A66099:64
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.
4. That the fiery trial shall not be always, but only for the appointed time, until it hath wrought out Gods gracious ends, and then deliverance shall come: God will not suffer the rod of the wicked to be always in the lot of the righteous, he knows that if he should, the spirit which he hath given us, would fail and faint; he hath therefore promised that he will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth, Isai. 57 17.
4. That the fiery tryal shall not be alwayes, but only for the appointed time, until it hath wrought out Gods gracious ends, and then deliverance shall come: God will not suffer the rod of the wicked to be alwayes in the lot of the righteous, he knows that if he should, the spirit which he hath given us, would fail and faint; he hath therefore promised that he will not contend for ever, nor be alwayes wroth, Isai. 57 17.
5. That during all that season wherein his people are in the furnace, he sits by and tends it. He sits as a Refiner, Mal. 3. 3. sitting notes a fixed posture; intimating that God doth not only come now and then, and occasionally take notice how the fire burns, and metal melts, having mean while other things to divert and divide his care; but that he makes it his work and business to tend it, and therefore tarries constantly by it; he throws in every coal with his own hand, and not one coal more then is meet and useful for the work. He useth his skill to make it melt down, and become fit for his Mould; he humbleth his people, and reforms them by their trials, puts a virtue into them, or gives a blessing with them, whereby effectually and powerfully their corrections become instructions to them, and they are made the better by them: yea they are fitted and prepared to be taken out of the furnace again, and be vessels of honour, employed in the service of their Lord and Master.
5. That during all that season wherein his people are in the furnace, he sits by and tends it. He sits as a Refiner,