Returning unto God the great concernment of a covenant people. Or A sermon preached…

5. The Lords People may Fall from their visible Church estate. So did Israel, Jer. 3. 8. When back sliding Israel committed Adultery, I put her away, and gave her a bill of Divorce. As for the ten Tribes, God hath called them Loammi, and written over them Lo-ruhama, saying, He would no more have mercy them on. Hos 1. 6, 9. And some Learned men ^(r)have observed, that those Israelites that were carried into Captivity by the Assyrians, were many Ages since, swallowed up with Gentilism, being (as to the Body of them) degenerated into mere Heathens. The Jews also are deprived of their Church estate: the Kingdom is taken from them, and given to the Gentiles, h. e. The Church of God (which is his Kingdom) is not now to be found amongst them, but among the Gentiles, who are planted in their Room. Hence, the Apostle speaketh of their Fall, Rom. 11. 11 12. inasmuch as they are Fallen from their Relation to God as his visible Covenant People. And the like hath happened unto many particular Gospel Churches, in these days of the New-Testament: witness all the Churches in Asia. In some places in the lesser Asia, where once glorious Churches were seen, at this day, there is not so much as one Christian. So in Ephesus; in laodicea, not an house, not a man to be seen. In Smy•ne, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, no Inhabitants except barbarous Turks, and a few superstitious Greeks who call themselves Christians ^(s)One that within these ten years did visit those desolate places, professeth, that he could not look upon such amazing Ruins without horror and Admiration. And there was once a famous Church in Rome; but the Lord hath long since given her a bill of Divorce: And therefore Paul spoke like a Prophet, when he said to the Church of Rome, Behold the goodness, & severity of God, on them which Fell severity; but towards thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou shalt be cut off. Rom. 11. 22. Nor is there any particular Church in the world, but this may in time befall it. Never any Church enjoyed such ⟨p. 6⟩