N00583:21
Reformation the great duty of an afflicted people. Setting forth the sin and danger…
Reformation the great duty of an afflicted people. Setting forth the sin and danger there is in neglecting of it, under the continued and repeated judgments of God. : Being the substance of what was preached on a solemn day of humiliation kept by the Third Gathered Church in Boston, on August. 23d. 1694. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of the said church. ; [Four lines from Zechariah]
printed by Bartholomew Green, 1694
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.
The word signifies to bind, and Metaphorically to chasten, and then Metonymically, to reform or reclaim, that being the desirable genuine effect of it; and so it must be here understood. When I say this is the design, I do not speak of the end of the purpose which is secret; but of the precept which requires it, and of the Providence, which is said to bespeak it; this then is the Revealed and Proposed end. This may be opened and cleared in a few things.
The word signifies to bind, and Metaphorically to chasten, and then Metonimically, to reform or reclaim, that being the desirable genuine effect of it; and so it must be here understood. When I say this is the design, I do not speak of the end of the purpose which is secret; but of the precept which requires it, and of the Providence, which is said to bespeak it; this then is the Revealed and Proposed end. This may be opened and cleared in a few things.
1. That Public Calamities may be the Lot of a Professing People to meet withal. This needs no proof, in being so manifestly exemplified in the Providence of God, in all the Ages of the Church, that we may as well question the Suns shining at noon day in a clear sky. The true Emblem of the Militant Church is a Bush on fire: such a People are Obnoxious to God, to Devils, and to wicked men, and there ⟨p. 12⟩are Occasions for their expecting to meet with trouble from them all.
1. That Publick Calamities may be the Lot of a Professing People to meet withal. This needs no proof, in being so manifestly exemplified in the Providence of God, in all the Ages of the Church, that we may as well question the Suns shining at noon day in a clear sky. The true Emblem of the Militant Church is a Bush on fire: such a People are Obnoxious to God, to Devils, and to wicked men, and there ⟨p. 12⟩are Occasions for their expecting to meet with trouble from them all.