N00583:77
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.
USE. I. We may from hence take a rule to judge our present state by. This manner of Gods dealing hath been observably exemplified upon us; such a progress as this we have been under: and it is now a long time since God hath begun it, and it continues unto this day. How gradually hath our God been going with us? How many steps hath he taken? And how are our Calamity; grown and increased? And to this day they remain upon us, and still look if they were on the growing ⟨p. 57⟩hand. It is a great many years since God begun to signalize his displeasure against this people, and, as he hath been exceeding patient with us, in that he is to this day gotten no further, notwithstanding all that we have done to provoke him to it; so he hath been progressive with us; how often hath he changed his providences? And to what an height are our perplexities grown? Nor is there yet a cessation. May we not say as it is in, Isa. 9. 12. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And what is the matter of instruction that we have to learn from it? May it not well be that which followeth, Vers. 13. For the people returneth not to him that smiteth them. God surely hath been following the Hypothesis laid down in our Text. It is because we are still walking contrary to him, and will not come to a Composition with him. Let it then leave Conviction upon us, and tell us that we are not as we should be, otherwise God would have been otherwise to us than he is. And this should awaken us to Consider what we have to do.
USE. I. We may from hence take a rule to judge our present state by. This manner of Gods dealing hath been observably exemplified upon us; such a progress as this we have been under: and it is now a long time since God hath begun it, and it continues unto this day. How gradually hath our God been going with us? How many steps hath he taken? And how are our Calamitie; grown and increased? And to this day they remain upon us, and still look if they were on the growing ⟨p. 57⟩hand. It is a great many years since God begun to signalize his displeasure against this people, and, as he hath been exceeding patient with us, in that he is to this day gotten no further, notwithstanding all that we have done to provoke him to it; so he hath been progressive with us; how often hath he changed his providences? And to what an height are our perplexities grown? Nor is there yet a cessation. May we not say as it is in,