42 PREFACE. sad a case is this, that even in England, where the gospel doth abound above any other nation in the world, where teaching is so plain and common, and all the helps ·we can desire are at hand; when the sword has been hewing us, and judgment has run as a fire through the land; when deliverances have relieved us, and so many admirable mercies have engaged us to God, and to the Gospel, and a holy life; that, after all this, our cities, and towns, and countries, shall abound with multitudes of unsanctified men, and swarm with so much sensuality, as eYery where, to our grief, we see1 One would haYe thought, that after all this light, and all this experience, and all these judgments and mercies of God, the people of this nation should have joiner'! togeth-1 er, as one man, to turn tp the Lord, and should have come to their godly teacher, and lamented all their former sins, and desired him to join with them, in public humiliation, to confess them openly, and beg pardon of them from the Lord, and should have craYed his instruction for the time to come, and be glad to be ruled by the Spirit within, and the minis- ' ters of Christ without, according to the word of God. One woulrl think that, after such reason and Scripture evidence as they hear, and after a:ll these means and mercies, tf:ere should not be an ungodly person left among us, nor a worldling, nor a drunkard, nor a hater of reformation, nor an enemy to holiness, to be found in all our towns and countries. If we be not all agreed about some ceremonies or forms of gO\-ernment, one would thii1k that, before thi s, we should haYe been agreed to live a holy and heavenly life, in obedience to God, his word, and ministers, and in love and peace with one another. But, alas! how far arc our people from this course! Most of them, in most places, do set their hearts on earthly things, and seek not "first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof," but look on holiness as a ' needless thing: their families are prayerless, or else a few heartless lifeless words must sene instead of heartv fervent daily prayers (or perhaps only on the Lord's clay, 'in the evening): their children are not taught the knowledge of Christ, and the covenant of grace, nor brought up in the nurture of the Lord, though they firmly promised all this at their baptism. They instruct not their servants in the matters of salvation; but so their work be done, they care not. There are . more railing speechee in their families than gracious words that tend to edification. How few are the families that fear the Lord, and inquire at his word and ministers bow they should live, and what they should do, and arc willing to be taught and ruled, and that heartily look afte1· eYerlasting
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