A66100:200
The fountain opened, or, The great gospel privilege of having Christ exhibited to sinful…The fountain opened, or, The great gospel priviledge of having Christ exhibited to sinfull…
The fountain opened, or, The great gospel privilege of having Christ exhibited to sinful men wherein also is proved that there shall be a national calling of the Jews from Zech. XIII. I. / by Samuel Willard ...The fountain opened, or, The great gospel priviledge of having Christ exhibited to sinfull men wherein also is proved that there shall be a national calling of the Jews from Zech. XIII. I. / by Samuel Willard ...
printed by B. Green for Samuel Sewall Junior, 1700
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. Acknowledge the rich Grace of God to you, in that he hath not only opened this fountain before you, but in you. The former indeed is a great favour, and so to be confessed by all that partake in it; those that have it are highly advantaged, had they but an heart to make a right improvement of it; and if they do not so, they will bring great Guilt upon themselves by their contempt. How great a kindness then is this that you share in? and do you endeavour to entertain it with suitable resentments: and there are among others, these two considerations which will greatly help you in your gratitude.
1. Had not God thus done for you, you had perished in your Sins. You were under the efficacy of sin and uncleanness in your natural Estate, and that held you under Guilt and Defilement, and these would have wrought out your certain destruction, if they had not been ⟨p. 102⟩remedied. There must be a fountain for this▪ else it could never have been taken away, • fountain of blood for the removal of your Guil•, and a fountain of grace for the purging away of your pollution. None else but Christ could possibly be such a fountain to you; there is an infinite value and virtue requisite to be found in that which can do this for you, which no merely created being could ever attain unto. If this Fountain had not been revealed to you, you could not have partaken in the saving virtue of it, because it is applied by faith: they that live out of the reach of the Gospel Dispensation, die without knowledge; and if it had not been opened in you, yo• had still died in your sins; there are multitudes that do so who have heard of it with the hearing of the ear, because they have not cordially embraced it: if he had not savingly applied it to you, you had refused it as well as others, for you had as great a natural malignity in you against it as any in the world.