N00129:311
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.
2. Their misinterpretation of Gods patient dealing with them: Natural men make a God to themselves of their own Minds, Psal. 50.21. if God delays them, then presently he approves of their ways, at least they must have him a God all of mercy, they exalt his Compassion to the injury and violation of his Holiness and Justice; and so, what should be a means of their Repentance, 2 Per. 3. 9. is an occasion of their hardening.
2. Their misinterpretation of Gods patient dealing with them: Natural men make a God to themselves of their own Mindes, Psal. 50.21. if God delayes them, then presently he approves of their wayes, at least they must have him a God all of mercy, they exalt his Compassion to the injury and violation of his Holiness and Justice; and so, what should be a means of their Repentance, 2 Per. 3. 9. is an occasion of their hardning.
3. Their false hopes and promises of their escape, their Covenants with Hell and Death. Isa. 28. 17, 18. make all men (thriving in the wo•ld in a way of wickedness, and being rooted deep in their outward enjoyments) begin to account this a kind of Deity to them, and hence build up their hopes and thoughts upon an unchangeable estate, Psal. 49. 11. and hence can disdain, and flout away the denunciation of a change.
3. Their false hopes and promises of their escape, their Covenants with Hell and Death. Isa. 28. 17, 18. make all men (thriving in the wo•ld in a way of wickedness, and being rooted deep in their outward enjoyments) begin to account this a kinde of Deity to them, and hence build up their hopes and thoughts upon an unchangeable estate,