2. Let us break their Bends, and cast away their Cords from us ; be it as to the Lord's Rule and Government in the Common-wealth, or in the Churches: They have not rejected thee (saith the Lord to Samuel , 1 Sam. 8.7.) but they have rejected me, that I should not Reign over them : It was God that led his People [ thou ledst thy People as a flock , Psal. 77. ult.] by the hand of Moses and Aaron : and hence when they murmured also against Moses and Aaron , Numb. 16. and did so envy, and in the pride of their hearts rise up against them as if they took too much upon them, it is interpreted, to be against the Lord , ver. 11. compared with 26.9. they strive against the Lord in striving against Moses and Aaron ; and therefore to be weary of, and rise up against those who Rule for, and according to God and are Ministers of God to us for good , Rom. 13.4. &c. this is to rise up against, and to cast off the Lord himself; as he that refuseth to obey the Constable in his lawful charge, to assist him, &c. disobeyeth highest Authority therein; so 'tis here, they will be no more so snib • d, and under the yoke as they have been, &c. surely God hath chains for such as will break and cast away Christ's gracious Co • ds from them: Men's lusts are sweet to them, and they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their sin. Hence there be so many, such as cry up Tolleration boundless, and Libertinism, so as (if it were in their power) to order a total and perpetual confinement of the Sword of the Civil Magistrate unto it's Scabbard (a Notion that is evidently destructive to this People, and to the public Liberty, Peace and Prosperity of any instituted Churches under Heaven,) I cannot but heartily approve, notwithstanding of that advice of an old Counselor, to one of the Kings of France , asking him, what way should be taken for his own and his Peoples happiness in his Governing of them ? he thereupon presented him with a little Book, in the beginning, middle and end whereof there was only written this Word [ Moderation! Moderation! Moderation!] (v. Salem Philalethes p. 1.) We are in danger of extremes; and however some cry up [ Toleration, Toleration, Toleration ] at present, yet experience will evince that that will quickly in conjunction with others, be changed to persecution: But O that the good People of God would study to be quiet, and take heed of shaking off the Yoke of Christ: if we think it not easy enough for us, tis sure the fault is not in the Yoke, but in our Necks that will not bear it: O there was not at first that Contempt of the Magistrates, or Ministers, or Churches for their zeal for God herein, as begin's to grow up among us in these days: But let our Moderation be still known, even in this thing also, unto all, for the Lord is at hand , Phil 4. beginning .

3. In respect of a spirit of ill will against those that would keep a people in subjection unto God, and keep them from revolt: God sends his servants to call them back to the Lord, but they will not return [ we will come no more at thee ]: and thus they reject Samuel the great Prophet, and judge in his time. 1 Sam. 8.7. Hence arises those prejudices and groundless jealousies against many of the Magistrates and Ministers in the Country: and a disposition in many to crow over them in petty matters; to rate them Will and doom, &c. arising from misunderstanding in some of those that we may believe are the Lord's dear people (and it is pity they should be so deceived) and from design in others, loading them with reproaches: and that by lying and slanders would drive them if they could, from any capacity of serviceableness to God, or the Country, though they are such as have stood in the gap in the day of fear; and by whose wisdom, faithfulness, grace, prayers, care for the public, courage, zeal for God, and love to Christ's Interest in this Wilderness, the preservation of our All hath been in a great measure wrought: Shall they be accounted violaters of the liberties of the Churches, or of the Common wealth, who plead for no other than the ancient and primitive Interest of the people of God in the first and best constitution and complexion of this Colony? must no less then an Ostracisme serve for a requital of such? o let it not be▪ Again, if the Ministry stand for the government of Christ in his Church, according to platform of Discipline, Chap. 10. Sect 7. &c. pressing for attendance to that Scriptural distinction there used of

• Governors
• Governed

must they be now Presbyterians, and I know not what? the Lord pity poor ignorant ones that understand not the thing whereof they affirm! doth the obedience of the brethren to their Elders, Leaders, Rulers, as the Scripture calls them, take away the liberty of the Brotherhood? Let Paul be judge, Heb. 13.17 &c. and if their frequent profession to adhere to the way truly Congregational according to the printed doctrine thereof in the Books of our famous Worthies , who have labored to clear up the mind of Christ therein, will not be accepted, but their very hearts & inward secret intentions must be judged & condemned, & that they are so deeply guilty of Apostasy, & innovation threatening the ruin of our foundations, the Achan's and troublers of this Israel , yea, this without any proof or evidence produced against any one particular person in the Ministry, but that they must in the general be calumniated; All I would say is, Father forgive them, they know not what they do ; and he of his infinite mercy dislodge such Jealousies! and assuredly for the Ministry in this respect to give up their account to God with grief, will not be profitable to such prejudiced persons, who may hereafter when it is too late, reflect with blame & shame enough upon their own uncharitableness; in the mean time it must be left to the searcher of hearts ; and he judge between us, and such of our brethren▪

4. When there is a spirit of sovereign, unsociable, rigid independency growing upon a people; Text [ we are Lord's] q. d. we have none above us, are not (respecting Ecclesiastical causes or persons) under any power, & we need not any other: we can stand alone by our own strength, can live of ourselves, as to that which respects a people under an Ecclesiastical consideration, we assert the Coordination of Churches, but to affirm that Churches need not the help, watch, & assistance either of the Civil Magistrate above them, or of the neighbor Churches about them, as being out of the reach of both, and so as that there can be no healing (for instance) of any Church-oppression in a particular Congregation, doubtless as this hath not been the doctrine, nor practice of our first Leaders, so nor will the Scripture give countenance thereunto, as may be seen in the writings of our Congregational Divines in both England's : It is known what the Authors of the Apologetical narration, page 21. have written this way: and so blessed Mr. Burrough • in that excellent treatise of his viz. his Irenicum , Chap. 7. &c. Cottons way of Congregational Churches cleared : page 11. &c. prima • edes a nemine judicatur saith the Papist: ibidem .

5. It appears in pride and unthankfulness, and the abuse of mercies against the Lord: Text, are they Lord's? and have they dominion ? and (I pray) who gave them it? alas they knew not saith the Lord. Hos. 2.8. that I gave them co • n and wine, and oil: but thus do many sacrifice to their own net, and will come no more at the Lord to bless him for what he hath done for them in order to their advancement: and as Nebuchadnezzar , strutting in his palace, said, Is not this great Babylon which I have built , &c. O the many rich blessings we are crowned with! but our unthankfulness for them is great, and this arising from pride, and that pride works security, and a Laodicean frame of spirit prevails upon them: and they would have all according to their imperious wills; such as these the Lord beholds a far off , and will abase: and O great is the unthankfulness of too many of this people in the Land! there's much forgetfulness of God, and undervaluing the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Ministry thereof, which hath notwithstanding paid richly for its entertainment: great unmindfulness of the Lord now that he hath filled our houses with good things , contrary to that caution. Deut. 8. and Oh! the sad abuse of the plenty of outward blessings which he hath conferred, as appears in the intemperance and riot of many that may be placed [ 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 ] as the Apostle speaks, Tit. 1.6. in the category or predicament of riot, luxury, profuseness, and excess: and in regard of pride in Apparel, when persons lavish out that way beyond their rank, and beyond what their estates will bear, &c. again, in ways of self-seeking, and preferring the private before the public good; as at Constantinople , Monies could not be had to pay the charges of their Watch-men upon the Walls, till that the Enemy found it, and divided it by Hats full among themselves: and should it be so here, might we not justly fear, that the Lord should send Emptiers , as they are called, Nahum. 2.2 ?

6. When there is a weariness, and loathing, and a renunciation of the Covenant of God, respecting the continuance of the sure mercies thereof from Generation to Generation : Text, O Generation see the Word of the Lord ; as to the word of his Covenant, and the care of his faithful Servants or Fathers, in their coming over into these ends of the Earth, was it only for themselves? O no, they had an eye to their poor Children also, that they might remove them far from the temptations and snares of Superstition and Profaneness, that they might leave them under the wings of the Covenant-mercy and grace of God: they took special care for the continuance of the Kingdom of Christ here in after Generations, by asserting their Covenant interest, as appears by the Printed Doctrine, and constant practice of these Churches: And therefore, examine the experience of former times, and Anabaptism we shall find hath ever been looked at by the Godly Leaders of this people as a Scab, and not part of the Faith to be contended for, but contended against; our Fathers, the leaders of this People, never espoused it as any part of the interest of Christ, being so cruel, and hardhearted an Opinion, an Engine Framed to cut the throat of the Infantry of the Church. Men are eager and restless in contending about Earthly Inheritances and Privileges for their Children, and are impatient in being denied that of the World for them, which they think is their due, and shall the Inheritance of Eternal life (instrumentally as to the ordinary way and means of the dispensation thereof conveyed by the external Administration of the Covenant) be thought not worth the contending for? God forbid: and shall the experience of thousands respecting the Lord's blessing their Baptism which they received in Infancy, and the thoughts of their Covenant interest, sealed in Baptism, preventing many a sin that else they would have run into, and recovering them from backsliding, and quickening them eminently to answer that holy obligation to God; I say, shall all this clear, sure, comfortable, blessed, glorious experience of so many thousands of the Servants of Christ be now concluded to be so many mistakes, fancies and delusions, and the interest of the Children of the Covenant, to be but a matter of an indifferent nature, and so not to be any ground of contending about? I say again, the Lord forbid: And shall those whom experience hath generally found disturbers to, and their Doctrine, where it hath prevailed, a pest and confusion to the Churches, be suffered to poison the rising Generation, or dispossess them of their portion in God? read Judge. 11.24. Wilt not thou possess, &c. and shall not our Children possess what the Lord our God hath given us to possess? should there be a transgressing those Laws, changing the Ordinance, breaking the everlasting Covenant spoken of, Isai. 24.5, 6. what may we expect but that the Curse devour this Land; and when under Babels yoke, there may be time to bewail those Calamities, but in vain.

Use 3. Of Exhortation , i. e. O Generation, see the Word of the Lord (I need not vary from the Words of the Text for it) the Exhortation may be attended in these three Branches: viz.

1. See that we revolt not from God: let us not say [ We are Lord's: ] and O that there might never be found an inclination thereunto! And for our improvement of this part of the Exhortation, take these considerations following.

1. Know that God's own visible people have sometime proved, this way, a very strange generation: [ O generation! ] the Scripture speaks of them sometimes as an untoward generation , Acts 2.40. a stubborn and rebellious generation , Psal. 78.8, an adulterous generation , Mark 8. ult. A generation of vipers , Matth. 3.7. a faithless and perverse generation , Matth. 17.17. a generation of God's wrath , Jer. 7 29. and we have as bad natures as they, so as to become a degenerate generation as these in our Text, or any, if the Lord prevent not.

2. Mind what the Lord hath done for this people in Reference to their order, provision, direction, deliverance, protection and prosperity in Church and Common-wealth, under the UNITING conduct of those two great Ordinances of God the Magistracy and Ministry, whereby it is (in special) that the Lord hath principally (as in the explication aforesaid) quitted himself to be not a wilderness to us or a land of darkness : and for that end pray that the Lord will please to maintain and uphold the same, even a godly and learned Magistracy and Ministry among us , that the Lord will make our Leaders in both orders instrumental to keep this people chaste and loyal to Christ Jesus, and his interest in this wilderness: and that whatever others may be left to do, yet as Hos. 11. ult. New-England may rule with God, and be faithful with the Saints.

Be much in the serious meditation of what the Lord hath done this way, lay up, and look over those experiences we have had of the Lord's wonderful working for us from the time of the laying of the Cornerstone of this plantation unto this day: and O let there not be a removing of the Ancient Land-marks of this Interest of Jesus Christ ; not but that God reserv's to each generation their work in the advances of Reformation, as Phil. 3.12.—16. and as hitherto we have experienced the concurrence of both Magistracy and Ministry, as so choice a means under God of our preservation in the enjoyment of our liberties civil and sacred, so let it be the studious endeavor of those in whose hearts are the ways of God, that that concurrence may still hold, and that the Governors of this Judah , i. e Leaders, both civil and Ecclesiastical may say that the people of God are their strength in the Lord their God, Zech. 12.5. and so that three-fold cord of Magistrates, Ministers and people shall not be easily broken: and as Ne. 10 28, 29. with Ezra. 10.4. so that the good people of this Land would say to those that are set over them in the Lord (and to whom their hearts should be cleaving) by way of encourageing of them, arise, this and that belongeth unto you, and we will be with you! O that both Magistracy, Ministry & the people might be persuaded unto that union and concurrence, especially in the matters of God and his worship according to the exhortation which hath in former times been excellently given us from Haggi. 2.4. and truly when we look upon the primitive constitution of this people, me-think's the Lord represents himself as to the Prophet Amos, cha. 7.7. as standing upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand, admirably and happily squaring, disposing, cementing together the spiritual stones of this building: as to the union and conspiration of the parts thereof, severally in their order to strengthen and beautify the whole, O how excellent was it, as those of the first generation yet remaining know, and many also of the rising generation can Remember. Here let me say, O generation see the Word of the Lord in this matter also : the Lord gave his servants in Church and Common wealth for the main body of them an uniting spirit, and so a spirit of Communion for the carrying on with one mind, with one lip, and with one shoulder the Kingdom of Christ, and the work of their generation; in which respects he was to them not a wilderness nor a land of darkness . Union of Reformers was their beauty and their strength. Then might be seen,

1. Magistrates, and Magistrates upon the seat of justice cemented together for the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in this wilderness; they looked not upon themselves as unconcerned in matters of Religion; but accordingly also have they thence-forward at all times as there was occasion put forth their power that way; for they are called God's , and therefore knew they were to have a care of Godliness, that being set by God in highest place, they should not set God & his Interest lowest; but as David, prefer Jerusalem above their chief joy , Psal. 137.6. that being God's they are to love what God love's and hate what God hates, even as is spoken to the commendation of the Church of Ephesus. Rev. 2.6. Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which thing I also hate : Hence see David's spirit, Psa. 139.21, 22. & 132.1, 2, 3. & this power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion hath been asserted by our first Leaders, by those in the Common-wealth, as appears by their constant practice; and also by those in the Churches, witness the writings of our famous Divines now at rest with God Mr. Cotton bloody tenet washed . Mr. Hooker Survey pt. 2. pag. 79.80. Mr. Norton Epistle Dedicatory before his Discussion, &c. ) and inevitable ruin will be the consequent of a breaking down of this Hedge; and as Reverend Mr. Baxter speaks upon such an occasion ( Directions for s • iritual peace , p. 261.)

2. Then might be seen Magistrates and Ministers together in way of advice (I exclude not here the honored Deputies of the general Court , but) I here intend the agreement that there was between the civil and and Ecclesiastical Leaders in matters of difficulty, or of weight, and that were of general and common concernment to Churches or Common wealth▪ those at the helm of the civil state were wont to make use of the Ministry; and the Ministry again of the Magistrates, as there was like occasion in re communi : nor were they wont to go contrary to each others advice, but had these candid arguings one with another, if they did seem to differ in anything at any time, as whereby a right understanding mutually was obtained: and often have they found the blessing of God upon them in this way, both in the first settling of this Colony and after its constitution, both in the Legislative and Executive parts of government, and therein in special providing against an Arbitrary government: and I hope it will ever be the wisdom, faithfulness, and care of this civil Authority not to leave behind them presidents of Arbitrary rule; for if it be left unto mere judgment and conscience without prescript Law, then do but change the persons that are to judge, and there will be tyranny and woe, and confusion enough consequential thereunto: and that Land which before by wholesome Laws did, and might have continued to shine most gloriously, will soon be turned into utter darkness , where there will be nothing heard but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth . And as formerly so still there should be communication of advice, intentions, and endeavors mutually between those that are in these two orders. Josiah doth not disdain to take advice of Huldah the Prophetess. 2. Chron. 34.20, 21, 22. Nathan the Prophet doubts not to say ( 1. Kin. 1.27. ) unto David [Is this thing done by my Lord the King, and thou hast not shown it unto thy servant, who should fit on the throne of my Lord the King after him?] Moses and Aaron kiss one another in the mount of God ; Exod. 4.27. Moses (Israel's Ruler) fare's the better for taking the advice of Jethro the Priest of Midian , Exod. 18.1, 18, 24. and so did all Israel prosper under it. It went well with Joash and Israel while they hearkened to Jehoiada : and experience hath, and will discover it to be true that, in all states neither do well asunder, or divided estrangedly in their counsels. Again, then might be seen;

3. Ministers, and Ministers cleaving together in way of communion; nothing that was difficult, or questionable, or Weighty, or New, or that had an influence upon the whole, but they were wont to consult with one another; as I have heard from divers of the ancient Ministers of Christ now with God, and when I was a Child have observed in my Fathers house: if there happened to be some mis-understanding at any time, it was reasoned out placidly, and still Ministerial communion was maintained; and these things are known unto hundreds yet living that may remember the Ministers meetings, in the several Towns by course, as at Cambridge, Boston, Charlstown, Roxbury , &c. when, and where the people did with great joy, and reverence acknowledge them and their labors that way for the good of the Churches: respectively, and looked upon them as Angels of God, and so received them when they came to Town: Paul's spirit was then eminently breathing amongst them, viz. as to the care of all the Churches. 2. Cor. 11.28. and the Apostles word then remarkably observed, • n 1. Cor. 14.32, 33, 37. notwithstanding some differences, yet rules of order being attended those also may be well composed: & see Burroughs Irenicum , p. 84. &c.

4. Then might be seen Ministers and their respective Congregations together; their People trembling at the Word of God delivered by them, reverencing them in the Lord, esteeming them highly for their work sake, subjecting to their power and rule in the Lord: and so now also may we build upon that Word of God, 2 Chron. 20.20. (if it is not antiquated and now out of date) i. e. Hear me O! Judah, and Ye Inhabitants of this Land, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established, believe his Prophets, so shall you prosper ; as you love your souls, and your Children's also, I beseech you for the Lord's sake, be not apt to imbibe evil reports and scandals against them, to cause jealousy and prejudice in your hearts, the rule in 1 Tim. 5.19. is known: had it been attended, most of our troubles had been prevented:

Obj. The Prophets are divided ?

Ans. 1. So they were of old. 2. This Rule in Timothy , and that word in 2 Chron. 20. aforesaid, hold good still. 3. Blessed are those notwithstanding that are not offended in Christ, and the sheep of Christ do, and shall hear his voice , in the great matters of Salvation, Joh. 10.

5. Then might be seen Churches, and Churches together in way of Communion , by greater Synods , as hath been before intimated, and also in lesser Synods or Councils , as there hath been occasion when any Church hath wanted light or peace &c. If help were not asked, it was sent them without asking: and it was not then accounted an infringment of the Liberty of Churches so to do: I apprehend it might do well and be of great use, if a Memoriall thereof were published for posterity; that there might be an History & Narrative of each of them; and a signification of the blessing of God upon the advice of Elders, and messengers of Churches met in Council, in the many Towns of the Country, Melting hearts, and drawing tears both of joy and repentance from the eyes of brethren in those days of their reconciliation, &c. and an evil spirit therefore in any is that, who are laboring to keep breaches open by refusing balm to be poured in for healing , when the Physician also is at hand in Gilead : & oh how terrible is it to see the body of Jesus Christ (for so is the Church called) torn in sunder by divisions ! sure that is not the true Mother that would have the Child divided: what are men doing when they thus divide but incurring that guilt and penalty, Gal. 5 13. and are they not eating everyone the flesh of his own arm? for so they might be an arm of strength to one another when united: and I hope our godly Leaders will not suffer it to be so, that two or three men shall continue to disturb the peace of a whole Congregation, and hinder the settlement of the Gospel, and Ordinances of Christ from year to year! is there no redress for this? if you saw a company of men set, and resolved to vex and starve one another bodily, should it be suffered? let the liberty of Churches be preserved, but care continued for conversion of those that are out of the Church visible, and therefore such as are able, appointed, and encouraged to preach the Word there constantly, till they can agree, either to choose him, or some other faithful Steward of the mysteries of God among them. But let Sister-Churches in the mean time not be careless and negligent respecting their duty of Communion also. Finally then might be seen,

6. Magistrates, Ministers, and their people together, strengthening the hands of one another in God; even according to that exhortatory speech, Haggai 2.4. And indeed it is God's work to make his fear fall upon the hearts of men, so as to stand in awe of, and reverence Authority ( 1 Sam. 11.7. ) and so of the wholesome Laws in a state that are made: and if God do not this, if he bow not their hearts thereunto, all will be in vain: a notable spirit of self-denial, love, courage, zeal for the interest of Christ in the public, was at first breathing among this people and was crowned from heaven with glorious success by the God of our mercy: and O let not these experienced ways of blessing be forgotten, or despised, or departed from by this people!

3. Consider, that a revolt from God is usually graduated, having its more imperceptible beginnings: by degree • the souls of men slide back from God. Satan hath variety of artifices whereby to cast us down, and overthrow the true Religion and Kingdom of Christ among us, if he could; he make's use of the Divisions, and Scandals of God's people to promote his hellish designs: he will improve the spirit of fear and cowardice in some; the rashness of others: the jealousies of others: the ambition of others: the covetousness of others: the simplicity of others: the passions of others: the sheepishness of others: &c. to advance his own cause in the Apostasy of professors: yea, and mischief (perhaps) shall be laid in, in the very primmers for children whereby they may even suck in poison in their tender years: & also in the pictures and images of Christ, of the Virgin Mary , and other canonized popish Saints, &c. sold in some shops, or brought over among us: things that will take with children, but though they may seem minute , yet will surely prove of dangerous consequence at length to those tender years, and may become an Introduction to Popery itself. I wish such things might be crushed in the egg, and abandoned by everyone that professeth the Christian name, for the Lord thy God , O New-England is a jealous God! he is a jealous Husband especially in the matters of the second Commandment. But as to this, or any other way of back sliding from God, O! fear all the graduations thereof, and the first steps thereunto: principiis ob • t • a : watch against it.

1. Forgetting a wilderness condition▪ their's danger thereof, when turned to a fruitful field . Deut. 8.11, 14▪ 18, 19. but therefore read Deut. 26.5.—Isa. 51.1. —&c.

2. Forgetting the works of God for our Fathers. Hence see, 1 Sam. 12.24 only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth, for consider how great things he hath done for you .

3. Forgetting the first and great fundamental design of God and his people in the first planting this Land.

4 Carnal and worldly Interest twisted in with the Interest of Christ, and his Kingdom among us: sincere hearts will leave all worldly good for the Ordinances of Christ in their purity, and the Lord's Interest. 2. Chron. 11, 14. and will forgo all their own, rather then his shall miscarry.

5▪ Glutting themselves with the things of the world, and hence loathing, or weariness of Ordinances, and so dispensing with them, I say dispensing with them; Dispensations with God's commands are many times Anti-Christian , and very dangerous:

6. Decay and want of the spirit of faith and holiness, whence to get, and keep an experimental savor of the sweetness of Jesus Christ, and his precious ways, and hence follow's a falling away from any external profession of the true Religion.

7. The backslidings of some few, and they (notwithstanding) countenanced by too many, whereby they become hardened in their evil way, and infection also spreads the more. Familiar fellowship with excommunicate persons was one of those ulcera Ecclesiae which our famous Cotton sadly complains of under that very term, as also Remiss silence in the sounder members against the offensive expressions of the unsound, was another of them which he bewailed.

8. Mixtures in Religion cherished by a spirit of Libertinism, and spiritual licentiousness: It is dangerous to Religion, and to Israel's state (and Rulers need watch against it betimes) when the Samaritan enemy (notwithstanding the pretence of seeking and sacrificing to the same God with Israel ) shall be permitted to build in Temple-work together with Israel, Ezra 4.1, 2, 3. and the Lord keep that Samaritanism from us, Recorded for our admonition in 2. Kings 17.28—ult.

9. The Lord's delivering men up, now, in his righteous Judgment to the casting off his fear, and name, and interest, &c. declaring openly in the hardness of their hearts, the sovereignty of their self interests above the Lord's: Text [ We are Lord's and will not come at thee ] and thus are they gone from God, and so a gone People indeed, if the Lord pity not, nor heal their backslidings the sooner.

4. Consider how much cause of fear there is of great wrath from God upon us should there be a plain revolt from God, and from the acknowledgement of the good way wherein the Lord hath been leading us, Jer. 2.17. hast thou not procured this unto thyself (viz. slavery instead of liberty, and wasting, and abuses, and woe, and desolation by Lyon-like Adversaries, spoiling, yelling, wasting, burning, &c.) in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way : let not the ancient good Land-marks be removed, Deut. 27.17. Profaneness, viz.

• Doctrinal,
• Practical,

greatly threateneth our welfare; and this begins both ways strangely, and strongly to lift up itself by reason of the averseness that there is in so many against faithful, plain, zealous and thorough condemning the sins of the times we live in: The Ministry must not bear witness against sin, nor the Magistrate; even as though men would thus stop the mouths of the Witnesses of Jesus Christ, and slay them by such a political death: it is a great sin, and a dangerous evil to make a man an offender for a word in the sense of Isai. 29.21. and to lay a snare for him that reproveth in the Gate.

But if this People will be Lord's in the sense of the Text, and shake off his Government, and this after all (so many) experiences of light and life, and blessing from him, after so many smiles, and so many peculiar tokens of his being New-England's God, and such a distinguishing line of mercy drawn by him between ourselves and others; after he hath wrought so wonderfully for us, being as darkness to our enemies, and bewildering them in their attempts against us, so that all hitherto that would have devoured us have been an offense to God, and evil hath come upon them, Ier. 2.3. I say if after all this we will now turn our back, and revolt from God, we may then expect that the Lord turn this fruitful land into a wilderness again , Psal. 107.34. that God should be a wilderness, and a land of darkness to thee O New-England ! and cause the Sun to go down at noon upon thy Prophets: and pick rods out of this very wilderness, yea, briars and thorns of the wilderness whereby to scourge, and tear , & teach such as will not otherways know the day of their visitation : he can mingle our enemies, as Isa. 9.11. ( French and Indians &c. together) Make thee groap for the wall, like the blind , Isa. 59, 9, 10, 11. take away the spirit of Counsel, & Counsels of peace, and wisdom, and courage from thy Rulers, and make babes to rule over thee, Isa. 3. beg. and bring the darkness of Idolatry, Superstition, heathenism, cruelty, vileness, profaneness, heresy, horror, &c. to overspread the Land, and that through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts the Land be horribly darkened, and people be as the fuel of the fire , as the Prophet speaks, Isa. 9.19, 20, ult. no man sparing his Brother , &c. And if Christians will break one from another, and Churches break one from another, and others, in their communion; have we not cause to fear that God will suffer some wild boar or beast of the Forest to enter in at the Breaches, and lay waste this vineyard, and turn it into a wilderness again ? So that when it shall be asked in time to come, (as 1 King. 9.8, 9. with Deut. 29.24 , &c.) Why hath the Lord done thus to this Land! and wherefore is all this great anger of the Lord? why hath the Lord done thus unto such a people? unto his people ? then the Answer should be, because they have forsaken the covenant of their God: and they would be Lord's, and would no more come back to the Lord their God: they would not be under his government when he would have led them as a flock, by the hand of such as were as Moses and Aaron among them: and bec • use of their many God-provoking sins; because they forgot the main end of their coming into this Wilderness ; because they forsook their first love to God, and so to his Ordinances, and so to his people, their Brethren, witness their strifes while alive, and witness the many tearless Funerals in many places , (a sign they were not so beloved while alive) and because of their spiritual wantonness under Ordinances : Their Church covenant grew to be with many but a form; brotherly watch came to be neglected, the house of God despised, and their own preferred before the same; because of their woeful unthankfulness for the Gospel , and for that they grew a worldly people, and so neglect of Communion with God in secret grew upon them; there was a form of Godliness, but the power thereof denied: Hypocrisy, Divisions, carnal Mixtures, despising God's Sabbaths, Loose-walking, Temporizing, Sensuality, Pride and Idleness, fullness of Bread, and not strengthening the hand of the poor and needy (those Sodom sins , Ezek. 16.49) found in New-England : Oppression of the poor, and oppression of the rich▪ unmercifulness, self-seeking, growing heady, and high-minded, and run ••• g deep upon the score of those sins of the last times, which make those times perilous; and because the Sons and Daughters of God became flesh , and accordingly savouring only the things of the flesh, and of the world, and not of Christ : and the Daughters (and Sons too) of Zion Isai 3. grown haughty , &c. though they were planted a noble Vine , yet they turned to the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto the Lord , Jer 2.21. and an empty Vine , Hos. 10.1. and they grew weary of the Lord, and would not bear the order of his House : weary of, perhaps secretly loathing, strictness of conversation in the way of holiness; but a lax, merry, loose Religion pleased them better, and suited most with their vain spirits, and carnal private interests: and so they could be frolic, and vain, and harmonious with the company they came amongst: and they grew spiritually proud, and conceited, and censorious, and reviling, (not sparing therein their very Rulers in Church & Common-wealth) and lukewarm in the things of God: and full of the sins of the tongue, in respect of lying (loss of moral truth) dissimulation, equivocations, and such sins as those which loosen all the Bonds of even human society, that there should be no trust or confidence put in one another: and though there is the good which the Lord is willing to take notice of, yet may he not say as to the Asian Churches, i. e. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee ; and therefore as, Rev. 2.5. Remember whence thou hast fallen, repent, and do thy first (thy first) works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Not only extinguish the lights, but remove the Candlesticks also: and he will then wash his hands in innocence over us, and profess to all the world that he is free from the blood of all men. And then truly should all the stars of the Firmament of the political Heaven shine upon us, yet alas, if the Lord shine not, it will be Midnight with us: and God can mingle a perverse spirit among a people whereby to make them err in every work of their hands, and in all their Counsels, Isa. 19.14. when God hath a purpose to destroy a people he is wont to give them a vertiginous spirit: But therefore O generation see the Word of the Lord ! Let the found Christians of the first good old generation that do yet remain see the Word of the Lord ; viz. in order to thankfulness unto God for all experiences that he hath given them of his being not a wilderness or land of darkness ; and they should declare that they do so by showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done . Psal. 78.4, 5, 6. they should leave behind them Registers of God's mighty acts , that their children after them might learn to set their hope in God, and not forget his works . And let those of the second generation, that are entered, or upon the point of entering upon the stage of action in the service of their generation, see the Word of the Lord also ; both in way of thankfulness for what God hath done for our fathers, and also in way of confidence, and trust in the God of our Fathers , in the sincere discharge of the work of our generation . Former Experiences should make us steadfast and immovable in the work of the Lord, and in the midst of all changes that may come . And let those of the rising, but unfledged generation also, be put in mind hereof, and be religiously seasoned with that nurture, and admonition of the Lord as whereby they may do worthily, more worthily, most worthily in their generation, when the heads of the present and passing generation shall be laid in the dust, and must sleep with their Fathers : and that thus as Psal. 145.4. One generation may praise thy works O Lord unto another, and declare thy mighty acts ! and that thus (as Psal. 45. ult.) his name may be remembered in all generations, and therefore let the people praise him forever and ever .

2. If there hath been, or should happen any beginning to shake off the Lord's government, and to decline from his fear, O! let there be a willingness in this part of the Lord's Israel to return unto the Lord their God again , say not, as in our Text [ we will come no more at thee :] And herein those two great Ordinances of God, i. e. the

• Magistracy
• Ministry

(by the Lord's blessing whereof the Lord hath hitherto approved himself unto this people, as in our Text, to be not a wilderness or a land of darkness ) are to be improved; for very much depend's upon them, under God, for the return of Israel to the Lord in case of backsliding in any degree. 2. Chron. 19.4. Jehoshaphat , it is said, brought the people back unto the Lord God of their Fathers : and Chap. 23. and 24. see again, Ezra 5.1, 2. and 10.4. and in this way hath God prospered his work here also: and though not the success is always a certain mark of the Church or of the right way, as the Papists who make [ faelicitas temporalis ] temporal prosperity to be one of theirs (I would be far from thinking that any smile of providence will legitimate those actions which the Word of God condemn's) and in Religion therefore to do nothing for God wherein we shall run any hazard, but leave all to providence, and so judge of the goodness or the sinfulness of our way according as providence favors therein, or frowns upon us, is by some good Divines looked upon as the corrupt reasoning of Gamaliel in Acts 5.38.39. But yet when we have had those who in the fear of God have searched the Scriptures, who have been with God in the Mount , their faces shining with much of his glory at their receiving from the hand of the Lord a second edition of the Tables and pattern of his will: and that we have found the Lord setting to his seal of Divine benediction thereunto, O take we heed of Innovations now▪ and let the remembrance of what the Lord hath been to us and done for us recover from every degree of, and all tendencies unto backsliding! and in special here.

1. Remember that a main design of God's people's adventuring in to this wilderness was for progress in the work of Reformation, and that in the way of brotherly communion with the Reformed Churches of Christ in other parts of the world. O forsake not, deny not, condemn not that fundamental design! and otherwise indeed what needed they to have removed from England ? (this cannot justly be denied) they were then in the place from whence there came mixtures in the worship of God, and the blessed Sabbath of God struck at, &c. which there were grieved with, and vexed their righteous souls from day today ; but here they hoped they might enjoy freedom from those pollutions, and freedom to follow the Lord fully in all his Ordinances and appointments ; I say to follow the Lord (not by halves: not still in way of mixtures in Religion to have a medley of all sorts of Religion, but) fully ; with what purity the Lord would give them light for, and power to enjoy without molestation: And therefore, as not in a way of Separation from the Churches of Christ in Old-England , which the printed Books of our New-England Divines do abundantly show; ( v. Cottons Answer to Mr. Williams . pag. 138.140, &c. Hookers Survey, pt. 1. pag. 48. Mr. Philip's in his Answer to Lamb. pag. 144. Mr. Allen of Dedham, with my Honoured Father (P. M.) in their defense of the nine positions both in the Preface , pag. 12, 13. and afterward in that Book, p. 40.43, 68, 70, 71, 150. &c.) And so to hold communion with them in the Ordinances of Christ, and according to the order and command of Christ, yet withal to depart from defiling mixtures aforesaid; Surely then it follows by undeniable consequence, that if it was for Reformation, then not for Toleration of all Religions: and awful are the words that fell from the pen of our famous Cotton in his bloody tenet washed , (pag. 132. and 192) viz. It was Toleration that made the world Anti-Christian : and (

And shall any now plead for mixtures of men's superstitious Inventions in the worship of God ? & what else is the Spirit of that Toleration , which many cry up; but that no thorough & effectual Testimony should be born against such Idolatrous mixtures ? The hearty love and union of a truly Religious people, consists not in a boundless toleration of sin , but in the way of Reformation , Ezek. 11.18, 19. And should this poor people be intoxicated with that heady wine of the Doctrine of such a toleration , as to open that door [for instance] unto superstitious and anti Christian Ceremonies in the worship of God, as it would be contrary to our professed Fundamental end of the settling of this Plantation, so God would be extremely provoked at such a toleration: and who sees not the event that would be? the like I might say as to any other such mixtures brought in by toleration destructive to the established way of Worship here, for the substance thereof: and shall this be the commendation of New-England, i. e. [I have something for thee, that thou canst bear with them that are evil? ] and this for thee [ that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel &c. ] Yea why do not men plead for Toleration of all non-fundamentals in Civil matters? for there are the extra-fundamentalia there also.

Let the Magistrates Coercive Power in matters of Religion [therefore] be still asserted, seeing he is one who is bound to God, more then any other men, to cherish his true Religion; and as the good Kings of Judah, commended for it in Scripture, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah &c. therefore are they to be principal Instruments in furthering the Reformation aforesaid: and I would leave it with any godly, sober Christian to consider and answer; Whether the Interest of Religion hath not as good a title, and plea for the Magistrates Protection, as [not any irreligion which self conceit and humor hath wedded any unto; but] any worldly Interest whatsoever? and how woeful would the state of things soon be among us, if men might have liberty without control, to profess or preach or print, or publish what they list, tending to the Seduction of others! and though the Enemy soweth Tares , which cannot be many times plucked up without danger to the wheat, and are therefore let alone, yet I would hope none of the Lord's husbandmen will be so foolish as to Sow Tares , or plead for the Sowing of them, I mean in the way of the Toleration aforesaid, when as it may be prevented: the light of Nature and right Reason would cry out against such a thing.

Rulers are not to be a terror to the good , but to the evil, Rom. 13. Now as was said concerning Timothy 1 Cor. 16.10. see that he may be with you ( said the Apostle) without fear : so let the dear Servants of God be cherrished, under the wing of Magistracy without fear ; they are afraid of Heresy , let the Magistrate secure them from those Terrors: the prevailing of corrupt and profane Doctrines & Practises (and what men's Judgments are, if they be conscientious, they will practice the same, whether it be good or bad, best or worst) are a terror to them, they dread what the consequent will be, if not seasonably Crushed, and removed:

David's affection to the House of God should not be forgotten, and the affliction of his soul about it, in Psal. 132.1, 2, 3, 4. deserving to be graven not upon the Session-house-door, but upon the heart of every Magistrate that enters in thereat; that so the interest of Religion among us may never be suffered to lacquy after any worldly interest whatsoever: Jehoshaphat is prospered by God, because he walked in the FIRST ways of David his Father, i. e. the ancient and good ways of the Lord , 2 Chron. 17.1. Mind the first ways of our godly Leaders, and follow them therein, according as they followed the Lord, as the Apostle speaks of himself, 1 Cor. 11.1. because Jeroboam abused his power, and made Israel to sin, 1 King. 17.21. shall it (therefore) not be lawful for Josiah to make all in Israel by the regular use of his power to serve the Lord their God? read 2 Chron. 34. ult. Nor is it for any to object, that in the primitive times, the Magistrates meddled not with matters of Religion: for it is not what was done, but what was their duty to have done, that is to be exemplary to us: we read then that the Magistrate would not so much as Countenance or Tolerate the true Religion; doth it therefore follow, that the Magistrate should not countenance or tolerate it now? neither will it follow, that if the heathen Magistrates regarded not how it went with the Christian Religion that therefore the Christian Magistrate should follow the example of the Heathen therein: as a Pagan Master when converted hath not more power (as a Master) then he had before his conversion; but yet surely the grace of God bestowed upon him, teacheth him, that he is bound to improve his power better (for the advancement of the interest of Religion in his family, and curbing irreligion therein) even far beyond what he did before his conversion, so 'tis here with the converted Magistrate.

Austin I find speaking to this objection, That in the primitive times, the civil Magistrate did not make and execute such Laws, and put forth their coercive power for Religion and the Christians; Answers it thus , viz.

'It is not enough, saith he, that Kings do serve the Lord as private men can do, but as Kings , and that is when they do that in his service for him which none but Kings (& so it holds as to other inferior Magistrates proportionably) can do; as respecting the making & executing wholesome Laws, in order to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ) ( Augustinus Bonifacio comiti, de correctione Donatistarum propter eos qui nolebantillos legibus imperialibus corrigi, tomo, 2. pag. 74.) Moreover read in Re. 17. the promise concerning the ten Kings hating the Whore , &c. & also what is Prophesied concerning these New testament times , Isa. 49▪ 23. That Kings shall be nursing Fathers, and Queens nursing Mothers to the Church : the countenance of the Magistrate, and that as a Magistrate, in matters of Religion, is a mercy to be prayed for, 1 Tim. 2.1, 2. & therefore surely is no anti-Christian thing, as some would suggest; yea, saith the Apostle in the same Epistle, Chap. 1.9, 10. Knowing that the Law is not made for a righteous man , (i. e. that he should be condemned and punished for his righteousness) but for the Lawless and Disobedient [ 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 &c.] i. e. that will not be subject to Order , as the word notes; and for th • ungodly and unholy & profane, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound Doctrine , so that not only as to matters of unrighteousness against the second Table, but ungodliness and unholiness against the first Table, is the Law to be proportionably sharpened: so that therefore if those that call themselves pious, will carry it impiously, and lawlesly, treading upon the wholesome Laws of the Country, and so upon Authority itself, and will refuse to subject unto Christ's order, and do what is scandalous and criminal, let them smart for it as well as those that make not such a profession of Religion: as on the other hand, such should be the constitution of Civil Government, as that ungodly men also may have Justice when their Cause is good, as sometimes it is: a bad man may have a good cause which he is engaged in, and on the other side, a godly man may be found in a cause that is exceeding vile, and the uprightness of the Civil Judge will carry him impartially to mind the cause, and not (in that respect) the person:

Let all Profaneness (then) in Doctrine, and Life, that causeth disturbance of the Peace of Churches, or of the Common-wealth be curbed, the Rod of the Magistrate is effectually to be improved for that end: And the Lord mo •• and more strengthen the hand and heart of our Magistracy to crush all Profaneness, the Pride, and Drunkenness, and Whoredom, and Lying, and Stealing, the Heresies, and Schisms, and Factions, and such works of the Flesh, and scandalous Disorders that do so lamentably prevail among us; whether these works of the flesh (as the Apostle calls them, Gal. 5.) he found in Church members or Non-members.

Finally we may consider, that neutrality in Religion hath a Scripture curse cleaving to it, Judge. 5.23. They did not help against the Lord, but because they did not help the Lord therefore, &c. yea sometimes when it is out of fear and unbelief, see the danger such are in, Rev. 21.8. Do the followers of Antichrist receive his mark in their Hand, and in their Forehead, and shall the followers of the Lamb be ashamed of his, and his Fathers Name in their Foreheads ? read Rev. 14.1▪ He that is not with me (saith Christ, Mat. 12.30.) is against me : There is no neutrality here to be allowed of: Christ cannot endure halting▪ or lukewarmness, but will spew such out of his mouth , Rev. 3.16. It is a sign of an evil and perilous time, when those are to be found the swaying part among a professing People, who through fear, or spiritual sloth and cowardice, or scepticisme, or wanting a Principle, and spirit of true holiness and sincerity in them, or through carnal policies, or self-interests, &c. are Enemies to, and haters of the work of Reformation, studying rather such a Syncretisme in Religion as takes in all persuasions (without regard had to that spiritual chastity and virgin-spirit, which according to Rev. 14.4. ought to be in all the true followers of the Lamb: and which the Apostle puts the Corinthians in mind of, 2 Cor. 11.2, 3. &c.) rather then be at the trouble of Reforming-work in an Adulterous Generation, and of running hazards for Christ therein; Let it not then be styled Persecution which (rightly understood) is but the just punishment of sinners for their sin by the Civil Magistrate, who beareth not the sword in vain, Rom. 13.

'It is true what Austin speaks (in the Epistle before cited, Bonifacio Comiti. Tom. 2. Pag. 72. )

And afterward (in the same Epistle, pag. 73.) saith he, Magis illa (ancilla scil. Agar) persequebatur Saram superbiendo, quam illam Sara coercendo: illa enim Dominae faciebat injuriam, ista imponebat superbiae disciplinam; i. e. Not Sarah but Hagar was the persecutor. Rulers are called gods in Scripture, surely then such are to take care for the things of God. You are this day to choose new gods, and that without incurring the danger of War in the gate; blessed be God for it! The Lot I suppose is, by Prexie , already cast for this Election: let it be the care of New-England forever, that they choose not Idols instead of God's , and what they are, we shall see in Psal. 115.5, 6, 7. so, nor such who have mouths but they speak not for God, eyes but they see not, ears but they hear not , &c. Let us beware of lodging this precious Interest of Jesus Christ in the bosom and hand of any kind of profane Idol!

2. May it not be judged probable that our recovery from any degree of sliding back from God, & our preventing what is on that hand to be feared, must be by a more thorough, conscientious, religious, effectual care for the nurture of the Rising Generation ; the Lord speaks in our Text unto his people under the appellation of a Generation [ O Generation , &c.] and O that that might be kept free from the leaven, infection, poison of anything tending to debauch them, issuing from any of the passing generation , yet upon the stage of Action! Ancestors are sometimes left to do that in their day, which the succeeding generation pays the sad score of; so Manasseh 's sin God would not pardon, but wrath comes for the same upon Israel after his death, 2 Kings 23.26, 27. and Chap. 24.3, 4. and O may it be the portion of the Rising Generation , that they may not inherit any of the Mistakes or the Quarrels, &c. of any such as have gone before them! Their education and disciplinating is to be carefully attended, by all good means; Care, and diligence, and trouble, &c. must necessarily be expected therein: the Lord forgive neglects hitherto, where they may be found! and remove that which hinders so good a Work as is their Institution; and grant that it may have its free passage in all those Societies unto which they do belong!

1. In Families ; that there be Family-instruction and discipline attended there, both as to the things of God, and other matters; that there might be nothing there to vitiate them, no evil Examples of pestiferous Servants and Apprentices, much less of Parents giving any evil Example to them, whereby they will become eminently hardened in, and edified and emboldened unto sin. It is said of Cato , That he was religiously careful never to speak any unclean or passionate word before his Son, ( Sage Senator , p. 27, &c. ) And Family-teaching and government is here necessary: what is spoiled in the first Concoction, will never be good in the second or third; they must be restrained from the sins of Childhood and Youth : Great is the idleness of many Children, and the indulgence of many Parents is no less, in this Land: and with reference in special to their subjection unto their Parents, it is a sad complaint in some parts of the Country, That there are divers Children who when grown up to some years wherein they might be helpful to their Parents, and should labor to requite them, &c. grow to that pride, and unnaturalness, and stubbornness, that they will not serve their Parents except they be hired to it, looking at themselves as free from being under Parental and Family-government, when as neither the Law of God or man, or right Reason allows them therein; and perhaps are ready to say as the Prodigal, Luke 15.12. Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, &c. Manifold are the Inconveniences to the Family, and to the Common-wealth, and to the Church, that come in at this door, and therefore I wish there might be seasonable redress thereof.

2. In the Schools ; that there be Instruction and Discipline also attended. O that inferior Schools were everywhere so settled and encouraged, as that the College (which the Lord hath made to be a Spring of Blessing to the Land) might not now languish for want of a sufficient supply of young ones from thence! There is a great decay in Inferior Schools , it were well if that also were examined, and the Cause thereof removed, and Foundations laid for Free-Schools , where poor Scholars might be there educated by some Public Stock.

3. In Churches ; that there also Ecclesiastical Discipline be attended, and respecting all Church-watch (Instruction, Censures, and other Privileges) which in the Church they have a Covenant-right unto. Remember they are the Lord's Children , Ezek. 16.22. And truly here, a sad thing it is, that where the Lord hath not been a Wilderness , &c. unto us , yet that there should be such places to be found where no Ministry is set up, and whence, or where it may be said of them, respecting the Ordinance of Baptism in particular, that they have been as long (perhaps) as the children of Israel were in the Wilderness, and yet without the Initiating Seal of the Covenant? the reproach of Uncircumcision not being rolled from them unto this day: where the fault is, or who are the obstructers of it blameably, I say not; may be the Lord will say as in Numb. 14.31. respecting many upon the account of the precious Ways of the House of God, and that Discipline of the Lord Jesus which hath been too much by many neglected and despised, that such and such shall see his Glory therein notwithstanding .

Thirdly, and lastly, Let it be the Prayer, and so the endeavor of All , that this Wilderness may never come to be a land of darkness by our revolt from under our God, and from the Ways and Means by which the Lord hath manifested himself to be unto his people neither a Wilderness, nor a land of darkness . O that the Lord may still be to us as formerly in that respect! And therefore

1. Let the Schools flourish: This is one means whereby we have been, and may be still preserved from a wild Wilderness-state, through God's blessing upon the same, and from becoming a land of darkness, and of the shadow of death . Cherish them therefore, and the College in special: and accordingly that there may be a seasonable (while affections are warm) and a faithful improvement of the Contribution for the New Edifice there, and what else is needful for the encouragement and advancement of L ••• ring in that precious Society; the fall and sinking whereof (which the Lord forbid) I should look at as presaging the Ruin o • this Land also: Let it never want a benign Aspect for the flourishing of that dear Nursery ; lest otherwise there come to be either no Ministry, or an Illiterate, & (and in that respect▪ in former times accounted) a Scandalous & insufficient Ministry, neither burning , nor shining Lights . Keep the Good Old Way here experienced of a godly Learned Ministry , wherein the people of God have tried, and found so much of the Presence and Glory of the Lord crowning the same with so choice a Blessing as he hath done: and God hath no need of a NEW Cart , or of Uzzah 's hand to save the shaken Ark; nor did a good intention excuse him from death by God's immediate hand and stroke from Heaven, when the Lord's institution is crossed in that matter.

2. Let the Liberties of the Churches also be preserved and maintained ; for the Church is as a Light upon an hill: the people of God are to shine as Lights in the world ; therefore thereby also the Land is instrumentally kept from being a land of darkness . Let the Scripturally-unworthy be debarred the holy things in the Sacrament, &c. which they have no right unto by Rule. Pulsent sores (said Cyprian of old) &c. though they bounce at the door, yet let them not have it opened to them, till duly qualified for the same. There is much, and may be more danger of such bold-faced Hypocrites: and therefore, O that no such Intruders may be suffered to disturb, and vex the dear people of the Lord in any of their just Liberties! and that a Malignant Spirit of Profaneness (which this poor people is in great hazard of feeling the woeful impression of) may timeously be crushed, and so not permitted to blow out Gospel-Light, even the Lights of the Sanctuary here. Nor let there be any Ludibria medicorum Spiritualium , or what may be any standing Reproach to the Healing ways and Instruments of Jesus Christ here, seeing there is sufficient Balm in Gilead provided by Christ for every Spiritual Disease in his Church . Let not the way of the Rigid Separatists , and the like, he acted over again here, till the Churches be buried in Confusion. In case of the Divisions in Churches , hath not the Congregational-Way Balm for this Wound appointed by Christ, but Morellius must be raked out of his grave to be the only Physician?

3. Let the Ministry (who also should be instrumental, in their Sphere, to keep this Land from becoming a land of darkness) be duly Encouraged . There have been, and are Complaints this way respecting their outward Subsistence in many places (I bless the Lord I am not under any temptation therein, being liberally, and abundantly well provided for by the good people I live among; and therefore I may speak the more freely and boldly for others) I fear there is too sad neglect in divers Towns. It was a sign Nehemiah was away, when the Levites were fain to go into the fields , Nehem. 13.6, 10, 11. when they are forced to turn to the Meadow, to the Cart, and to the Plow, &c. or else they cannot live, at least not live out of tormenting Debt. Is this the fruit of God's being no Wilderness to us? O generation, see the word of the Lord. Mind the Example of good Hezekiah , 2 Chron. 31.4. he encouraged such; (O take heed that there be not on the other side found among us a discouraged Ministry , respecting such (I mean) as are able, and faithful Ministers of the New Testament, who would gladly spend, and be spent for their people:) He commanded the people (it is there said) and it was not therefore left as an arbitrary thing, or as an Alms: and mind the fruit of it, i. e. ver. 10. Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat; for the Lord hath blessed his people, and that which is left is this great store. If particular Churches or Towns are really not able to supply the necessity of him that labors in the Word among them, should not such a poor people be relieved? might it not do well if some additional Provision were made out of some Public Bank or Stock for an honorable relief of such? and that thereby we help to bear one another's burdens? and be we not deceived, God is not mocked in this very matter, Gal. 6.6, 7. 1 Cor. 9.14. Ezra 7.24, &c. Must they be Rated Will and Doom? Ah, when men's hearts die to the Word, no wonder if they soon die to the Dispensers of it: and then, What means this waste? and proud, covetous, disingenuous, unwise, captious, carping, bold, selfish spirits & principles will be stirring; &, Let us take turns to preach (and to govern the Church also as Moderators in it) rather then have this costly Service? and, What a weariness is it? &c. If it must be so, should we wonder if the Lord take them away that are such a Charge, and ease people of such a burden? Oh, muzzle not the mouth of that Ox that treadeth out the Spiritual Corn . And though Antichristian Begging Friars live by Alms, yet let it not be said of a Protestant people, 〈◊〉 of these Churches, that they are so sordid in their spirits as to truckle under a Mendicant Ministry ; and that will be a flatter • ng and an unfaithful Ministry at length, that is made to bow under the Temptations of Needing the Alms of the people: and remember, that a person or people may become guilty of Sacrilege by withholding what is due this way, as well as by robbing or taking away that which is already dedicated or given in to God, Mal. 3.8. and that withholding, is there called Robbery ; though I am far from pleading here for the quota pars there spoken of in particular, but only as to the sin in general, the Apostle ranks it with, yea aggravates that sin of Sacrilege above Idolatry in the New Testament, Rom. 2.22.

4. Let the Magistracy also be Encouraged: this is part also of the Light of Israel , 2 Sam. 21.17. whereby under God we are instrumentally preserved from being a Wilderness, and a land of darkness: and a despised Government is a fore-runner of Anarchy and Confusion ; and such Rulers will be now oppressed with the Burthen of that Government, when Revilings and Knocks are their Reward; and their hearts will come at length to be alienated from such a people, each one saying, This Ruin shall not be under my hand , &c. Isa. 3.5, 6, 7. and Anarchy or Confusion in a State, exposeth them either to ruin one another by Divisions , or to be ruined by a Foreign Power , that will make a prey of them. Let All Encouragement therefore be afforded to this Magistracy: There is the bread of the Governor , Neh. 5.18. i. e. which is due to him from the people justly; with Matth. 22.21. & Rom. 13.6, 7. and there are to be those Vestments of State (as Reverend Mr. Nye speaks) to distinguish them from, and dignify them above other men, which there is need of, and therefore that they be enabled unto. Not my Lord Major, but his Horse rules the City , said a wise man once. People are awed and swayed much with outward Ensigns, or Marks and Characters of Dignity. Hence Nehemiah (as Judicious and Reverend Mr. Nye on Neh. 6.11. in his Sermon, pag. 17, 18. well observes) even in a time of outward straits, keeps up his Table so as might suit with the State of the Governor, though he had not the bread of the Governor , Neh. 5.14, 18. He might at such a time have laid down his Table, having such an excuse, but Nehemiah knew such Entertainments kept up the Dignity and Honor of Government; and that these vulgar Encouragements do much sweeten the Severities of Magistracy, and will therefore rather continue them at his own Charge, then be without them: And their Attendants, and Entertainments, and other Pageantries, are not Ensigns of Vain-glory, but the necessary Utensils by which the worth and excellency of Magistracy is notified to the common people, it being a Language best understood by the generality. As for that Self-denial there hath been by this Magistracy, (even as Neh. 5.19. so I pray) The Lord think upon them for good, according to all that they have done , and ventured, and suffered for this people . But as God blesseth the Country, so I hope the good people of this Land will be enlarged unto a more honorable, and proportionable Allowance unto them, according as the Work, and Dignity of their Place calls for the same.

O Generation (therefore) see the Word of the Lord ▪ and know, that here is encouragement for God's people in the worst times, for the Lord being our God, he will not be a Wilderness or land of darkness to us if we sincerely rely upon him: Can there be a Wilderness where the Glory of the God of Heaven dwells? Can there be Darkness where there is the Sun? There are Influences of light, and life, and refreshing, and fruitfulness, and blessedness from this Sun of Righteousness to them that fear his Name. Christ hath imbarqu'd himself in this our State; and therefore as Caesar encouraged the Boat-man in time of danger by a dark Tempest, i. e. Confide nauta Caesarem vehis ; so here, your Betrustment who are Israel 's Rulers here, is no less then the Son of God himself with so many of the sons and daughters of God in his arms; and if we forsake not him, he will not forsake us , as Asa encouraged those in his time, 2 Chron. 15.2. and as Deut. 2.7. so, for a longer time now then that, hath the Lord known and blest his people in this great Wilderness, &c. and O let him never leave us, nor forsake us, but be with us as he was with our fathers , 1 Kin. 8 57. and that the shining brightness of the favor of the glorious God of Israel , signified by that Representation as of the Body of Heaven in its clearness, Exod. 24.10. may be still the Vision of the God of New England ; not dark and cloudy, but light and glorious. And as I have said, See the word of the Lord to us, so I might say also, O generation, see the Way of Israel unto God, and our own ways in special: Have there been no beginnings of Revolt from under the Lordship of our God? May not the Lord expostulate with us, as with those at Bochim, Judge 2.1—4. and say, I have removed your shoulder from the burden, and your hands from the pots, as Psal. 81.6. I have taken off the yoke from thy neck, and the Almighty hath caused light as by Snow in Salmon , I have given you Manna to the full, the Rock hath followed you, and you have had the Pillar of guidance and protection in all your Journeyings; but have you followed me fully with the Spirit of Caleb and Joshua? Yea thou hast called upon me in trouble (in the time of Drought, a year never to be forgotten by us, and our Children after us, Anno 1662. and at other times) and I delivered thee, and answered thee , as Psal. 81.7, &c. and I bid you make no league with Canaanites , &c. (in respect of corrupt mixtures, and base compliances in matters of Religion) but (as Judge. 2.2.) why have you not obeyed my voice? why have you not come up fully to the practice of my Will held forth to you by my Servants? Why are there these and those Images of Jealousy among you? What is this noise that I hear in so many Churches? the noise of the Axes and Hammers of those that would cut and beat down the carved work? Why is there such neglect of your Church-work of the house of God? and (as Ezra 7.23.) hath that been diligently done, which is commanded by the God of Heaven? for why should there be wrath against the Colony of the Massachusetts? and see Hag. 1. beg. And why is Family-duties in many houses laid aside? that in multitudes of Families there is (it may be) no Prayer from the one end of the week to the other? no Family-catechizing, no Repetition of the Word preached, nor calling Children and Servants to an account of what they do or should hear? no reading of the Scripture? may be no Bible, or only a torn Bible to be found? I mean, but a part of the Bible to be found, so that the whole Scripture is never read throughout in some Families? I wish this be not the condition of many Families, that either there is no Bible, or but a piece of a Bible, and that they can content themselves therewith. O that as to these, and such like things, we might be this day before the Lord as those at Bochim , weeping for the same before the Lord! And O what unthankfulness is it, that after the Lord hath done so much for us, in being to us not a wilderness nor a land of darkness , we should now say, We are lords, and will come no more at him: But let us testify our real thankfulness to God, by cleaving to the Lord in that good old way, wherein he hath been leading his people hitherunto. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be we not entangled with any yoke of bondage , of one kind or other. Stand (I say) for your Liberties; not liberty to sin, but to be holy; liberty to run the ways of God's Commandments . Change not away your glory for that which will not profit: My son, fear thou the Lord, and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change: (Prov. 24.21, 22.) For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both? God's people came hither for Liberty; i. e. Liberty in the way of Holiness: and our Holiness lies in

• Separation , from Sin and Profaneness, not from the Churches and Saints of Christ.
• Dedication , viz. of our Selves, our Children, and our All to God for God's ends.

Hence the Leaders of this people have, from the first, born express witness against Rigid Separation, Carnal Ceremonies, Profane unholy persons in Doctrine and Life: Search the printed Records of these things in the Works of our New-England Divines, and it will be found so. Therefore stand for your Liberties (Honoured, and Beloved in the Lord) and let us not be guiled, befooled, deluded, baffled, or beaten out of them. I would hope that the Fundamental Interest of the Liberties and Privileges of the Churches of Christ here, and of the Civil State, will never be transformed, alienated, and reduced to such an Interest which no sober, godly, wise-hearted Christians will judge worthy their contending for, or worth their standing up in the defense of, or hazarding their Estates and Lives for in the day of trial.

To conclude: The Lord help our Leaders in the Commonwealth, and in the Churches also, not to faint or be discouraged though they meet with opposition, difficulties, and ill requitals from some: Bene facere, & male audire regium est , said Seneca . And a good speech was it of a person famous in his generation, i. e. A man in Public Place needs two Handkerchiefs about him , viz. the one for his Sweat, the other for the Dirt . They must be laborious, & prepare themselves to pass through evil report, as well as good. And though there be the murmuring and strife of the Congregation in sometimes of temptation, yet Moses must remember he is a Nursing-father, Numb. 11.12. and Paul as a Nurse must be gentle, [ 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 : respecting sweetness of wisdom, and love, both as to speech and silence] 1 Thess. 2.7. and the Child must not be thrown away because it is unquiet. Though there be a Storm, yet betray not the Ship; In naufragio (saith Seneca) Rector laudandus quem obruit mare clavum tenentem (cited by Reynolds of Passions , p. 232.) i. e. That Steersman or Master of the Vessel is indeed to be commended, that will not shrink from duty through fear or Self-interest, &c. though he be washed, and raked over and over with the Sea, or whatever the event be. I beseech our Honoured Leaders and Steersmen not to desert us, or the Cause of God embarked in the Vessel of this Commonwealth, and of these Churches. You are as David to serve [ 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 ] as Rowers under Christ, your own generation by the will of God , Acts 13.36. Let it never be said of you, That you did let go your hold by being false to your Precious Betrustments this way. Yea, should a Wrack come, (which the Lord in mercy prevent) yet also may you so manage yourselves, as to be seen to the last Clavum tenentes ; serving Jesus Christ faithfully here, according to that Command Psal. 2.11. to all the Rulers of the World, and that without being biased with a Spirit of Men-pleasing, Temporizing, Humourizing, Faction, Popularity, &c. It is by Christ that you Rule, and as you are by him▪ so you are to be for him: and if we All cleave to the Lord, we need not then fear but God will be with us, so that we shall be able with Luther in greatest shakings to sing the Forty sixth Psalm: and though all the Earth should be gathered against this Jerusalem , yet the Lord our God can make it a burdensome stone, and a Cup of trembling , Zech. 12.2, 3. So that when these and those of the Nations shall inquire about the state of such a people, What shall one then answer the Messengers of the Nations? Truly as Isai. 14.32. i. e. That the Lord hath founded this Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it .