N00583:84
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. Learn hence how unreasonable a thing it is for such a people to maintain their rebellion against God. What reason can there possibly be given for their refusing to return to him, and reform the things that give him offence? How wonderfully doth God herein show his tenderness and great compassion towards them? And one would think it should be enough to melt hearts of Adamant: that the hardest flint should dissolve under the influence of it. What greater provocation can there be given to God, than to have his Word despised, and ⟨p. 64⟩Rod condemned, and a people under the experiment of both, obstinately stopping their ears and hardening their hearts? This is enough to put him upon resolving to spare them no more, to turn his Rod into a Sword, and pass from Correction to Vengeance, and cut them off at once. And shall he, for all this, hold back his hand when it is up, and show his great kindness to a people that are not affected with his Judgment? Shall he endeavour thus to win them, after he hath Afflicted them to no purpose? And shall they for all, and after this persist in their former evil courses? May he not call upon Heaven and Earth to be astonished at this? How horrible and amazing a thing must it needs be?
USE. I. Learn hence how unreasonable a thing it is for such a people to maintain their rebellion against God. What reason can there possibly be given for their refusing to return to him, and reform the things that give him offense? How wonderfully doth God herein shew his tenderness and great compassion towards them? And one would think it should be enough to melt hearts of Adamant: that the hardest flint should dissolve under the influence of it. What greater provocation can there be given to God, than to have his Word despised, and ⟨p. 64⟩Rod condemned, and a people under the experiment of both, obstinately stopping their ears and hardning their hearts? This is enough to put him upon resolving to spare them no more, to turn his Rod into a Sword, and pass from Correction to Vengeance, and cut them off at once. And shall he, for all this, hold back his hand when it is up, and shew his great kindness to a people that are not affected with his Judgment? Shall he endeavour thus to win them, after he hath Afflicted them to no purpose? And shall they for all, and after this persist in their former evil courses? May he not call upon Heaven and Earth to be astonished at this? How horrible and amazing a thing must it needs be?