N02150:67
Religious societies. Proposals for the revival of dying religion, by well ordered societies for…
Religious societies. Proposals for the revival of dying religion, by well ordered societies for that purpose. : With a brief discourse, offered unto a religious society, on the first day of their meeting. : [One line from I Thessalonians]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland for John Phillips, 1724
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
MANY hear much about Faith, and Repentance, and Holiness, who never arrive to any other, than a Superficial Knowledge of these Things; They have no real Insight into them. They lie, Multitudes, multitudes, in the Valley of Perdition; And if the Enquiry be, Who has done this? The Reply must be that; Hosea IV. 6. My People are destroyed for the lack of Knowledge.
Secondly, THE Things are to be Prized, Valued, Esteemed; There must be seen an Excellency in them. To Know is to know the Worth of them. Faith is to be Prized, as, 2 Pet. I. 1. Precious Faith. Repentance is to be Prized, as, 2 Cor. VII. 10. Not to be Repented of. Holiness is to be Prized, as, 1 Tim. IV. 8. ⟨p. 10⟩Profitable unto all Things. Indeed, The Brutish Man knows not, neither does the Fool understand this. The Blind, and Hard, and Sottish Hearts of Sinful Men, don't Think of these Things. Jerusalem did not think, that if she Reverenced the Son of GOD, and Repented of the Evil of her Doings, and Hearkened unto GOD, and Walked in His Ways, then her Peace would have been as a River, and her Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea. The Anti-type of David would have prayed for the Peace of Jerusalem, yea, have given Peace to it. His GOD and Father, would have said, Peace be within thee! But not knowing the Things that belonged unto their Peace, not Knowing or Thinking how much they should find their Account in those Things, the Lord of the Vineyard came, and destroyed the Wicked Men.