N00583:91
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.
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.
2. When therefore such a people degenerate, they fall from the great end, which they were enjoyned, 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 doe; 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.
3. Hence by their Apostasy they render themselves unprofitable: and there are none more so than they. All the cost, and care, and peculiar husbandry that God hath laid out upon them is lost; he hath been at a great deal more of expense upon his Vineyard,than upon the wast wilderness; he hath fenced it, cleared it, and planted it, and afforded it a great deal of special tendance and this, as to any fruit which they bring forth for him, is thrown away upon it. God on this account compares his people to a vine, which is a sort of plant, that if it bear well, and good grapes plentifully, is very excellent and useful; but if it doth not so bear, it is good for nothing but to make a fire of: