The day, & the work of the day. A brief discourse, on what fears…

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 ••s without Prayer, and then our Condition would be Fearful indeed unto Extremity. Wherefore, in one word, O Let not FEARLESS and ⟨p. 52⟩PRAYERLESS, 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'll and a Remarkable 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 […] pieces, as when they sing, The Bitterness of Death […] See […] Thes. •. 3. Indeed I cannot easily, forbear •he Outcry, which Honest G. Parisiensis made Long ago […] Security. Thou ⟨p. 53⟩art my first Enemy, and my worst Enemy; for thou killest way 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,