N02150:7
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.
IT has been proposed, as a Thing that might be attended with many good Consequences, To Animate and Regulate PRIVATE MEETINGS of Religious People for the Exercises of Religion.
A Decay coming upon them, in many Places, it is thought proper to Reprint what was Published in a Treatise of, Essays to Do Good, more than Ten Years ago. Which is in such Terms as these. —
¶ IT is very certain, That where such Private Meetings under a good Conduct, have been kept alive, the Christians which have composed them, ⟨p. 2⟩have like so many Coals of the Altar kept one another alive, and kept up a lively Christianity in the Neighbourhood. Such Societies have been tried, and strong Engines, to uphold the Power of Godliness. The throwing up of such Societies, has been accompanied with a Visible Decay of Godliness, The less Love to them, the less Use of them, there has been in a Place, the less has Godliness flourished there; the less there has been of the Kingdom of GOD.
THE Rules observed by some, ASSOCIATED FAMILIES may be offered on this Occasion with some Advantage. They will tell us what Good may be done by such Societies in a Neighbourhood.