N00583:90
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.
1. A Professing Covenant people are under greatest Obligations to glorify God, which is done by their faithful obedience to his Commands. It is for this that God hath formed them into a people, under such circumstances, Isa. 43.21 This people have I formed for my self, they shall show forth my praise. God requires it of them, and expects it from them; he doth not look for it from others to whom he hath not so revealed himself, but he saith of such a people for whom he hath done so much, more than for others, surely they will serve me, and honour me.
1. A Professing Covenant people are under greatest Obligations to glorify God, which is done by their faithfull obedience to his Commands. It is for this that God hath formed them into a people, under such circumstances, Isa. 43.21 This people have I formed for my self, they shall shew forth my praise. God requires it of them, and expects it from them; he doth not look for it from others to whom he hath not so revealed himself, but he saith of such a people for whom he hath done so much, more than for others, surely they will serve me, and honour me.
2. When therefore such a people degenerate, they fall from the great end, which they were enjoined, and every way advantaged to serve to, and so they dishonour instead of honouring him. And the truth is, there are none in the world that reflect so much of dishonour upon God, as such do: all the sin and wickedness of an Heathen people, doth not bring so much reproach to his name, as the backslidings of such do; his name suffers more by them, than by all the profligate abominations of those who are strangers to the Covenant: because his name is not so much concerned in them. And therefore, when these do the very same things for the matter of them, which the Heathen do; they do a great deal worse than these, and the reason of it is because it is they that do it.