A Plea for the Life of Dying Religion

A PLEA FOR THE LIFE OF Dying Religion.

Because it is your Life

IT hath pleased the great and blessed God in his infinite Soveraignty, to transact with Man about the everlasting Concernments of his immortal Soul; to dispense both his Mercy and Justice, both Life and Death; to distribute Eternal Rewards, and Punishments, and to govern Man unto his Eternal State, only in the way of a Covenant. All Reprobate Sinners are destroyed and damned under the Curse and Condemnation of the Covenant of Works: All God's Elect are saved by and through our Lord Jesus Christ, according unto, and under the Covenant of Grace. God hath constituted the Covenant of Redemption, in his own Eternal Counsel, before the World was; and therein laid the Foundation, both of the Constitution, and Administration of the Covenant of Grace in, by, & through that one only great, and glorious Mediator Jesus Christ, whose work it is to bring a certain Elect number of fallen Man unto God; concerning p. 2whom he saith, I will be their God, and they shall be my People. Hence God ever hath had, and ever will have a Covenant-People in the World, untill this Dispensation of Grace shall be consummated in Glory. And when the most High divided to the nations their Inheritance, and separated the sons of Adam; He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel: For the Lord's Portion is his People, and Jacob the Lot of his Inheritance. Deut. 32.8,9. This Book it may be (in some respects) most properly called The Book of the Covenant: because it contains, not only a more full & plain Revelation & Exposition of the Covenant it self, in the constitution, way, manner, & means of the Administration, & Confirmation of it; & of the All-Sufficiency of God unto his People therein, as their God in Covenant; but also a description of that notable Covenant-Transaction, wherein all the Duties, all the Blessings, and all the Curses of the Covenant, are expresly and in set form proposed, and the people moved unto the most solemn Restipulation of their Souls to God under the most sacred and indispensible Obligations to live to him, and walk with him by religious Fear, Reverence, Faith, Love, and Obedience, as his Covenant-people, for ever:

p. 2and this ratified and confirmed by a most awful Contestation, whereby Heaven and Earth are called to record. Deut. 30.19,20. I call Heaven & Earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you Life and Death, Blessing and Cursing: therefore chuse Life, that both thou and thy seed may live. And now Moses, having thus finished his great and extraordinary Ministry, wherein he had been accompanied with an extraordinary presence and power of God, and was eminently a Type of Christ, he doth prepare himself instantly, to take leave of the People, of his Work, and of the World. The people he incourageth, by a promise of God's Presence, to make their Progress unto, and Enterance into, and full Possession of the Land of Promise: His Office and Work he resigneth unto Joshuah, whom he did by divine appointment ordain his Successor, p. 3charging of him with the Care and Conduct of the People unto their Rest in Canaan; and this upon full assurance that God would be with him, and that he would never fail him nor forsake him. The Law which he had received of the Lord, and delivered unto the people, containing the whole Word and Worship of God, and so their whole Religion, together with a prophetical Song, shewing the diverse State of that Church and People in succeeding Ages, under the successive Dispensation of the Covenant; this Law, and this Song he delivers to the Priests and People for their improvement, charging of them most earnestly and affectionately to set their hearts unto it, because it was their Life. These words (because it is thy Life) they are some of the last words of Moses that great Prophet; and therefore they contain matter of the greatest Importance to the People of God. They are (together with the Context) his last, his farewell and dying Charge, whereby he set himself, in a sentence or two, to speak all at once; to deliver unto them the Sum or a System of all that Doctrine and Duty, which he had before, throughout the whole course of his Ministry, been delivering unto them; all that they were to know, to believe, or to practise; the whole both of Faith and Obedience, that is, more plainly, their whole Religion. And he chargeth them to set their hearts unto it; that is, to prise it, love it, keep it, cleave to it, live and walk in the sincere, pure, powerfull Profession and Practice of it, with all their hearts, with all their minds, with all their Souls, with all their might, and with all their strength, from Generation, unto Generation, themselves, and their Children, for ever. And thus he moves them to set their hearts unto Religion; Because it is their Life. Whence we have this p. 3DOCT. That Religion it is the Life of the Covenant-People of God.

Our Text and Doctrine deliver the great and universal Reason of the Profession and Practice of our Religion; Viz p. 4Because it is our Life. Religion, in the most full and comprehensive notion of it, It is that whereby Man is qualified, and capacitated to live unto God, to live with God, to live upon God, to see and to injoy God in Christ, as the Only and Allsufficient Author of Life, and Object of Blessedness, and Happiness, as his last End, and chief Good. Religion comprehends Man's Deliverance from all, both moral and miserable Evil; both Sin, Death, and Hell: as also all, both moral and beatifical Good; Holiness, Happiness, Grace and Glory. And it is consummated in a perfection of Beatifical Vision, and Fruition, by the Light and Life of Heaven. In the Explication I am to shew.