A66099:40
The fiery trial no strange thing delivered in a sermon preached at Charlestown February…The fiery tryal no strange thing delivered in a sermon preached at Charlestown February…
The fiery trial no strange thing delivered in a sermon preached at Charlestown February 15, 1681, being a day of humiliation / by Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.The fiery tryal no strange thing delivered in a sermon preached at Charlestown February 15, 1681, being a day of humiliation / by Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.
printed for Samuel Sewall, 1682
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.
1. If we consider the principal agent in it, who is God, (for it is his sovereign providence, which determineth and disposeth of all the changes which come over his people) it follows from his infinite wisdom, goodness, and love to his Children, so far is it from contradicting any of these, (whatever prejudices the carnal reasonings of our dark under standings may take up) as will appear, if we consider the use and improvement which he makes of it: our Text informs us, that it is to try them, in which trial (like a refiner) he makes his own people more fit for the use and service of their Lord and Master. For,
1. If we consider the principal agent in it, who is God, (for it is his sovereign providence, which determineth and disposeth of all the changes which come over his people) it follows from his infinite wisdome, goodness, and love to his Children, so far is it from contradicting any of these, (whatever prejudices the carnal reasonings of our dark under standings may take up) as will appear, if we consider the use and improvement which he makes of it: our Text informs us, that it is to try them, in which tryal (like a refiner) he makes his own people more fit for the use and service of their Lord and Master. For,
1. By it he burns off the dirt that clave to them: Metal when it is first taken out in▪ Ore from the Mineral, hath much of heterogeneous matter (dirt and filth) cleaving to it, and that the fire burns off: so do these fiery trials that come upon the Church, they make it too hot for nominal professors to abide by it; as close as they seemed to cleave to the people of God in a seeming Profession before, now they must fall off; the stony ground is offended when tribulation and persecution ariseth, Mat. 13. 21. Hypocrites cannot long abide the fiery trial, ⟨p. 9⟩but when it grows hot upon them, they relinquish their Religion, and comply with the World, to avoid trouble.