N02150:78
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.
Thirdly, OUR Day is Enlightened, when it is accompanied with many Opportunities to make sure of The Things belonging to our Peace. A Peaceable Time with us, and a Prosperous Condition, makes a Day to shine upon us. A Day of Prosperity, Oh! how much is it to be improved with us! We generally allow, that Adversity has a Voice in it: GOD Speaks to us by our Afflictions. But in Prosperity our Fat Hearts are insensible of any thing spoke to us: As if Mercy were a very Dumb Thing indeed! Whereas, Jer. XXII. 21. I spake to thee in thy Prosperity, saith the Lord. The Still Voice of Prosperity is not so plainly heard, as the Thunder and the Tempest and the Whirlwind of Calamity: Yet there is the Voice of GOD in it And what is the Voice but This; Oh! That this man would now know the Things of his Peace, at least in this his Day! What but This; Oh! That this man were wise, and would consider his latter End. How pitiable the Case of Jerusalem? Lam. I. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her Affliction and of her Miseries, ⟨p. 15⟩all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old! So it is; Many a Man lives in the Enjoyment of pleasant things; If he will Now Turn and Live unto GOD, there shall be nothing to disturb him, nothing to divert him. He loiters the Time away; His Lusts like noisome Insects, do but multiply by the Sun-shine. At last, a provoked GOD comes with heavy Blows, with bitter, blasting, ruining Strokes of His Indignation; Strips him of all his Comfortable Advantages; and now the poor Man cannot Serve GOD as once he could; His Way is every where hedged up with Thorns; and he hath nothing left, but a grievous Reflection on his Expired Opportunities.
Thirdly, OUR Day is Enlightened, when it is accompanied with many Opportunities to make sure of The Things belonging to our Peace. A Peaceable Time with us, and a Prosperous Condition, makes a Day to shine upon us. A Day of Prosperity, Oh! how much is it to be improved with us! We generally allow, that Adversity has a Voice in it: GOD Speaks to us by our Afflictions. But in Prosperity our Fat Hearts are insensible of any thing spoke to us: As if Mercy were a very Dumb Thing indeed! Whereas, Jer. XXII. 21. I spake to thee in thy Prosperity, saith the Lord. The Still Voice of Prosperity is not so plainly heard, as the Thunder and the Tempest and the Whirlwind of Calamity: Yet there is the Voice of GOD in it And what is the Voice but This; Oh! That this man would now know the Things of his Peace, at least in this his Day! What but This; Oh! That this man were wise, and would consider his latter End. How pittyable the Case of Jerusalem?