N00583:40
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.
5. Sinful men are hard to be persuaded to believe that they are the guilty causes of the Judgments that are upon Gods People. Men indeed are apt at such times to make a fearful cry against sin, talk much of the Provocation that is given ⟨p. 24⟩to God, as if they had a mind to find it out and have it removed: but yet every one is apt to put it off from himself and lay it upon others. There is a great deal of noise made at such a time, but what is there in it? If we observe we shall find, that it is only throwing dirt one upon another; but as for themselves, they are clear and innocent; they have nothing to accuse themselves of; if others would have been as careful as they, this might have been avoided. How doth God make such a complaint as this? Jer. 8. 6. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying what have I done? There is such a sottishness in men, that they cannot think their ways are perverse, they can see no evil in them, so are they charged, Isa. 44. 20. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his own soul, not say, is there not a lie in my right hand?
5. Sinfull men are hard to be perswaded to believe that they are the guilty causes of the Judgments that are upon Gods People. Men indeed are apt at such times to make a fearfull cry against sin, talk much of the Provocation that is given ⟨p. 24⟩to God, as if they had a mind to find it out and have it removed: but yet every one is apt to put it off from himself and lay it upon others. There is a great deal of noise made at such a time, but what is there in it? If we observe we shall find, that it is only throwing dirt one upon another; but as for themselves, they are clear and innocent; they have nothing to accuse themselves of; if others would have been as carefull as they, this might have been avoided. How doth God make such a complaint as this? Jer. 8. 6. I hearkned and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying what have I done? There is such a sottishness in men, that they cannot think their ways are perverse, they can see no evil in them, so are they charged,