Farewell Exhortation to the Church and People of Dorchester, Title page – To the reader
FAREWEL EXHORTATION TO THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE OF DORCHESTER IN NEW-ENGLAND.
But Not unusefull to any others, that shall heedf…lly Read and Improve the same,
A… Containing Christian and Serious Incitements, and perswasions to the Study and Practise of Seven principal Dutyes of great Importance for the Glory of God, and the Salvation of the Soul, And therefore needfull to be Seriously considered of all in these declining times.
By RICHARD MATHER Teacher to the Church above mentioned.
2 Pet: 1. 15.
Moreover I will Endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwayes in remembrance.
Phil. 2. 12.
Wherefore my Beloved, as you have alwayes Obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling.
Printed by Samuel Green at CAMBRIDG in New-England 1657.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
Christian Reader,
IT is warranted, and grounded upon the light both of nature and Scripture, 2 Cor: 12. 14. That Parents should lay up for their Children, and leave such an estate behind them, that their posterity after them may comfortably bee provided for, which as it is requisite for the outward subsistence of Children in temporal regards: So it is most necessary for spiritual Fathers (which the word of God tells are not many, 1 Cor: 4. 15. how many Instructours soever there are) I mean for the faithfull Ministers of Christ, to leave a good stock & heritage of Gods Testimonyes for his people committed to their charge, and their children in the faith: which care as it was alwayes needfull so especially … is in these times, wherin there is so much Apostacy & departing away from the faith & truth. In this regard we find it to have been the practise of the most precious servants of the Lord, that in their old age they have left their c…gneas cantiones, their swans songs (as they are called) which they sung not long before they …parted this life, as Moses did Deut: 32. the occasion of which song is set dow… Deut: 31. 27, 29. I know your reb…llion and your stiff neck: behold while I am yet alive with you, ye have been rebellious against the Lord, & how much more after my death? and ver: 29. I know that after my d…ath ye will utterly corrupt your selves, and turn aside from the way that I Commanded you, and evill will befall you in the latter dayes, because ye will do evill in the sight of the Lord &c: Therefo… ver: 26. Moses commanded the Levites to take the book, and to put it in the side of the Arke of the Covenant, for a witness against them upon any apostacy of theirs. And is there not as great need that such like course shou…d …e t…k…n by Go…s faithfull servants and M…nisters to leave some workes as it were in the A…ke of the Covenant, some monuments & witnesses aga…nst the back sliders in these dayes? Much like to this is the example of J…shua before his death, as appeares Josh. chap: 23, and 24. wherein he warnes them against their apostacy most sweetly & pathetically, and particularly remarkeable is that Josh. 24., 25, 26. Joshua made a Covenant with the people, and set them a statute, and Ordinance in Sechem, and Joshua wrote those words in the book of the Law of God, and took a great stone, and set it there under an Oak that was by the Sanctuary of the Lord, and said unto all the people, behold this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he spake unto us, least ye deny your God.
Thus it hath pleased the Lord in mercy …guid… the spirit of this Reverend Minister & servant of Christ, no… being stri… …n in yeares, and sollic…tous about the state of the Lords flock committ…d to his charge, what may befall them after his departure in such times as these, to leave this precious treatise, as a jewell, little in bulk, but great in vertue & value, as a witness that may survive after his departure, and it may serve both as a warning & a testimony not only to the Congregation of Dorchester, but to all the Congregations & Churches of Christ here or else where, that shall have the perusal of it, and it may be as Joshuahs stone, and a standing witness against such amongst us as shall deny the Lord & his truth now both preached & professed by Gods grace amongst us▪ Many of the Lords living witnesses are either killed or deceased and taken up to heaven, and those few that are surviving have very nigh finished their Testimony, and are following the others apace: Therefore it is very precious & desirable, if as many of them as may be, when they can no longer testifie vivâ voce, with a lively voyce, they may do it mortuâ, or with a dead voyce, (or by writing) which is many times effectual and of great use: as it was the speech of that wise King Alphonsus, mortuous esse consulendos, ab ijs quarendam veritatem, optimos{que} eos esse consiliarios, that is that we should ask counsel of the dead, (meaning the books of wise and good men departed) and that the truth is to be sought of them, and that they are the best counsellours: and before him Demetrius Phalereus in Plutarch w…sely admon…she… Ptolomeus Philadelphus, the great Patron of learning, and the learned men of that age, ut demortuorum sapientum libros sibi compararet, quod quae aliquando consiliarij neque libere admonere metu paenae vellent, aut etiam sine periculo aliquo non auderent, de illis in libris eorum abunde et liberè scriptum ess…t. That is, that he should get the books of learned men departed, that of those things which sometimes his counsellours neither freely would admonish him for fear of punishment, or perhaps without some danger durst not, I say of those things it was plentifully & freely written in their books. So we can not tell how neer suc… times may be, wherin neither friends nor ministers either will or dare make known unto us the blessed will of God: in such times doubtless godly books will speak freely to us, yea in whatsoever times that saying is most true, nullus amic us est magis liber quam liber, no freind is more free then a book is. Finally I cōmend unto thy piety & prac…ise Christian Reader, this pious treatise of this Reverend & judicious servant of the Lord, to which (at the request of a friend, in sincere respect of the Authour, & just estima…on of the work) I have prefixed a short preface, as the paper would permit; now I shall conclude undoubtedly with that speech of our Saviour Joh. 13. if ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them, so I cōmend both thy kn…wledg & pr…ct… h…reof to the grace of God in Christ.
A true friend I hope, of thine everlasting peace, Charles Chauncy.