N00583:63
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.
Thus therefore he expresseth the nature of the Judgments which he brings on them for their wilful impenitence, and by this manner of expression he vindicates the righteousness of his proceedings against them in the way of Judgment, it is nothing else but a Retaliation; he doth but pay them in their own kind; and what can be more equal? for, if they set themselves against him, it is but just that he should be against them; if they are the aggressors, it is fit he vindicate himself, by withstanding of them. It is true, if; when God brings a people into trouble, upon their provoking of him by their sinning against him, he Sanctifies these troubles to them, they will have abundant reason to confess it to his praise. David therefore confesseth both the goodness of the Affliction, and the faithfulness of God in inflicting it upon him, Psa. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been Afflicted, and Verse 75. Thou in faithfulness hast Afflicted me. And God ⟨p. 44⟩many times hath such a gracious design as this in the bottom, Isa. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin. But as it doth not always prove so, to all that are visibly in the Covenant; many […] made worse instead of being bettered by their Afflictions: so it is uncertain what shall be the event, till the providence of God determines it, and it is equally certain that the Judgments themselves are more ways than one to be reputed contrary to them. For,
Thus therefore he expresseth the nature of the Judgments which he brings on them for their wilfull impenitence, and by this manner of expression he vindicates the righteousness of his proceedings against them in the way of Judgment, it is nothing else but a Retalation; he doth but pay them in their own kind; and what can be more equal? for, if they set themselves against him, it is but just that he should be against them; if they are the aggressours, it is fit he vindicate himself, by withstanding of them. It is true, if; when God brings a people into trouble, upon their provoking of him by their sinning against him, he Sanctifies these troubles to them, they will have abundant reason to confess it to his praise. David therefore confesseth both the goodness of the Affliction, and the faithfulness of God in inflicting it upon him,