N00583:38
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.
3. Natural men have no true liking to the ways of God. They are in their sins, and so their hearts are set for sin. Lust hath Dominion in them, and all the powers of their Souls are engaged for it; their understanding approves it, calls evil good; their wills give it the preference, and so makes choice of it, and their affections are set upon it. Hereupon, their close keeping to Duty, and their abstinence from sin is a forced thing, and against the whole bent of their natures; it is a yoke that doth not sit easy on their necks, but feels very irksome to them: and this makes them in a readiness to shake it off, and glad of an opportunity so to do; and such opportunities, the times of declension afford enough of to them: when many sins grow common, and not so scandalous, and witness begins not to be born against them as sometimes, now the before hidden corruption looks forth and shows its head: and when once they are gotten into such a way, they are willing to hold it fast, and care not for being disturbed in it, or turning away from it: hence that complaint, Jer. 5. 23. This People hath a revolting and rebellious heart, they are revolted and gone.
3. Natural men have no true liking to the ways of God. They are in their sins, and so their hearts are set for sin. Lust hath Dominion in them, and all the powers of their Souls are engaged for it; their understanding approves it, calls evil good; their wills give it the preference, and so makes choice of it, and their affections are set upon it. Hereupon, their close keeping to Duty, and their abstinence from sin is a forced thing, and against the whole bent of their natures; it is a yoke that doth not sit easy on their necks, but feels very irksome to them: and this makes them in a readiness to shake it off, and glad of an opportunity so to do; and such opportunities, the times of declension afford enough of to them: when many sins grow common, and not so scandalous, and witness begins not to be born against them as sometimes, now the before hidden corruption looks forth and shews its head: and when once they are gotten into such a way, they are willing to hold it fast, and care not for being disturbed in it, or turning away from it: hence that complaint, Jer. 5. 23. This People hath a revolting and rebellious heart, they are revolted and gone.