The Day and the Work of the Day, Part

The Day and the Work of the Day · Part

p. 37APPLICATION.

Well then, Let our Fears this Day Stimulate and Animate our Prayers; and let us therefore Entertain just Fears, that we may thereby Enliven our Prayers. Our Fear is this Day to deal with us, as Jonahs Master did by him; 'tis to come and say unto us, What meanest thou, O Sleeper? Arise, and call upon thy God. Fear is a passion, which the All-wise God, who Forms the Spirit of man within him, has most wisely put into us. When that passion comes to be well placed and well acted, we then become highly Reasonable; when Sanctified, we become Eminently Religious. That passion is the Engine which I would Employ this Afternoon, to fetch those Prayers wherein we now p. 38are, To pour out water before the Lord.

I am directed in Jude 23. Some Save with Fear. It is very certain, That we cannot be Saved without Importunate Prayer unto our God. Saved, said I? No, we cannot but be Destroy'd, but be Ruin'd, but be Plunged into inextricable Confusions. Well, 'tis by the Fear of this, that our Prayer should be now Invigorated.

We read of an Angel, in Rev. 14.6, 7. An Angel Flying in the midst of Heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel, and saying with a Loud Voice, Fear God, and give Glory to Him, for the Hour of His Judgment is come; and worship Him! I shall endeavour so far to Imitate that Angel this Afternoon; that here I Stand in the midst of this Great Congregation, which make a little Heaven upon Earth; here I have the Everlasting Gospel in my Hand; and with a Loud Voice, I demand of you, to Fear God, because that Hour of his Judgment is now come upon the World; and Oh! p. 39Fear Him so, as to give Him the Glory of the Worship, and especially of the Prayer, that is due unto Him.

To speak more particularly,

I. Let our Personal Fears, Restrain us from the Sin of Restraining those Personal Prayers, which God forbid, that any one Person among us all, should Live without. Are there no particular persons with us, who Restrain that Prayer, which the Fear of God calleth for? 'Tis to be Feared, that there are many such. 'Twere well, if most of us were as Innocent as Job was, of the Fault here Imputed unto Job. Alas, Here is an Indictment laid, For, that not having the Fear of God before thine Eyes, thou hast Restrained Prayer before God: But how many are there, who cannot plead, Not Guilty, to that Indictment? Do they Pray? I wonder, For what it is? For Spiritual Blessings? No, they are the profane Esaus by whom such things are all Despised. p. 40For Temporal Blessings? No, they feed on such Fruits, without ever giving a Look up to the Tree from whence they fall. Do they Pray? I wonder, Where it is? In their Closets? No, They will Sin against God in Secret, but not in Secret Seek the Face of that God. In their Houses? No, They'l Eat there; Drink there, Smoke there, and Sin there, but not by Calling upon God there make Bethels of them. Do they Pray? I wonder When it is? Not in the Mornings; they are then in too much Haste of Business for it. Not in the Evenings; they are then too weary, too sleepy, too Listless for it. But Let them now admit of a few Expostulations with them.

First. As for Prayer in your Retirements, Let Fear drive you to it. If the Angels of God, that are Invisibly present at this Instant here, might become Audible to the whole Assembly, could they not point out incredibly many, one after another p. 41of us, and say, 'Tis a good part of a week at least since those persons, were upon their Knees Retired for Secret Prayer before the Lord! How few Solomons are there, in Retirements, plying the Throne of Grace, for Divine Wisdom and Knowledge to be vouchsafed unto them! How few Nehemiahs are there, in Retirements, Beseeching the God of Heaven to Bless all their Undertakings! How few Jacobs are there, in Retirements, Crying to God, that neither they, nor their Children, may miscarry! And how few Nathanaels! Nathanael knew what it was to be alone under a Fig tree, conversing with God; and our Lord said, of him, in Joh. 1.47. Beheld, An Israelite indeed, in whom is no Guile. But you that have no such a Retired Conversation with God, may then Fear, that you are not Israelites, that you are but Hypocrites, before Him. What saith our Lord? Pray to thy Father which is in Secret. So then, you that go without Secret Prayer from Day to Day, p. 42may Fear, whether God be your Father or no; but if God be not thy Father, man, what a Black Father hast thou? You are worse than Balaam himself, of whom 'tis reported, That he went alone, to meet the Lord: and you may then Fear, that you shall never have Balaams wish, To Dy the Death of the Righteous. Yea, on the Day, when you go abroad without Secret Prayer, you may Fear what the Righteous God may Leave you to; to what Sins, what Plagues, the Justice of God may Leave you in that Cloudy Day. Such a Day to poor Origen, became the Day of his Lamentable Fall, at which all Ages have been since Amazed. That your Fear may be the more stirr'd, I'l Report unto you, That an Ancient Professor belonging to this very Church, in whose House we are now together, after many years of good Repute with good people became a Drunken Sot, for which he was from this Holy Society Excommunicated. p. 43After the Censure, he fell into bitter Horrour and Anguish of Soul, and at length Dy'd in astonishing Circumstances; but some of his Dying Words were to this purpose; I often pray'd unto God, for a mercy, which He still Deny'd me; at Length I grew Angry at God: whereupon I grew slack in my Secret Prayers, and abated my Acquaintance with the Lord: ever since which, He hath dreadfully forsaken me, and I know that He hath now no mercy for me. Now, Let all Hear and Fear.

Secondly. As for Prayer with your Families, Let Fear drive you to That also. There was an Earth-quake in Switzerland, that Shook down all the Houses in a Town, except one piece of one House, wherein a good man was then at Prayer with his Family. Suppose an Earth-quake in our Boston should quickly shake down all the Houses that have not Family Prayer constantly going in them, count me not uncharitable for saying, I am Jealous there p. 44would be a very terrible Desolation! How few Ohed Edoms are there, that are with their Families paying a daily Respect unto the Ark, the Christ of God? How few Cornelius's are there, that Calling their Families together more than once every day, do Pray in the midst of their Houses? How few Parents and Masters, do Continue in Prayer, with a frequency like that of the Continual Offering under the Law? And how few do like those in Math. 19.13. Bring their Little Ones unto the Lord Jesus Christ, that He may Bless them? You that thus do say unto the Most High, Depart from our Dwellings! may justly Fear lest by Death and Fire, He quickly Turn you out of them. Yea, you may Fear lest the Flying Roll o… Curses, do Fly into those Dwellings, where there is no Prayer for Blessings to keep them out. The very Turks themselves, do uphold something of a Family-Worship among them; and what may those pretended Christians then p. 45Fear, whose Houses are upon this Impious Account, Far from Fear? It is an eager and a raging pursuit after, the World, which thus Choaks the Family-Prayers of our Neighbourhood: But I would gladly be at the pains to write that Admonition, in Capitals, on the Walls of every such Habitation, WHAT IS A MAN PROFITED IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD, AND LOOSE HIS OWN SOUL! One would Fear to Live in the House of such a Philistin, whereof one may say, Surely there is no Fear of God in this place. And one would think, the Owner of such an House may Fear the Everlasting Regret that will be upon him, when his Domesticks at last shall follow him, in the Fiery Burning Lake below, hideously Crying in his Ears, Why did you never teach us to pray? Your never praying with us, has brought us to this horrid place of Torment after you! But

Thirdly, Let every manner of p. 46Person be put upon all manner of Prayer, in the Fear of God.

You might indeed upon this Topick be argued with: Let the priviledge and advantage of Prayer, inspire you with a very prayerful Disposition of Soul. The Priviledge of Prayer, how high is it! Prayer, it is, as we read in Heb. 1….22. A Drawing Near to God. The Immortal King of Heaven, when He bids us to pray, does hold out His Golden Scepter unto us, and say, Sinners, you may Draw Near; tho' you have by your Sins Forsaken me; yet you may by your Prayers Draw Near again unto me; and ask me now far more than the Half of a Kingdom, I am ready to bestow it upon you. Accordingly, The Advantage of Prayer, how rich is it! Our God has Assured us, in Isa. 45.19. I said not unto the Seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. In vain! Truly No; most Gracious Lord; Thou hast said, Seek the Lord, and ye shall Live. There is in the Covenant of God, and Ensurance-Office p. 47Erected; where, every one, that Ventures in the Ship of Prayer, has the Returns of his Ventures gloriously secured unto him. I may tell you, That our Merciful God, will rather work Miracles of Mercy, than Leave the Prayers of His Children Unanswered. Fires have bin Quenched, Lions have been Muzzled, Prisons have been Opened, Dead men have been Raised, Rains have been fetch'd, and the World it selt has bin stop'd in its Diurnal Whirl, at the Prayers of men Subject unto like passions with our selves. Prayer, 'tis that which gains a sort of a Victory, even over the Invisible World; the Almighty God Himself says to Prayer, Except thou Let me alone, I cannot proceed with Destroying Dispensations; and Prayer says to the Almighty God Himself, I will not Let thee Go, except thou Bless me. Let our Di…tress be what it will, That is the Relief, in Psal. 50.15. Call upon me, and I will deliver thee. What sorts of Blessings p. 48have we a value …or? Why, Prayer would fetch them all. Would we have our Souls, to be Blessed in very Deed? A Praying Soul, will be a Thriving Soul. Much Prayer, as it were keeps the Soul in a Breathing Sweat, which by Degrees does consume all the Distempers of it. In our Prayers, all our Graces come to be Exercised, and so to be Strengthened, so to be Perfected. Prayer, 'tis taken in 3 Joh. 2. for the Fair Wind, which will bring a Prosperous Voyage to the Heaven-born, Heaven-bound Soul. Again, A Praying Soul, will be a Joyful Soul When Daniels perplexities drave him to Prayer, there was that Cheering Message brought from Heaven unto him, in Dan. 10.23. Thou art greatly Beloved. There is an Island in the Mediterranean, whereof they say, The Sun will be sure to shine upon it once every every day throughout the year. Truly if you Pray much, you will be Likely thus to have the p. 49Light of Gods Countenance upon you every day. Once more, A Praying Soul will be a Saved Soul. O the vast Gains of Prayer! It is that whereof we are advised, in Rom. 10.13. Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord, shall be Saved. So then, Salvation, Spiritual and Eternal Salvation it self is ours, if we'll pray hard for that Salvation! Yet further; would we have our Bodies, our Estates, and all our Affayrs, under the perpetual Blessings of Heaven? Prayer would befriend our Universal Welfare. These are the proffers of our God unto us, in Psal. 91.15. He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him, and Honour Him, and with Long Life will I satisfie him. When Saul perceived how much David was in Prayer, he said, Thou shalt do great Things. Thus to those of us, that are keeping the Wheel of Prayer in a perpetual motion, it may be said, Great Things are to be done for such a man! Finally, would we have Blessings to be Showred from on High upon our Families? No Children are more known to be the Blessed of the Lord, than the Children of the most Praying Parents: We cannot Lay up a better Portion for our Children, than a Stock of Prayers. Yea, p. 50By Prayerfulness we may not only Get Blessings, but Be Blessings too. A praying Noah, a Praying Job, a Praying Daniel, these are the Gap men of the places where they Live; these are they who Deliver Islands.

But if none of This move you, then let Fear do it. O be Afraid of the Miseries, the Inexpressible, the Inconceivable Miseries, whereto a Prayerless Life Exposes you. Don't you Tremble? To such Leviathans, I would speak in the words of Austin, Man, It should make thee Tremble, that thou hast not an Heart to Tremble. If Prayerless, then Wicked; for 'tis said, in Psal. 18.4. The Wicked, will not seek after God But are you not then Afraid of the Woes that belong unto the Wicked? Wo to them, it shall be Ill with them! They Live under the direful Curse of God all their Days; and at last, under that Curse they Dy. But what will then become of them? Read and again Tremble! We are told, in Psal. 9.17. The Wicked shall be Turned into Hell, and all the Nations that Forget God The Prayerless to God, are the Forgetful of God. But are you not Afraid? We p. 51are Warned, It is a Fearful Thing to Fall into the Hands of the Living God. They that while they Lived, would not Lift up their Hands in Prayer to God, shall when they Dy, fall into the Hands of that Living God: Then! They that never Pray'd before, shall Pray, and Cry, and Beg, for the Compassions of the Great God, for whom they once cared not; they shall unsuccessfully do it, With the Groans of a Deadly Wounded Man. But will you not Fear such a Fearful Thing as this? O be not a People, So Foolish and Ʋnwise! And now, I pass on to say,

II Let us not Cast off those General Fears, that should prevent the Restraint of those General Prayers, which ought generally to be going every where among us. I need not quote Nazianzen as my Authority for that Assertion, That there is nothing so Fearful as to be without Fear. But I will add, That our being without Fear, will render us without Prayer, and then our Condition would be Fearful indeed unto Extremity. Wherefore, in one word, O Let not FEARLESS and p. 52PRAYERLESS, be the Character of New-England.

This Fearless and Prayerless Temper, (Distemper, I should rather say,) is that SECURITY, which is the usual Fore-runner of the most Horrible Desolations. Tho' Job could say, The Thing which I greatly Feared is come upon me, yet with us it is mostly otherwise; The Thing which we Least Fear is most Likely to come upon us; and the Thing is then most Ready to come, when we do Least Fear it. Mark what I say, You cannot in all the Book of God, pitch upon any People Remarkably secure, but presently you'l find a Remakable Stroke of Heaven, in Judgment upon those unhappy Sleepers. When the Old World was Drowned in Security, then 'twas that their Foundation was Overflown with a Flood. And so still 'tis, in Our World; That men are never so near cutting in pieces, as when they sing, The Bitterness of Death is over! See 1 Thes. 5.3. Indeed I cannot easily, forbear the Outcry, which Honest G. Parisiensis made Long ago; O Security! Thou p. 53art my first Enemy, and my worst Enemy; for thou killest my Fear, which is my best Guardian. But let me then with a just Revenge, assay the Killing of that Enemy! For the Cure of this fatal Security, and as well, for the Directing, as for the Reviving, both of our Fears, and of our Prayers, I have two things to Lay before you. I say first,

I. We are in such Fearful Circumstances, as may justly give Loud Alarums unto the Blackest of our Fears; and because unto our Fears, therefore also unto our Prayers. 'Tis not only the Threatning Drought now upon us, that bespeaks our Fears and our Prayers; tho' that be something. As they of old once, Trembled for the Great Rain, we are this Day, Trembling for want of Rain. The Inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon were afraid of being in Ill Terms with Herod, because, Their Country was nourished by his Countrey. We seem this Day to be in Ill Terms with that Great King, By whose Country our Country is nourished: And are we not Afraid? But we have other p. 54things, which have an Aspect upon us very formidable. We should be glad, of, Tokens for Good; but instead thereof it may be said, as in Psal. 65.8. They who dwell in the uttermost parts, are afraid at thy Tokens:

Particularly,

First, Let not Fear be east off: Are we not Afraid, Lest the Confusions which are to over-set and overwhelm, the whole World, in these Latter Dayes, do Come hither also. There is yet a Third Wo, wherewith Mankind is to be most horribly plagued, for its Opposition to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; a Wo, in comparison whereof, all the horrendous Desolations, brought first by the Saracen Locusts, and then by the Turkish Horsmen, upon the Roman Empire, were but easy things. And what? Is that Kingdom of our Lord so Loved, so Studied, so Embraced among our selves, that we need not Fear being reached by that astonishing Wo? I would to God it were so. Tho' it will be a Joyful Day for them that p. 55are to be Refreshed by the presence of the Lord, yet it will be a woful Day for them that Know not God, and obey not His Gospel. The Fields will grow loth to nourish those Rebels; There shall be Famines. The Air will grow Loth to let them Breathe; There shall be Pestilences. The Eyes of Heaven will grow loth to behold them: The Lights of Heaven shall be Darkened. The Earth will grown under the Burden of them; There shall be Earth-quakes in divers places. There is to be Expected indeed, a further Accomplishment of that word, in Heb. 12.26. Yet once more, I Shake, not the Earth only, but Heaven also. It is a Day of Earthquakes, and should it not be a Day of Heart-quakes too? Literal and Natural Earth-quakes are like to be multiplied in the approaching Age. The Subterranean Fires that are shortly to assist the Conflagration of this Globe, will get head apace, and Earth-quakes more stupendous than the Late one upon our miserable Neighbours, will be thereby occasioned. As it was with a Burning Mountain, that our God gave out His Law unto the Jewish World, so He terrify'd the World, with another Burning Mountain, p. 56when He gave out His Gospel unto the Gentile World. Throughout Europe and Asia and Africa, people were then filled with Horrid Consternations, at the Fiery Eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, as the Historians of those Times Report unto us. Why, our God is now coming to Judge the World for the Contempt of His Law, and of His Gospel; and He will in a more affrighting manner set the World in a Burning Fire, at His Coming: A Fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very Tempestuous round about Him. Proper Earthquakes, will probably abound in the Near Advances of That Notable Day of the Lord. But be sure, Metaphorical Earthquakes, there will be E-now; State-quakes, Church-quakes, Nation-quakes, will now Rage at a mighty rate As Jonah ran through Ninive, proclaiming, Yet Forty Days and the Great City shall be Overthrown. So do I now run thro' New-England, and proclaim, There is a Great City going to be Overthrown; and yet within less than Twenty Years, the greatest Shakes are like to be given unto the World, that ever happened from the first Foundation of it.

p. 57Secondly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest when the Storms of Divine Vengeance do burst and break upon our own Sinful Nation, some Drops of the Storms do fall upon our Heads. The Profanity, the Debauchery, the Superstition, wherewith our Nation has been infected, have Long been making a Loud Cry in the Ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth; So that he seems to say, as in Jer. 5.9. Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord: Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? And when the Holy God shall visit for those things, it will be well, if Showers of Blood be not Rained on a Land, where the Blood of His Dear Son has been treated as an Ʋnholy Thing. Hence 'tis that many Thinking Men, in the Nation at this Day, are Looking upon one another with paleness in their Faces▪ and wishing, O that we had Wings like a Dove! But especially, when they Look back upon the fierce Persecutions, which formerly flamed in that Land against the Pure Worship of our Lord, they conceive that they may see, Wrath coming unto the uttermost. And how p. 58shall a share in that Wrath upon the Mother, be now avoided, by the most Resembling of all her Daughters?

Thirdly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest the Cup of that Fury, which has already dissipated as Glorious Churches as any of Ours, be likewise given unto ours. We have most Appalling Intimations given unto us, not only in the Wasting and the Doleful Disasters that have come upon the other Plantations of the English America; such Disasters as cause the most considerable Personages among them, to write from thence unto us, The Divine Providence almost seems to have forsaken this side of the World, and Left us unto the Treasures of Wrath, which we have been Long Laying up! But also in the Scatterings, that have elsewhere befallen, The Holy People. VVe may value our selves upon our Ecclesiastical Settlements & Ornaments, & upon the wonderful Appearances of God, in the first production of them; whereof a CHURCH HISTORY, might indeed most profitably be [and is] Endeavoured Yea, but our Lord may say unto us, I have not found thy Works perfect before God! And who p. 59can say, How far that Holy God, may proceed in punishing us, yet seven times more for our Iniquities? in punishing us, above the Rest of the Families of the Earth? VVhen we see what has befallen others, our Lord says to us, as in Luc. 13.3, 5. Except ye Repent, ye shall all Likewise perish. Let me then say to you, Go to Shiloh! and again, Go to Asia! and once more, Go to the European Churches! especially Go to France, where the greatest Scourge of the VVorld, more than seven years ago, coined Medals, on which 'twas brag'd, That he had then Reduced no less than twenty Hundred Thousand Calvinists, from the Protestant Religion. A worse, thing surely than the Cutting of so many Throats! Behold, the VVarnings of God unto Ʋs in these Ends of the Earth, by the Desolations thus made in the Earth.

Fourthly. Let not Fear he east off: Are we not Afraid, Lest we come our selves to See, the mischiefs which our Ancient Seers have often foretold unto us. Every Wise man, is a Prophet: VVe have had such Wise men, on many Opportunities, especially some Anniversary Ones, here Prophesying, I assure you, No Smooth things unto us: in all which, it has not been a p. 60rash Enthusiasm, it has been Scripture, it has been Reason, that has Inspired them. They have done according to their Commission, in Isa. 58.1. Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet. And what has been the Voice of the Trumpet? Not Ʋncertain, but Universally concurring in this thing. Reformation, or Desolation! Reformation, or Desolation! and, I pray, where do we find much of the demanded Reformation? Besides this, our Old Men, without any vain Dreams, have made their moral Prognostications upon our manners. VVe have had an Hooker, long since Prophesying unto us,, That God would punish the Wanton Spirit of the Professors in this Country, with a sad want of Able men, in all Orders among them. VVe have had a Shepard, long since Prophesying unto us, That such a Dismal Night was towards us, and such sore Afflictions, as would fill our Hearts with an Anguish equal to the worst, in any of our Forefathers Days. VVe have had a Norton, Sighing over us, What is the Counsel of the Lord concerning the Churches of New-England, is a matter of solemn and awful Meditation. And some other persons, not inferiour, have not stuck to say, We fear the Gospel will g… p. 61the Lord Jesus will depart from these Coasts, within a little while. Let thy Heart ake, O New-England, Lest this Day of thy Watchmen come upon thee▪

Fifthly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest our Unreformed Iniquities, bring down upon us, most Irretrievable Calamities. What are our Iniquities? Even those very Crimes for which, 'tis said, The Wrath of the Lord arose against His People of Old, until there was no Remedy You have them, in 2 Chron. 36.14, 16. First, The People Transgressed very much, after all the Abominations of the Heathen. And have not we shamefully Indianized, by being one of the most Lying (if not like the Indians, also the most Idle) People almost in the Universe? Again, They polluted the House of the Lord. And have not the Scandalous, Damnable, Miscarriages in multitudes of our Church-Members done so too? Or, is not the cursed Contempt cast upon the Table of the Lord by such multitudes as Turn their Backs thereupon, a further doing so? Once more, They misused the Prophets. And how feelingly might many p. 62of our Discourag'd, Revil'd, Cheated and Starved Ministers complain of such Usage, if they Lov'd Complaining? Yea, may not we Boston, even call Sodom our Sister, for our Pride, our Fulness of Bread, our Abundance of Idleness, and our Oppression of one another? See whether thy Face, O Town Once (and well if not justly still!) called Lost Town, to hers, be not, Qualis decet esse Sororum! For my part, I freely confess, my particular Indisposition to be moved by many things that are often accounted, Prodigies; but this I say; These Iniquities are the worst of Prodigies. A thousand Comets Blazing over our Heads, or views of Armies Fighting in the Air, would be less Cloudy Premonitions of Impending Evils, than these Prodigious Iniquities. But that which heightens the Prodigy is this; That some of our Faults have most Naturally a Tendency to Ruine us. I speak not of our Contention: tho' what can be Naturally consequent upon it, unless This, That when many Little Birds are pecking at one another, the Kite may prey upon them all? But I'l speak of our Ingratitude. It is well known, That the greatest Instruments p. 63of Saving the Lands, the Lives, the most precious Liberties of this People, are acknowledged but with the worst of Abuses for all their Services; cruel Malice and Slander, is now commonly known by the Name of Country-Pay for the most of them that Lay this People under the most Eternal Obligations. What now can follow Naturally, but this; That our Tired Benefactors, will make all the sensible part of Mankind joyn with them in saying, We will never be the Healers of such a People!

Sixthly, Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest Indian Hatchets are to fetch yet more Blows at the Root of our Tree? When the Philistines bore hard upon Saul, 'tis said, His Armour bearer was sore afraid: and what shall we be, that are surrounded with Bloody Philistines? Our God has been doing to us what He denounced, in Deut. 31.25. I will move them to Jealousie with those who are not a People. I will provoke them to Anger with a Foolish Nation. And those Foolish Nations that yet Survive of that No People, seem Reserved for a further Scourge unto us, who have been so Foolish, as to neglect very much of the Gospellizing of those Nations. p. 62duplicate page p. 63duplicate page p. 64Had we done as much, as the French have done, for the Proselyting of the Indians, in our East, we had not seen more than a whole Province there Consumed by their Depredations; and God knows, how far we may at some time or other be so Chastised, for our like Omissions, in some other Quarters! A twentieth part of the Treasure spent in our Wars with the Salvages, would have gone far towards the Civillizing, and the Christianizing of them all: and then we had been delivered from such Wars for ever. God is to be praised indeed that so many of His Dear Servants have Travelled so far in that matter. But the most of our People, seem to Blow upon such Undertakings; or at least, have no Spirit for it: So that if Good Old Gildas were alive among us, he would threaten us, as he did his Country-men, when he told them, That God would make the Pagan Saxons, an heavy plague unto them, for their doing so Little towards the Conversion of those miserable Pagans.

Seventhly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest the Great Wrath of the Devil which hath been upon us, do remain for more than a Short Time among p. 65us. I Remember, 'tis affirm'd by Claber Radulphus, That about the Time, when Antichrist was breaking in upon the World, People were scared almost out of their Wits, with a Fiery Dragon, seen sometimes to Fly about the Air. Truly, That Fiery Dragon, the Devil, has been most sensibly Flying about us, within this year or two, in the matchless Exchantments and Possessions, that have abounded in our Neighbourhood. But into what Passions, into what Mistakes, into what Enormous Disorders, has this Descent of the Devil precipitated us, instead of driving us, to a more Trembling Walk with God? The Evil Angels being now so much rated off as they are, 'tis well if the n…xt Stroke be not that in Psal 78.49, 59. He cast upon them the Fierceness of His Anger, Wrath, and Indignatoon, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them. And what's the Next News? He made a way to His Anger, He spared not their Soul from Death, but gave their Life over to the Pestilence, We have been in an Egyptian Darkness, buffeted by Evil Angels, and buffeting one another upon the Impulse of those Angels. God forbid, that the next Thing should be, such an Egyptian p. 66Pestilence, as will hardly Leave an House without one Dead Person in it! What if the Angels of Death, should next shoot the Arrows of Death, in at our Windows, with Epidemical Contagions? This I know; A Learned Man Writing against the Regard of Omens, yet about Apparitions of Spectres, has this passage; Perhaps God will have these Apollyons to be seen, as it were upon the Stage before Execution; that men may consider into whose Hands, in likelihood, their Iniquities have Betray'd them.

Lastly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest the Rising Generation here, do Barbarously Degenerate into the Plant of a strange Vine? There is indeed nothing to be more dreaded among us, than that thing, in Judg. 2.10. There arose another Generation, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the Works which He had done. Alas, Alas! What becomes of our young People? O my God, what wilt thou do with my miserable Generation? As for many Hopeful Persons, among our Youth, Such as, the Learned Shepard of Charlstown, the pious G…okin of Cambridge, the Excellent Denison of Ipswich, God snatches them away to Heaven, with a p. 67premature Mortality. But as for many Other persons among them, they become Wild, Lewd, Mad, and every way Exorbitant; They are like the Sons of Eli, The Sin of the Young Men is very great before the Lord; and accordingly, The Plague of the Lord upon those young men, both at home and abroad, becomes very great! Yea, in the Edges of the Land, they begin to Paganize: 'tis horrible to be spoken, but let the Regret at it, be what it will, it must be spoken; There are Villages of New-England, that have a sort of white Pagans in them. Here then, are our Fears! But

II. Altho' we have these Fears upon us, yet our Fears are to be mixed with Hopes: and if they are vented in Prayers, they may very well be mixed with Hopes. The Ʋplifted Hands of our Prayers this Day, must have Hope, as well as Fear, for the two Supporters of them. As Paul said about Mourning, so would I say about Fearing, in 1 Thes 4.13. Do not as others that have no Hope. The Kind Emperour, of old ordered it, That none should go Dejected from the Presence of the Emperour. Nor, must I now suffer you, to Go Dejected from the Presence of p. 68the Eternal King, upon whom we are this Day attending. When Daniel was, as we now are, Weary with Fasting, an Angel Flew from Heaven, till he was even Weary too (as the Original has it) with the Swiftness of his Motion, to bring him some comfortable Tidings. As Weary as I am, yet I must offer you some Comfortable Things before we part; and I am to tell you, There are Hopes as well as Fears for our Land.

But, what Hopes? I Reply,

First, We have Hopes in the Soveraign Grace of our most Gracious God. O what an Heart-breaking Word is that, in Isa. 57.17, 18. For the Iniquity of his Coveteousness, was I wroth, and smote him: and he went on frowardly in the way of his Heart: And what? must all now be Lost? No; There is yet Hope in Israel! You shall see what Soveraign Grace can do. It follows, I have seen his Ways and will Heal him. And now, Lord, Be it unto thy People according to this thy Gracious Word!

I R…ply, Secondly; We have Hopes p. 69in the Hastning Time of Reformation, which our God will Hasten in his Time. If the Man of Sin Entred his Last Half Time, or his last Hundred and Eighty Years, as no doubt he did, at the Reformation, which Commenced about the Year 1517. We may then have a Lively Hope, that we are within a very few years, of a Reformation, more Heavenly, more Extensive, more Glorious, than the Church of God has ever yet been favoured with. But shall we be forgotten in this Time? We may presume that neither God, nor the King, will then forget us.

I Reply, Thirdly; We have Hopes in the Yearly and Holy Fruits of our Colledge; that Blessed Nursery of our Israel. The Lord may say unto us, I have Raised up of your Sons for Prophets; for which that man among us, who is not now greatly Thankful to God, is not worthy the Name of, A New-Englandman. There is a most Hopeful produce of Scholars arising out of that Society; Y…ung men, admirably Accomplished in all parts of Literature; Young men of most Enlarged Sou…s; and, which is better still, Young Men, full of Piety; no Strangers to the New-Birth; nor unacquainted with High p. 70Experiments in practical Religion; such as know what it is to be continually Fasting as well as Praying for the Blessing of God, not upon themselves alone, but upon all concerned in them. Destroy not that People; saith our God; is there not a Blessing among them? And as for You, Brethren, that are thus coming on; Be Encouraged and Know, That the God of your Fathers has a greater work for you to do for Him, than what He has yet Employ'd your Fathers in.

I Reply, Fourthly; We have Hopes in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ on Board of our Bark. A Little Vessel could not be sunk, by all the Blast of Hell, while our Lord was with His Disciples in it. Why, our Lord has very few Disciples in this whole Haemisphere of the World, but what are in this Little Vessel. Shall we then perish? No, That we shall not; if we now do, by our Prayers Awaken our Lord unto the Saving of us.

But after all; when the worst comes to the worst: Yet, Surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God, that Fear before Him. Let us have much of that Fear within us, and let that Swallow p. 71up every other Fear. Qui Deum timet, …um omnia timent. The Fear of God will give us▪ Room among His Alamoth, or His Hidden Ones; and then we may without Fear Sing the Forty Sixth Psalm, which Luther used, when Things Look'd with a bad face abroad; Sing, We will not Fear, tho' the Earth be removed, and tho' the Mountain be carried into the midst of the Sea. Our God, is now, I believe, upon the Resurrection of His Witnesses: altho' former Attempts about that Resurrection have been Abortive, yet now, with His Dead Body they shall arise. It is therefore likely to be a Day of more than ordinary Indignation upon an Impious World; but if we are now fitted and acted by the Fear of God, and if that Fear carry us forth to to all due Testimonies for His Truths and Ways, He will say unto us, Come, My People; Enter thou into thy Chambers, and Shut thy Doors about thee.

FINIS.

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THere is now in the Press, and will speedily be Published, A New Book, Entituled, The Great Blessing of Primitive Counsellours; Discoursed in a Sermon Preached in the Audience of the Governour, Council and Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, May 31. 1693. Being the Day for the Election of Counsellours in that Province. By Increase Mather, President of Harvard-Colledge in Cambridge, and Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England.

Sold by Benjamin Harris, over-against the Old-Meeting-House in Boston. 1693.

End of the text · Cotton Mather, The Day and the Work of the Day (1693)