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

Consider. 1. What cause we have every one of us, to be Returning unto the Lord our God. Certainly we have need to be turning from sin & from the world, yet more & more. Repentance is the work of a Christian as long as he liveth in this world. There are many that are in a state of sin; an universal Repentance is of absolute necessity to every such Soul. There are others that are under the prevailing power of some special Corruption or Temptation, and they stand in need of a Particular Repentance. Therefore Christ said to his Disciples, notwithstanding their being converted as to their State, Math. 18. 3. Except ye be Converted, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, meaning that except they were converted from that particular sin of Pride, which was then too apparent in them, they could not be saved. And are there not many particular Persons, that are under woeful decays as to their spiritual estate? Alas! they are not the same men that they were thirty or forty years ago: And what cause have such to be thinking of Returning to the Lord, from whom they have deeply revolted. Nay, is there not a general ⟨p. 9⟩Declension amongst Professors in New-England! May we not confess, as the Lords People sometimes did, Jer. 14. 7. Our Iniquities testify against us, for our Back slidings are many. Again, that which is spoken, Jer. 2. 21. may in too sad a degree be applied unto New-England, I planted thee a noble Vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto me. How did the Power of Godliness flourish in this Land, and in these Churches, when time was! But is it so at this day? Is there not a general decay as to the power of godliness? How have Christians left their first Love? It was an Expression in the Sermon preached on the day when this Church was gathered, ^†near upon thirty years ago, It is too plain to be denied, that there is a dying Spirit in New-England to the ways of God. If it were so then, how much more now? Men have forgot their Errand into this Wilderness, What came ye into the Wilderness to see? It hath often and truly been said, That New-England differs from other outgoings of our Nation, in that Religion was the design of our Fathers in transporting themselves and Families into this waft and howling Wilderness. But men are now pursuing a worldly Interest, with their whole hearts.