N00129:15
Useful instructions for a professing people in times of great security and degeneracy
Useful instructions for a professing people in times of great security and degeneracy: delivered in several sermons on solemn occasions: / by Mr. Samuel Willard Pastor of the Church of Christ at Groton. ; [Eight lines of Scripture texts]
printed by Samuel Green, 1673
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.
Doct. 1. When God is never so much provoked with a people, He yet tenders them terms of peace, before he cuts them off. In the three last verses of the former Chapter, he shows what they were; a rebellious and counselless people, on whom he had laid out much cost, to whom he had sent many messengers, who had spent their breath and lives to no purpose, and yet here again he sends an invitation to repentance, with a conditional promise of good; before he denounceth hi• last sentence against them. The like we shall find. Chap 4. 1. and 3. 1. and 18. 11. &c.
Doct. 1. When God is never so much provoked with a people, He yet tenders them termes of peace, before he cutts them off. In the three last verses of the former Chapter, he shews what they were; a rebellious and counselless people, on whom he had laid out much cost, to whom he had sent many messengers, who had spent their breath and lives to no purpose, and yet here again he sends an invitation to repentance, with a conditional promise of good; before he denounceth hi• last sentence against them. The like we shall find. Chap 4. 1. and 3. 1. and 18. 11. &c.
Reason 1. From the great desire which God hath that sinners should […] that he may verify that truth. Ezek. 18. 11. That sinners may know where the true and proper cause of their destruction lies, that it is in themselves, and not in him; they shall not have the blame to lay upon God in the least, and therefore he proffers pardon and mercy, holds out the flag of peace before them, that if in the time of truce they will come in, they may, and welcome.
Reason 1. From the great desire which God hath that sinners should 〈…〉 that he may verifie that truth. Ezek. 18. 11. That sinners may know where the true and proper cause of their destruction lies, that it is in themselves, and not in him; they shall not have the blame to lay upon God in the least, and therefore he proffers pardon and mercy, holds out the flag of peace before them, that if in the time of truce they will come in, they may, and welcome.