times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his power; and must be willing that God should answer prayer, and fulfil his own glorious promises, in his own time; remembering such instructions, counsels and promises, of the word of God as these, Psal. xxvii. 14. "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. Hab. ii. 3, 4. "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but in the end it shall speak, and not lie though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." Micah vii. 7. "I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me." Isai. xxv. 8, 9. "God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God! we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is Jehovah! we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Amen. THE DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF A WORK OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, APPLIED TO THAT UNCOMMON OPERATION THAT HAS LATELY APPEARED ON THE MINDS OF MANY OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW-ENGLAND: WITH A PARTICULAR CONSIDERATION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES WITH WHICH THIS WORK IS ATTENDED. MR. COOPER'S PREFACE TO THE READER. THERE are several dispensations or days of grace, which the Church of God has been under from the beginning of time. There is that under the ancient Patriarchs: that under the Law of Moses; and there is that of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, under which we now are. This is the brightest day that ever shone, and exceeds the other for peculiar advantages. To us who are so happy as to live under the Evangelical Dispensation, may those words of our Saviour be directed, which he spake to his disciples, when he was first setting up the Messiah's kingdom in the world, and Gospel-light, and power began to spread abroad: "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."* The Mosaic Dispensation, though darkened with types and figures, yet far exceeded the former; but the Gospel Dispensation so much exceeds in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the Legal, as the stars disappear when the sun ariseth, and goeth forth in his strength. -And the chief thing that renders the Gospel so glorious is, that it is the ministration of the Spirit. Under the preaching of it, the Holy Spirit was to be poured out in more plentiful measures; not only in miraculous gifts, as in the first times of the Gospel, but in his internal saving operations, accompanying the outward ministry, to produce numerous conversions to Christ, and give spiritual life to souls that were before dead in tresspases and sins, and so prepare them for eternal life. Thus the apostle speaks when he runs a com. parison between the Old Testament and the New, the Law of Moses, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not * Luke x. 23. 24. steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?"* But This blessed time of the Gospel hath several other denominations, which may raise our esteem and value for it. It is called by the evangelical prophet, "The acceptable year of the Lord." Or, as it may be read, the year of liking, or of benevolence, or of the good will of the Lord; because it would be the special period in which he would display his grace and favour, in an extraordinary manner, and deal out spiritual blessings with a full and liberal hand.It is also styled by our Saviour, the Regeneration, which may refer not only to that glorious restitution of all things, which is looked for at the close of the Christian Dispensation, but to the renewing work of grace in particular souls, carried on from the beginning to the end of it. few were renewed and sanctified under the former dispensations, compared with the instances of the grace of God in Gospel-times. Such numbers were brought into the Gospel Church when it was first set up, as to give occasion for that pleasing admiring question, which was indeed a prophecy of it,§"Who are these that fly as a cloud? And as the doves to their windows?" Then the power of the divine Spirit so accompanied the ministry of the word, as that thousands were converted under one sermon.- -But notwithstanding this large effusion of the Spirit. when Gospel-light first dawned upon the world-that pleasant Spring of religion which then appeared on the face of the earth-there was a gradual withdrawing of his saving light and influences; and so the gospel came to be less successful, and the state of Christianity withered in one place and another. ་ Indeed, at the time of the Reformation from Popery, when Gospel-light broke in upon the Church, and dispelled the clouds of Antichristian darkness that covered it, the power of divine grace so accompanied the preaching of the word, as that it had admirable success in the conversion and edification of souls; and the blessed fruits thereof appeared in the hearts and lives of its professors. That was one of the days of the Son of man," on which the exalted Redeemer rode forth in his glory and majesty, on the white horse of the pure Gospel, "conquering and to conquer ;" and the bow in his hand, like that of Jonathan, returned not empty. But what a dead and barren time has it now been, for a great while, with all the Churches of the Reformation! The golden showers have been restrained ; the influences of the Spirit suspended; and the consequence has been, that the Gospel has not had any eminent success. Conversions have been rare and dubious; few sons and daughters have been born to God; and the hearts of Christians not so quickened, warmed and refreshed under the ordinances, as they have been. That this has been the sad state of religion among us in this land, for many years, (except one or two distinguished places, which have at times been visited with a shower of mercy, while other towns 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7, 8. † Isa. Ixi. 2. Matt. xix. 28. § Isa. lx. |