A57140:78
Gods fidelity, the churches safety opened in a sermon preached before the lord major,…
Gods fidelity, the churches safety opened in a sermon preached before the lord major, aldermen, and common-council, at Lawrence-Jury Church, on Wednesday Septem. 15, 1658 : being a day of humiliation by them appointed / by Edward Reynolds.Gods fidelity, the churches safety opened in a sermon preached before the lord major, aldermen, and common-councel, at Lawrence-Jury Church, on Wednesday Septem. 15, 1658 : being a day of humiliation by them appointed / by Edward Reynolds.
London: printed by Tho. Ratcliffe for George Thomason, 1659
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.
5. This Caution notwithstanding we must take in, That we beware of playing the wantons with the grace of Gods Covenant, because thereby we remain escaped; for the Lord will not pass by the petulancy and lasciviency of any of his Children, though he doth not totally cast them off, yet he hath sharp rods wherewith he can chastise them. If they fly from his service, he can send a Whale to swallow them, and can bring all his Waves and Billows upon them; if they keep not to his Commission, he can send a Lion to tear them, he can make them feel the weight of his Frown, though they do not of his Fury, and it may be, cause them to walk in darkness, drooping, and disconsolate all their days, complaining of broken Bones, and of a wounded Spirit, with strong cries, imploring the comforts of that Spirit, which they had so unkindly grieved and resisted.
5. This Caution notwithstanding we must take in, That we beware of playing the wantons with the grace of Gods Covenant, because thereby we remain escaped; for the Lord will not pass by the petulancy and lasciviency of any of his Children, though he doth not totally cast them off, yet he hath sharp rods wherewith he can chastise them. If they fly from his service, he can send a Whale to swallow them, and can bring all his Waves and Billows upon them; if they keep not to his Commission, he can send a Lion to tear them, he can make them feel the weight of his Frown, though they do not of his Fury, and it may be, cause them to walk in darkness, drooping, and disconsolate all their days, complaining of broken Bones, and of a wounded Spirit, with strong cryes, imploring the comforts of that Spirit, which they had so unkindly greived and resisted.
As it is this day] escaped, escaped this day in which we lie under so sore and heavy a guilt. This is a marvellous heightening of Gods Mercy, ⟨p. 33⟩That we may remain escaped in this day, a day of so great sin: and also a marvellous aggravation of the sin, that it hath been committed in this day, a day of so great Mercy, wherein we remain yet escaped. Sin committed in a day of mercy, is the more exceeding heinous: mercy extended in a day of sin, is the more exceeding glorious. That we should so greatly provoke the Lord, this day, wherein we remain escaped: O how prodigious and presumptuous the wickedness? That we should remain escaped this day, wherein we have so greatly provoked the Lord, O how admirable and unsearchable the goodness?