But if you press me to a more particular Answer still; I will in one word express the most considerable Thing that is to be done for us; Tis, Reformation! Reformation! Reformation! We have many and many a time confessed, That our Apostasies from God have procured unto us all the Calamities, which we are now Groaning under. And we have lately had • very large Admonition from our Honourable Rulers, to Reform our many provoking Evils. O that all ranks and kinds of people among us, were in earnest about the universal Reformation of our Manners. When the French recovered Calais from the Hands of the English, a French Captain insultingly asked an English Officer, When shall we see you at Calais again? but he made that wise Repartee upon him, Sir, when your Sins come ⟨p. 48⟩to be greater than ours. Truly so, it must be ascribed unto the Greatness of our sins, that we are brought into any of our inconvenient Circumstances: and 'tis the voice of our God unto us, Lev. 26.23, 24. If ye will not be Reformed, I will punish you yet seven times for your Sins. We are beset with Devourers on every side of us, and the subduing of them all, would be to Do for us a great thing indeed▪ Behold an effectual way to Do it, in Prov. 16.7. When a mans Ways please the Lord, He makes even his Enemies to be at peace with him. A Prince in Germany hearing that a Neighbour Prince intended a War upon him, immediately set himself upon the Reforming of the people under his Government; but this Adversary of his within a while after Enquired, What Preparation his Neighbour was making to oppose him, and being informed, That his chief Preparation was Reformation, He Replied, Nay, then, let the Devil Fight him for all me, if he be at that, he'll be too hard for me to meddle with him. O That in like manner we were all very Busy, at Finding, and Mending, whatever the Holy God may be offended at us for; tis the sigh that the Compassionate God, is making over us, O that my people had hearkened unto me, and New England had walked ⟨p. 49⟩in my ways! I should then soon have subdued their Enemies, and have turned my Hand against their Adversaries! Believe it, we don't begin at the right End, if here be not the Beginning of our Services for our Country.
But if you press me to a more particular Answer still; I will in one word express the most considerable Thing that is to be done for us; Tis, Reformation! Reformation! Reformation! We have many and many a time confessed, That our Apostasies from God have procured unto us all the Calamities, which we are now Groaning under. And we have lately had • very large Admonition from our Honourable Rulers, to Reform our many provoking Evils. O that all ranks and kinds of people among us, were in earnest about the universal Reformation of our Manners. When the French recovered Calice from the Hands of the English, a French Captain insultingly asked an English Officer, When shall we see you at Calice again? but he made that wise Repartie upon him, Sir, when your Sins come ⟨p. 48⟩to be greater than ours. Truly so, it must be ascribed unto the Greatness of our sins, that we are brought into any of our inconvenient Circumstances: and 'tis the voice of our God unto us, Lev. 26.23, 24. If ye will not be Reformed, I will punish you yet seven times for your Sins. We are beset with Devourers on every side of us, and the subduing of them all, would be to Do for us a great thing indeed▪ Behold an effectual way to Do it, in Prov. 16.7. When a mans Ways please the Lord, He makes even his Enemies to be at peace with him. A Prince in Germany hearing that a Neighbour Prince intended a War upon him, immediately set himself upon the Reforming of the people under his Government; but this Adversary of his within a while after Enquired, What Preparation his Neighbour was making to oppose him, and being informed, That his chief Preparation was Reformation, He Reply'd, Nay, then, let the Devil Fight him for all me, if he be at that, he'l be too hard for me to meddle with him. O That in like manner we were all very Busy, at Finding, and Mending, whatever the Holy God may be offended at us for; tis the sigh that the Compassionate God, is making over us, O that my people had hearkened unto me, and New England had walked ⟨p. 49⟩in my ways! I should then soon have subdued their Enemies, and have turned my Hand against their Adversaries! Believe it, we don't begin at the right End, if here be not the Beginning of our Services for our Countrey.
