AS it's not unknown to some few Survivors of the First Generation, so it should be Recollected, Re­membred, & not forgotten by their Succeeding Poste­rity, both of those famous Patriots, and of them who either accompanied or followed them, in their Voluntary Exile into this Wilderness: the great hazard their Pa­rents ran in this great and unparallel'd De­sign, and that upon Proclamation made by the Great Jehovah, through the body of our Nation, and Summons served upon them, by stirring up the hearts of Thousands (who never saw the faces of each other) and unanimously inclining their Spirits, to so difficult and dangerous a Design of re­moving [Page 2] themselves, little ones, relations, and families, into these remote ends of the Earth; and this not for any secular Ad­vantages proposed to themselves leaving their dear Native Country, Friends, Ac­commodations which they there plentifully possessed, of which they totally denied them selves, but upon, the account of the En­joyment of Liberty in the things of God in his Instituted worship, and their further discovery of his will, & freedom from the Yoke of Bondage imposed on them by the then prevailing Hierarchy.

Upon debate with their own Souls, and seeking the Lord for a right way, the great Pa [...]oni, the Numberer of Dayes and Times, the Soveraign Disposer of the Ha­bitations of Adam's Sons, who had spyed out this particular place, and dividing these Nations their inheritance, set them their bounds according to the Number of these New-England Planters, he carried them to in fluttering over them as the Ea­gle beareth her young ones on her Wings, yea he whose name is Wonderful, so appea­red as that of about three hundred Ships which brought over above two thousand Passengers, Men, Women and Children, not above one of them miscarried either by Shipwrack, Pirates, or any other Casu­alty; here the Lord prepared for them a Rehoboth, sweeping away the Natives by [Page 3] War and Pestilence before their Arrival and by the Small-pox after it; such re­straint was then put upon the rage of those left, whose hearts were then as full fraught with malice and savage Cruelty, as since they have manifested; but God then said, Touch not mine Anointed, and do these my Prophets no harm; and so great a Blessing from the most High attended this Colony in the first forty years, wherein this Land (as Israel of old) had rest, that Strangers who came from Europe into these Parts, to see whether the Reports they heard in their own Country concerning this place were true, have solemnly professed they saw more than they had heard, and when they came home, should they report what they here found, they should be esteemed egre­gious Lyars. When these Heroes (whose Names will & ought to be recorded to eter­nity) here arrived, those Zorobabels & Joshu­a's according to the Vows of God upon them and their transmarine Resolutions; their care was first to lay the foundations of Civil and Sacred Politie according to the Divine Directory, each acting in their own Sphere, the Magistrates and Deputies drew up a Body of Laws suited according to their best understanding of their Royal Charter, the Elders and Messengers of Churches met in a Synod, (so as Moses and Aaron being met in the Mount of God, might be seen kissing [Page 4] each other) & drew up a good Confession according to Scripture light, both of Faith and Order, which they were not ashamed of, and published it unto the World, under the Title of the Platform of Church-Disci­pline, drawn out of the Word of God, so as the compleat walking in the Faith of the Gospel, according to the Order of the Gospel was writ in the Frontispiece of these New-England Churches, as the late Reverend Norton, in one of his last Ser­mons, judiciously hath declared. Then might we see the Civil Authority, as with a Stone Wall, Fencing in the Lords. Vine­yard; the Churches and Officers comfort­ed in the mutual Faith of each other, walk­ing in Gospel-simplicity, without visible Addition or Diminition from the Precept or Pattern in the Mount. But alas for us! the Noble Vine is Degenerate into a strange Plant.

What is become of the Primitive Zeal, Piety, and Holy Heat found in the hearts of our parents; their daily care of reading & instructing their families from the Scrip­tures, their strict keeping of Sabbaths, their Charity, & bowels each to other? their self denyal, moderation, mortification; is not their Love to God and his Ordinances, perverted in us to slighting & neglecting not only of Instituted but of his Natural [...] [Page 5] turned into the form and semblance of it, their Soul lively Thirstings and Pan­tings after God and his Ways, Metamor­phosed into Land and Trade breathings the Renewing of the Mind, transformed into conformity with the present evil world, lusts of the flesh, pride of life; our, Spot is not the spot of Gods Children; the old Puritan Garb, and Gravity of Heart, and Habit lost and ridiculed into strange and fantas­tick Fashions and Attire, Naked Backs, and bare Breasts, and Forehead if not of the Whorish Woman, yet so like. unto it as would require a more than or­dinary Spirit of discerning to distinguish; the Virgins Dress and Matrons Veil, shew­ing their power on their head, because of the holy Angels, turned into powdered Foretops and Topgallants Attire, not be­coming the Christian, but the Comaedian Assembly, not the Church, but Stage-play, where the Devil sits Regent in his Domi­nion, as he once boasted out of the mouth of a Demoniack; Church-Member, he there took possession of, & made this response to the Church, supplicating her deliverance; so as now we may and must say, New-England is not to be found in New-England, nor Boston in Boston; it is become a lost Town, (as at first it was called;) we must now cry out, our Leanness, our Leanness, our [...] [Page 6] and vain confidence in Church-priviledges forgetting of God our Rock, and multi­tude of other horrid Abominations, which our Prophets sent unto us from God, with voice lift up as a Trumpet, are daily bea­ring witness against.

Where is the Mourning on the Mountain like Doves of the Vallies, every one for his own Iniquity, where is the breaking down of the wall of our Adamantine Hearts, that we might make a severe search into those dark Cells and Closets, into the Cham­bers of our Imagery, after those Images of Jealousie yea Abominable Beasts & creep­ing things are portrayed upon our walls, the figments and Sediment of highest pro­vocations are there extant, accompanied with turning the back upon the Lords Temple, & worshipping towards the East, such things as none but he that searcheth the Heart, & tryeth Reins can discover & find out, yet there is a candle of the Lord, which is able to let in the Light of those things of a man, which no man knoweth but himself, & were we seriously Consci­entious in attending upon Divine Appoint­ment Sanctified to that end, we know not what more would be discovered, upon fre­quent Communing with our own Hearts, & our retired Soul Soli-Loquies, what mat­ter of conviction, confession & conversion, not barely from that which is obviously ob­served, [Page 7] but known only to him who soun­deth the inwardest part of the Belly, even the Hell & Tophet in these our deceitful and desperately wicked-hearts, which would work, a Self-loathing, Soul-abhorring, and Soft-walking before God and man all our daies, then that which God hath so long listned after, & hearkned for that he might hear if any man would say, Lord what have I done! every man would loudly-cry it out, saying, what I know not, Lord teach thou me! search, examine, & try my heart, then our Uncircumcised Souls being hum­bled for all our-contrary walking, and our not he arkning unto Gods Voice, accepting the Punishment of our Iniquity end unfeign­edly turn from it, and returning unto the Lord from whom we have revolted, them will he remember his Covenant with our Fathers, and heal our land, giving us the Valley of Achor for a door of hope, then should those Priviledges which in measure are restored, even our Charter would be fully confirmed were we called a Faithful Gity and a Righteous People, we might expect our Judges to be restored as at the first, and our Counsellors as at the be­gining, our Officers to be made peace, and our Exacters Righteousness.

We have cause to acknowledg [...] un­speakable cause of gratitude that our Civil Courts of Judicature are yet kept up, and [Page 8] that we may see our aged and honourable, and the continuance of our Worthy Go­vernour a first Founder, and some others of the Raisers of our Foundation, together with our Samuels and Josiahs's raised up, this is cause of blessing the Name of the Lord, and of prayer for their continuance. Yet may we not fear that there is cause to lament for them; if Moses or Aaron do or speak unadvisedly, it is because of Isra­els Provocations: If David be left to num­ber the People, it is through Gods Anger against them; and we must with all sub­missiveness be jealous, that there have been uncomfortable Animosities, Convulsions, and censorious uncharitableness towards some persons, to judge them unfit for any trust in Town or Country, who could not wholly subscribe to the models and mea­sures of others, yet such as were as solici­tously careful, to preserve the dear purcha­sed Liberties & Priviledges of New-England as themselves. Were there not 2 Worthies who adventured to appear in England, to plead our Zions cause; upon their return, rendred complices with, and joyn'd to the Samaritans. It hath pleased God to pre­serve our highest honoured One, to out-live and vindicate himself from that high scan­dal, and what it cost his Learned [...]; it's not unknown to some yet extant [...] the Living, That the Au­thority [Page 9] of the General Court were not wanting the last War; in drawing up, and publishing a Catalogue of the provoking Evils then found amongst us, is to be with seriousness acknowledged; and also that in this juncture of Affairs, the like care hath been taken to give solemn notice in each Congregation, that there might be an universal Reformation.

As for our Reverend Elders far be it from us in any manner of way to rebuke, yet with all due respect to their places and persons, we may as Fathers intreat them, & do with all thankfulness to the God of the Spirits of all flesh celebrate his holy Name, who out of this Nursery here planted, hath of our Sons raised up for Prophets, and of our young men raised up for Na­zarites [...] may not the Lord say, is it not so O New-England, yea and that according to the prediction of our Elijah's, and upon the Prayer of the late Man of God Mr. Wil­son, presented to God upon his sad parting with the Orthodox Eagle-eyed Norton, his Fellow-Labourer, who then with hands lif­ted up to Heaven supplicated, (it being a lively Symbol of his Faiths confident rea­diness to lay hold on, and receive what he them asked for,) viz. That a double mea­sure, not only of his spirit, but of divers other New-England Worthies then menti­oned, might be given to Elisha his Relict [Page 10] and Successors, which hath evidently been fulfilled upon divers of them, and of his Children: So at, in respect of their, piety and pregnancy, difficulty to be equalized in many parts of the Christian World; yet some tears must be let fall for them, and many for our Churches; tho' there is ineffable cause to celebrate the Sacro-Sapct Name of the Lord our God, for keeping up our Golden Candlesticks, and their Lights burning in them: but as when the foundation of the second Temple was laid, between the weeping of the ancient men, who had seen the first Temple; and the rejoycing of the young men, such was the Discord of their Concord, as the difference could hardly be discerned: so now when as the Old Men call to mind the first buil­ding and settlement here, how each Church compleatly fitted with Officers was then beautiful as Tirza, and comely as Jerusa­lem; and the Churches with their Synods and Consociations, were terrible as an Ar­my with Banners, neither Churches nor Of­ficers intrenching upon, nor neglecting of each other, (tho' then Wooden Chalices, and Mud-wall Meeting houses) the one not complaining for want of Spirituals in their Administrations, nor the other of Temporals in their Contributions, though then no comparison with what is now con­tributed, nor above one half of the Officers [Page 11] now to be distributed unto, none of those burning & shining Lights, was well content without his Colleague, not looking at them­selves sufficient alone to bear the formida­ble weight of a whole Presbytery; and it is well hinted and notified by a Person of Note in the Churches, that a Church needs but one Elder, is an opinion contrary to the sense of the Church in all Ages? How is the Crown faln from our heads? Woe unto us because we have sinned.

How are our Churches receeded from their first Principles? how few of us do know or acknowledge our Father or Mothers Name? but act as if Ashamed of that which then was writ in their foreheads, if we be not, why do we not practically hold it forth, we were not then content without Pestors and Teachers. Then Christs Spouse had two Breasts, which like two young Roes that were Twins fed a­mong the Lidies. It's not unknown that some Churches, in laying their foundation, did solemnly promise and covenant before God and one to another, that they would be furnished with two Teaching and two Ruling Elders, but its not attended to, it was not for want of Maintenance: no, Re­ligion hath brought forth Riches, but the Daughter hath devoured the Mother as was said and observed of old.

Where are the Ruling Elders who as [...] Porters were wont to inspect our Sanctua­ry [Page 12] Gates, and to take a turn upon the Walls, is not the remembrance of such an Officer almost lost and extinct? tho' the Scripture and the platform of our Church. Discipline expresly declare for them, and set our their particular charge and work: It was an affecting Question put forth by one of about fifty years old, born in the Communion of our Churches, concerning Ruling Elders; what these men were, who were formerly so called, professing in time of their Minority; there were such men to their remembrance, but since had forgotten what they were, and therefore defined Re­solution.

It is time for our Churches to remember from whence they are faln, repent and do their first works, least he that walks in the midst of the Golden Condlesticks should withdraw; and the rather because it is said to be question­ed by some among us, whether such an Of­ficer be Jure Divino, or any Rule for them in Gods Word, which occasions a Reverend Elder to take up the Argument against such; and bewails the neglect of them in the Churches, as a sad Omen of their tur­ning popular or prelatical; and if so, [...] to be regulated either by Lord Brethren, o Lord Bishops. Is not this a great Deroga­tion from Christ's Authority to say, That Deacons may serve the Churches turn, who may Officiate to do do these Elders work [Page 13] is it not a preference of mens politicks before Christ's Institutes; did not the pra­ctice of mens prudentials prove the ruine of the Churches, and rise of Antichrist. That our Colledge by Gods blessing should afford materials for Teaching-Elders, and that our Churches should grow so barren, as not to bring forth, nor educate men qualified for the other, may seem to por­tend a threatning of Christ's Departure from them, as to Conjugal Communion.

Let the Churches also consider what is be­came of the Publick Exposition of the Scrip­tures, which every Lords day we had, with two Sermons in some of our Congregati­ons, if not in most which for some De­dades of years was kept up, and continued for two or three Succession of Officers, to the Unspeakable Edification of the Flock, one taking it up where the other left, begin­ning at Moses and the Prophets; they open­ed the whole Word of God, and declared the whole Counsel of God, concerning the Mistery of Christ and his Kingdome, about the regulating of his Churches, the practi­cal discovery whereof was the Grand De­sign of his Plantation; and some have not been backward to say (which God for­bid should be true) that the Clergy as they call them, is not willing that the Laity or common people should be instructed in the [Page 14] Doctrine of the Keys, and liberty by Christ left unto them, least if the Brother­hood should get them into their hands, they should knock them about their Ears; whatever other aberrations from the re­vealed will of God; or any irregular act­ions or Motions, wherein any of the Churches have deviated, from the strieght line and Sacred Cannon, of the rule, these ought to be mourned for, If we call to mind the private fellowship in the daies of old one had with another, when families, the men apart, and their wives apart, where there was a powring forth of Souls Expe­riences each to other, face answered to face, and lively Characters of the same Grace, line for line appearing, as in those who were made partakers of the same sea­ling Spirit: then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; there is as great cause now as then, the Lambs might wade in the Sanctuary Streams, where the Ele­phant might swim; personal Doubts and particular Grievances might be proposed and resolved according to Scripture light, and Grace received, without offence to a­ny, or of being confined.

Our Teaching Elders then came amongst us, tho not appropriated to any particu­lar Meeting; and we sat at our Gamaliel's feet, who bearing with us further instruct­ed, and dismissed us with blessing end [Page 15] prayers, that all the Lord's People might be Prophets, and that he would put his Spirit upon them.

Laying all together, and whatsoever might further be the burden of our Souls, relating to our Personal, Domestick, Eccle­siastick, or Civil failure and misdoings; concerning which we must all cry out, Lord who knoweth his Errors, and in this day of Adversity, and awful rebuke both by Sea and Land, the Lord refusing to go forth with our Armies; we have weighty cause to fall down before him, confessing humbly all that is amiss; to try and search our ways, and turn unto the Lord who hath smitten us, and that with strange Diseases, not suted formerly to the pure and serene air of our Climate, (whither Strangers were wont to have recourse to reco­ver their desired health) not only with the Infections Small pox have we laboured under, but with burning and spotted Fe­vers, shaking Agues, dry Belly Achs, plague of the Guts, and divers other sore distem­pers; our Neighbour Plantation sins have been visited with their Diseases.

As for the long enjoyed Peace and Tran­quility we have been blessed with, when as our dear Nation was involved in a cruel War, and almost all Europe was harrass'd; New-England was as a Babe rockt in the Cradle to quiet it thereby, as was the [Page 16] Speech of the Venerable Cotton, our New­Englands great Apostle; who as in his Life Light, and Learning, was the brightest and most shining Star in our Firmament; so in his Sickness and Death he was wonderfully remarkable by a a Satelles to the Pleiades, or an Attendant to the seven Stars, which continued visible all that while, and until his buryal, which was six days after his death, and then disappeared; how signal­ly portentous this was to the state of our Churches in New-England, is notified by the Learned, John Norton, his Successor; and now calls for a Higgajon, Selah. Our deep, solemn and awful meditation upon, Heavens monitory Apparition, about thirty eight years since, and it concerns us now sadly to consider of.

Lately we might meet with poor Chil­dren, in their imployment distant many miles from any Town, without fear or danger; now to safety or peace to him that goeth forth, not to him that cometh in, the Arrow of our War hath been once & again drawn out of the Quiver of Gods displeasure, and hath been shot at us to the twice depopulating of the Eastern parts, but chiefly by this last war, the vigilant Watch­men upon our walls are not warning to warn us of our danger, and to direct and provoke to the use of means for our pre­servation and in order thereunto, exhort us [Page 17] to be humbled for, and reform those Epi­demical Sins which have brought upon us these Epidemical Diseases, & to consider of our Fathers ways, those Chariots & Horse­men of Israel alas, where are they! we remem­ber the Pequod wars, when as they hearken­ed unto, and obeyed Gods voice, [...] in him, cryed unto him, were delivered, and not confounded, they were heard, and spe­dily subdued their Enemies either to a to­tal Ruine, or a feigned subjection; our hea­venly Father how grievously, is he displea­sed by us, that he should once and again de­liver up his Disobedient, [...], and disengenious Children not into the hands of his nasty [...] to be Scourged, but to be inhumanly Tormented and Butchered by bloody Barbarians, and cursed Canibals; Yea our Father which is in the Heavens, hath he not himself fought against us, by the Stars in their Courses, and his Anger Smoked against our prayers; raising Snow and Vapour, and his cold (which no man can abide) with the stormy wind fulfilling his word, to the Impeding, and disappoint­ment of our Naval Military Design, and disinabling our Fleet; God grant that his fierce Euroclydon and Eastwind do not break in peices the Ships of our Tarshith, and all this not so much, for the Enormi­ties and debaucheries found amongst us of the prophane mixt multitude (which [Page 18] now through Gods goodness are testified against), who came not over with us, but crowded in amongst us, but for the Provo­cations of Gods Sons and Daughters, who also have corrupted their ways, and are become Flesh so as we may fear not only an inundation, but a deluge of calamiti­ous desolations unless Soveraign Grace in­terveene; we have provoked the Lord to wrath by leaving of our first love, & pract­ice of Faith and manners, so as we may fear the vengeance of the Quarrel of his Covenant, and pray we, that the withdraw­ing of the presence of his Glory may not make further progress, but that it may re­trograde from the Threshold to the Cherub and Mercy- Seat in this his Temple, That his providential deserting of us in our land and Maritine forces, may not be accompa­nied with the withdrawing of his Special presence, in his worship and ordinances Woe, woe unto us if the lord Depart from us, he seems to have his heart turned with­in him toward us, and his repentings kin­dled within him, saying how shall I give thee up, how shall I deliver thee how shall I make thee as Admah? &c. as if he remem­bered the kindness of our Fothers Espou­sals, when they followed, and went after him into this wilderness, a land that was not sown, and as if he feared the Enemy least they should say our hand is high, and [Page 19] the Lord hath not done this, lest the Prince of Darkness should boastingly say, where is the Englishmans God whole Bible as they called it, they translated into their Native Language, the Frenchmans Legends, & Sto­ries are truer than it, their Beads, Crucifix­es, Masses and Precessions, better than the English Fastings, Prayers, Psalms, & Preach­ing, lest Satan should glory over the HE­BREW CHILD JESUS, who from his Birth silenced all his Oracles, his mouth is now stopped, and all his Prophecies are false and mute, lest Abaddon and Apollyon with the [...] infernal IGNATIAN Jan [...]sar [...]es, the Locusts of the Bottomless Pit, should tri­umph over Zions King giving the honour to IGNE NAIE Hell-born LOYALA the Canadians tutilar Saint.

Let's comfort our selves in the dawning day of the Consumption of that Son of Perdition, and of all those mischievous Confectioners of the intoxicating Cup wherewith the Kings and the Inhabitants of the Earth hath been Inebriated, they shall drink their last draught, when in eve­ry Nation and Language the Name of A JESUITE shall manifestly be abhorred, and discovered to be as it is truly in our English DEPART YE FROM JESUS. These Apostates from the Name first given to Believers at Antioch, have arrogated [Page 20] to themselves to be of the Socie­ty of the blessed Jesus our Saviour; but in­deed they have destroyed vast multitudes and millions of Souls and Bodies, and have been the Incendaries of the Universe. Our Saviour will not own such renouncers of him, the Lords Christ, the Prophet, Priest and King of his Church; and blasphemous Attributers of his due to their three head­ed Gerberus, annexing it to the Triple Crown of their Papal PONTIFEX MAX­IMUS, and great High-Priest.

Blessed be God who is not quite gone, though we have deserved this greatest of all Judgments; and we have cause to fear and tremble, lest it should be so with us, though he stands as a man astonished, that cannot help, as a strange Wayfairing man, O Lord thou art in the midst of us; we are called by thy Name, leave us not; let [...] bring all our actings and courses to the SCRIPTURE TEST. It's not our Fasting and Praying will do, without Redress and Reformation of all our particular and uni­versal Irregularities, according to Divine Direction. Eury is not in God, who would set Brians against him in battle array, he would go through and burn them together; but let us take hold of his Strength, that we may make peace with him, and we shall make peace with [...]. Bewail we the hardness of our hear [Page 21] from his fear, and our Errors from his ways, and though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel doth not acknowledge us; yet O that upon a well-grounded confidence we could say, Doubtless thou art our Father.

To shut up with a few cordial Wishes, and as we hope unfeigned Petitions for the Welfare of all Ranks and Ages.

1. That we the Old Men and falling Generation might Nightly water our Couches, for our windfal rotten and immature fruit, for our being Sap­less and hollow Trees, instead of Palm Trees and Cedars, Fat and Flou­rishing in the house of our God, bringing forth fruit to shew that the Lord is Up­right, our Rock, and no Unrighteousness him, that we may demonstrate in our lives and Conversations, the Vigilance, Gravity, Temperance, and Soundness in the Faitly, in Love, in Patience becoming such as have known him who is from the be­ginning.

2. That the standing-Generation, our Sons may be as Plants in the House of our God, our Daughters corner stones Polished after the Similitude of a Palace, for Christ Jesus by his Spirit to Dwell in. That our young men may over­come the Wicked One, the World and [Page 22] all that is therein, Lusts of the Flesh, Lusts of the Eye, and Pride of Life which is not of the Father but of the World, that they may be strong and stedfast in the Faith & order of the Gospel according to the Word in-dwelling in them.

3. That the Rising Generation, our lit­tle Children and Babes may be Effectual calling know the Father, that they may abide in him, without Seduction by the Deceivers, and may overcome them, that it may not be said of us, as is recorded of Israel of old, who after this or next Genera­tion are gathered to their Fathers; there should arise another Generation, who shall not know the God of their Fathers, nor yet the great Works the Lord had done for them & forsake him.

The Lord divert this dismal Judgement, but pray we that there may be a pepetua­tion of the Name Jehovah, and his un­polluted worship according to his holy word, in New-England to all Generati­ons.

Tho our Heads are not Fountains of Tears and our Eyes Rivers to mourn for our own, and Relations wanderings and wickedness, yet that the Lord would please to accept some few Drops from us, to be such as he will put into his Bottle, and though we cannot look for any Indigitation; [Page 23] or Remarque in the Book of his remembrance, knowing by your selves just ground of saying, Lord when did we &c. yet we hope there is not an utter oblivi­on, of the least mite into his Treasury, of our Sincere Sighs and Groans, and Soul Travel for the Welfare of present, and future Generations, concerning which we have cause from our hearts to beg and also now do, That the Lord would spare us, ac­cording to the Multitude of his great Mercies, and although our Iniquities testifie against us, before him who is the Hope of Israel, yet we know that there is hope in Israel concern­ing this thing; and shall conclude with Solomons Prayer, Oh that the Lord our God would be with us as he was with our Fathers, and that he would not leave us nor forsake us. Amen.