N00583:41
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. Hence, till God powers out his Spirit upon them, men do remain thus stupid and senseless. There must be an inward working upon the hearts of men by the Spirit of God, if ever they are by his Judgments wrought up to Reformation. Till he gives them eyes to see, and hearts to consider, they continue as sottish as ever. Let one Judgment come upon them in the neck of another, let them be broken, wasted, consumed, and almost laid ⟨p. 25⟩desolate, and they are obdurate still; all this will not melt down their hard hearts, or bring them to any kindly compliance with God. It is an observation made by the Prophet, Isa. 42. 25. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
6. Hence, till God powers out his Spirit upon them, men do remain thus stupid and senseless. There must be an inward working upon the hearts of men by the Spirit of God, if ever they are by his Judgments wrought up to Reformation. Till he gives them eyes to see, and hearts to consider, they continue as sottish as ever. Let one Judgment come upon them in the neck of another, let them be broken, wasted, consumed, and almost laid ⟨p. 25⟩desolate, and they are obdurate still; all this will not melt down their hard hearts, or bring them to any kindly complyance with God. It is an observation made by the Prophet, Isa. 42. 25. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battel: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
USE. I. Learn hence, That Judgments alone, are not a sure sign that God hath a purpose of good for such a People as suffer by them. It is true, they do bear witness for God, that he is very loth to destroy them, if it might in any other way be prevented; they say that he is a God of great patience, and that he is waiting for the repentance of such a People, that so he may yet be favourable to them and establish them; else he could as easily have cut them off at a stroke and must have been justified in his doing so. But still, we can make no certain Judgment of the issue, till we see what influence and efficacy these Judgments have upon them; the conclusion is still suspended. If once they appear to work kindly, and begin to awaken them to enquire into the provocation, and seriously to set about the work of Reformation, there is then a good hope offered us, that all will end well at last.