To hasten towards a Conclusion, I shall strike but one blow more on these nails, to fasten them, and so recommend all unto him who is the great Master of the Assemblies. It is an opinion which some seem strongly to be built upon, and it renders them strangely presumptuous, viz. That the foundations of this People are unmovable; that our civil constitutions, and Church Covenants have so engaged the presence of God with us, that we lie out of the reach of foreign mischief. Thus the Athenians once chained down the Image of Minerva, their Tutelary Goddess, to her station, and so thought they had secured themselves from all dangers of being subjugated by any enemy, or oppressed with any evil. And to think to oblige the true God with verbal Covenants, and formal profession, is no other than to make him an Idol: Yet thus the cry of many speaks in the language of those Jews, Jer. 7. 4. The Temple of the Lord are these▪ Forgetting how many ways they have disobliged, and giving God just reason to be ashamed to own or acknowledge them. How fond such thoughts as these are, the ruinous heaps of many ⟨p. 196⟩renowned places, which once enjoyed as much of Gods presence with them as any in the World, do stand for monumental witnesses, The more of God hath sometimes been among you, the greater is your sin, and the speedier may be your Calamity, If growing weary of his Government you abuse all your liberties to desperate licentiousness. There is nothing so dear or precious unto God, or sticks so close and near unto him, but if it once comes to interfere with his Glory (which is his beloved end, and he will upon no pretence part withal) he can remove it far enough from him. See, Jer. 22. 24, 25. You have here the only remedy to recover a sick and dying People,; this will, nothing else will affect it. True Repentance, and through Reformation never come in vain, though when Judgement was gathered into a thick Cloud and ready, yea, beginning to drop down in a storm of fury, but it hath blown it over. This God proffered Judah here when they were almost ripe for ruin; and this God once again this day proffers to you. Oh, be not proud and stiffnecked! be not obstinate and rebellious! Why will you dye? Obey the voice of the Lord, do what he bids, do what your Consciences say you ought to do, do what you have before God confessed your selves guilty for, because you have neglected to do it:
To hasten towards a Conclusion, I shall strike but one blow more on these nails, to fasten them, and so recommend all unto him who is the great Master of the Assemblies. It is an opinion which some seem strongly to be built upon, and it renders them strangely presumptuous, viz. That the foundations of this People are unmovable; that our civil constitutions, and Church Covenants have so engaged the presence of God with us, that we ly out of the reach of forraign mischief. Thus the Athenians once chained down the Image of Minerva, their Tutelary Goddess, to her station, and so thought they had secured themselves from all dangers of being subjugated by any enemy, or oppressed with any evil. And to think to oblige the true God with verbal Covenants, and formal profession, is no other than to make him an Idol: Yet thus the cry of many speaks in the language of those Jews, Jer. 7. 4. The Temple of the Lord are these▪ Forgetting how many wayes they have disobliged, and giving God just reason to be ashamed to own or acknowledge them. How fond such thoughts as these are, the •uinous heaps of many ⟨p. 196⟩renowned places, which once enjoyed as much of Gods presence with them as any in the World, do stand for monumental witnesses, The more of God hath sometimes been among you, the greater is your sin, and the speedier may be your Calamity, If growing weary of his Government you abuse all your liberties to desperate licentiousness. There is nothing so dear or precious unto God, or sticks so close and near unto him, but if it once comes to interfear with his Glory (which is his beloved end, and he will upon no pretence part withal) he can remove it far enough from him. See, Jer. 22. 24, 25. You have here the only remedy to recover a sick and dying People,; this will, nothing else will affect it. True Repentance, and through Reformation never come in vain, though when Judgement was gathered into a thick Cloud and ready, yea, beginning to drop down in a storm of fury, but it hath blown it over. This God proffered Judah here when they were almost ripe for ruine; and this God once again this day proffers to you. Oh, be not proud and stiffnecked! be not obstinate and rebellious! Why will you dye? Obey the voice of the Lord, do what he bids, do what your Consciences say you ought to do, do what you have before God confessed your selves guilty for, because you have neglected to do it:
