A66111:346
The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…
The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being the substance of divers sermons preached on Psalm XXXII / by Samuel Willard.
printed by B. Green and J. Allen for Michael Perry, 1650
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. What evidence may be given to the truth of the DOCTRINE.
1. What it is that brings a man into great Distress?
A. We may take a short account of this in three particulars.
1. Distress is properly a sinking or over bearing perplexity on the mind. There is indeed a distress that mere Animals may be in, arising from an impression made in their sensitive Spirits: but we are speaking of man• who is a rational being, and acts according to the principles of reason. It is true, that which gives occasion for it, may be outward and bodily, but the distress it self hath its great influence on the mind or soul: and it is by ⟨p. 132⟩reason of perplexity that is in it. For, let a man meet with what he may, yet so long as the mind is quiet, he is not distressed; and it must be something that over bears, or is too hard for him, for whiles he can stand steadily under it, and sinks not nor is staggered by it; it doth not amount to a distress: Hence this condition is set forth by such expressions,