N00583:27
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.
6. God is wont, with these Judgments, to send them invitations to Repentance, and offers of his favours if they Repent. This is a privilege that a People in Covenant with God do enjoy, that not only doth he warn and advise them before he smites, that so, if it might be, blows might be prevented; but whiles he is smiting too: he calls upon them now to Consider their ways, Hag. 1. 5. i. e. whiles they are under afflictions. He tells them that he ⟨p. 15⟩doth not thirst for their blood, or seek opportunities to ruin them; but would have them to turn that they may prevent it, and he declares it solemnly, Ezek. 33. 11. As I live, I delight not in the Death &c. Turn ye, Turn ye, why will ye Die, Oh house of Israel? And he Declares that if they do turn he will receive them, and turn his anger away from them, Jer. 3. 22. Return ye backsliding Children, and I will heal your backslidings; and so Chap. 4. 1.
6. God is wont, with these Judgments, to send them invitations to Repentance, and offers of his favours if they Repent. This is a priviledg that a People in Covenant with God do enjoy, that not only doth he warn and advise them before he smites, that so, if it might be, blows might be prevented; but whiles he is smiting too: he calls upon them now to Consider their ways, Hag. 1. 5. i. e. whiles they are under afflictions. He tells them that he ⟨p. 15⟩doth not thirst for their blood, or seek opportunities to ruine them; but would have them to turn that they may prevent it, and he declares it solemnly, Ezek. 33. 11. As I live, I delight not in the Death &c. Turn ye, Turn ye, why will ye Die, Oh house of Israel? And he Declares that if they do turn he will receive them, and turn his anger away from them, Jer. 3. 22